On December 4, the Mattapoisett Council on Aging Board of Directors met with Grant King, director of Comprehensive Planning at the Southeast Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) to learn of SRPEDD’s plan to prepare a study on affordable housing in the town. King explained that the town had applied for and received a grant […] Read more »
Rochester School Committee Chairman Sharon Hartley wasn’t as optimistic about the 2019 MCAS scores as Rochester Memorial School Principal Derek Medeiros was during his MCAS presentation on December 5, leading to a debate over what indicates progress and what indicates stagnation. Medeiros highlighted his “points of pride” with the school’s performance in the MCAS higher […] Read more »
The Mattapoisett Town Administrator Search Committee hopes to present the Board of Selectmen with finalists for the town administrator position by its January 21 meeting with the hope that the Board will choose its new town administrator before January’s end. After an unsuccessful search on its own, the search committee hired municipal employee recruiter Bernie […] Read more »
Mattapoisett property taxes will increase by 2.1 percent this year, rising from $13.21 in fiscal year 2019 to $13.49 this 2020 fiscal year. Add in the Community Preservation Act tax of an additional 1 percent, and the assessed average value home will see a 2.4-percent overall increase, or an annual tax bill of $6.627.93. As […] Read more »
One of the largest-scale* solar farms in Massachusetts is coming to Rochester in 2020, resulting in the clearing of 60 acres of forest for the 10-megawatt mega solar farm proposed by SunRaise Investments. This solar farm proposal is only one of five solar farm projects the solar developer has slated for Rochester that will encompass […] Read more »
Rates for Marion’s beach privilege sticker have been officially set at $10, members of Marion’s Board of Selectmen decided on Tuesday, December 3. The stickers, which cover access to (and parking at) Silvershell Beach, have been separated this year from transfer station stickers, which will be issued separately. One beach sticker per vehicle will be […] Read more »
These have certainly been trying times for the Rochester Country Fair, a 20-years-long tradition to which its success rests solely on the right atmospheric conditions to draw the big crowds to the all-outdoor event. After this year’s country fair was cut short due to the Eastern Equine Encephalitis threat and a curfew restricting events on […] Read more »
The Carver Marion Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District will continue on in some form, board members made clear at the most recent meeting on November 20. The question members are facing now is, exactly what will the district look like? “Stop calling it a dissolution,” said board member and Marion Selectman Norm Hills. “There will […] Read more »
Residents of the Bowman Road neighborhood were few in number, but strong in their objections to a proposed solar farm planned on property owned by NextGrid, LLC, a California-based alternative energy developer, for acreage located off Bowman Road in undeveloped pine forest. Coming before the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals on November 21 were Daniel […] Read more »
There was no shortage of criticism and hyperbole targeting the Old Rochester Regional School District during the Marion Finance Committee meeting on November 22. At one point, FinCom Chairman Peter Winters suggested his big idea about Marion withdrawing from the regional school district altogether, while Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail expressed his big hopes about […] Read more »