Retiring Town Administrator Michael Gagne joined the Town Administrator Search Committee on July 25 to discuss methods and processes associated with hiring his replacement. The Search Committee includes John DeCosta, Pat Donoghue, Don Carlstom, Jim Turse, Bonne DeSousa, and Gagne. While their discussion included how to develop protocols and systems for evaluating 25 candidates, it […] Read more »
The Rochester Conservation Commission meeting on July 16 was relatively routine with several approvals and a couple continuances for the public hearings for two Abbreviated Notice of Determination of Applicability (ANRAD) applications for two lots with the potential for solar array fields. The first ANRAD filed by Joe Harrison, SunRaise Investments LLC, for property located at […] Read more »
Developer Ken Steen gave the Marion Board of Selectmen a presentation of his plan for a second 40B residential development in town, which the board voted to “endorse” on July 18 in order to allow Steen to receive approval from the state to bring the proposal forward to the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). […] Read more »
Darren and Cathy Doane were seeking setback relief from the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals to build an in-ground pool at their 28 Pine Island Road, but only had with them a preliminary design for a pool they weren’t certain would be built to spec. On July 18, their public hearing for the Special Permit […] Read more »
A paper road, public lands, easement confusion, and Japanese knotweed were front and center as Rachel Richardson, 22 Park Street, reported that her neighbor, Christine Szuszkiewicz, owner of 0 Railroad Avenue, has performed unpermitted activities on her property, public lands, and an easement. Richardson said that Szuszkiewicz had claimed an easement over her property to […] Read more »
They could have flipped a coin and still ended up with the perfect candidate for the new full-time harbormaster position, the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen commented on July 23 during a meeting interviewing the two finalists for the position – current Marion Deputy Harbormaster/ Shellfish Officer Adam Murphy and Assistant Deputy Director of the Wareham […] Read more »
Effective soon, all flavored tobacco and nicotine products will be banned from stores in Marion, with the exception of the flavors menthol and wintergreen. In the coming months, however, the town could add these minty flavors to the ban, including menthol cigarettes, as the board wants to revisit the matter after abandoning the notion last […] Read more »
No one ever said it was easy to find ways to secure state or federal grant monies, but no one is probably better suited to try and understand the process and then explain them in terms the average taxpayer could understand than Bonne DeSousa of Mattapoisett. Well known around the Southcoast for her efforts to […] Read more »
The Marion Conservation Commission on July 10 closed the public hearings for two tandem applications, one for beach nourishment and both for the application of herbicide to eradicate everyone’s least favorite invasive species, phragmites. Meadow Island Realty Trust, 34 Fraser Way, received an Order of Conditions to add 12 cubic yards, approximately nine inches deep, […] Read more »
The Rochester Planning Board is in the middle of the permitting process for what will soon be the town’s largest-scale solar farm, an 8.81-acre, 4-megawatt solar energy field on Rochester Farms, LLC’s agricultural land on Marion Road, Route 105. On July 9, the board reviewed plan details as they continue to develop and issued a […] Read more »