Mattapoisett Town Administrator Michael Gagne explained to the Board of Selectmen on January 22 the Bike/Ped Committee’s approach to the Tier 2 Complete Streets process. The committee has scheduled two dates for public input workshops to help prioritize the projects proposed for the Complete Streets grant funding. Mattapoisett recently was accepted as a Tier 1 […] Read more »
Mattapoisett residents are being asked to improve their recycling practices ahead of a new program that entails a curbside visual inspection of residents’ recycling bins on recycling day. But don’t start calling them the “recycling police” just yet. Mattapoisett Health Agent Dale Barrows intends on soliciting the services of some active seniors who sign up […] Read more »
Over the past three years, the Marion Board of Health has banned ‘vaping’ in addition to smoking in public spaces and raised the minimum age to buy cigarettes and nicotine products to 21 before the state mandate. And even today, the board is still bent on pursuing a town-wide prohibition of flavored nicotine and tobacco […] Read more »
The majority of school districts in the region continue the tradition of a school break week in February and April, but a discussion on January 9 showed Marion School Committee support for a study on the possibility of attempting a two-weeklong March break. Sippican School Principal Lyn Rivet said the Sippican School Council discussed combining […] Read more »
With a tall stack of project folders towering before him, Mike King, chairman of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission, made the command decision to take public hearings out of order from the agenda in an effort to expedite matters before the commission. “Looks like we won’t be getting home before 9 tonight,” he commented to […] Read more »
The Rochester Board of Selectmen on January 14 approved allowing developer Steen Realty Development Corp to take the preliminary steps in the state permitting process to build 208 units on Cranberry Highway, a project known as a 40R affordable housing development. After a well-attended public forum on the proposed development earlier in January, selectmen and […] Read more »
Matters involving money are often tense. Add in pressure from an impending municipal budget season and consternation over a couple town employee raises well above the average 2.5 percent that municipal workers usually anticipate, and it might even start resembling the early rumblings of a bar brawl. Now you have an idea of how the […] Read more »
The two other defendants named in a fraud and embezzlement complaint against former CMWRRDD executive director Ray Pickles, Pickles’ wife Diane Bondi-Pickles, and former Carver health agent Robert Tinkham Jr., were back in court on January 14 with a request for dismissal of the nine fraud-related counts that allege the three conspired together to defraud […] Read more »
It was late into a long night of complicated cases being heard on January 15 when the members of the Rochester Conservation Commission were shown photographic evidence of illegal cutting taking place on property known as the Old Boy Scout Camp located at 0 Mary’s Pond Road. Conservation Agent Laurell Farinon displayed photos she […] Read more »
After a brief holiday hiatus, the Marion Conservation Commission tackled a full agenda on January 9, including the sticky issue of a conservation restriction (CR) violation at The Cove. Vice Chairman Shaun Walsh summarized the prior meeting’s discussion during which the commission gave residents of The Cove time to think about the violation of the […] Read more »