Personnel Board member Kristine Nash told the Rochester Select Board at the latter’s public meeting on Tuesday night that a study of the town’s Personnel Bylaw is working against Rochester because nine key staffers not subject to collective bargaining have no further step increases and are more likely to be lost in a competitive […] Read more »

            Rochester’s Zoning Board of Appeals allowed the construction of a one-bedroom, in-law apartment on an undersized lot at 24 Bennett Road on February 15 after a lengthy struggle over how best to rule on the plan led to a telephone call to Town Counsel.             ZBA Chairman David Arancio’s call to the town’s lawyers […] Read more »

            With only one hearing on its February 15 agenda, it seemed the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals would be holding a quiet and quick meeting. But what ensued was the reading of a letter by one of the bidders to purchase the decommissioned fire station objecting to the sale, not the Special Permit filing. […] Read more »

            In her update to the Marion Board of Health during its February 8 public meeting, Health Agent Shallyn Rodriguez reported a troubling discovery. What Rodriguez said she “found odd” was the fact that two body-art establishments in town are reusing pencils that draw the art before microblading begins. Marion does not require disinfecting pencils. […] Read more »

            After a 40-year career, Town of Rochester Health Director Karen Walega is retiring in June.             That was the big revelation to come out of Rochester’s February 7 Board of Health meeting, in which Walega advised that it was time to start the search for her replacement now. She said the panel should not […] Read more »

            The Old Rochester Regional School Committee met on February 1 and approved the district-wide School Improvement Plan(s) for the 2023-24 academic year.             ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson introduced the School Improvement Plan, beginning by explaining that Vision 2028 had recently been introduced. All the elementary school districts adopted a one-year plan to […] Read more »

            The Rochester School Committee will need a little more time to dig into its FY25 operational budget now that the state has weighed in.             Old Rochester Regional Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson told the committee during its January 25 public meeting that the reason the budget subcommittee meeting originally planned for the same […] Read more »

            The transportation bid process is a key to the FY25 Old Rochester Regional and Mattapoisett Schools’ budget, according to ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson, who introduced an Initial Budget Discussion during the Mattapoisett School Committee’s January 31 public meeting.             “That’s a big domino for us,” said Nelson, recognizing a statewide trend in […] Read more »

            Though it might add approximately $70,000 to the town budget, the Rochester Finance Committee Monday approved recommending a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment increase for all contract town employees for Fiscal Year 2025.             The vote came after Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar advised the board to set the COLA figure right away so the […] Read more »

            The planning for a massive upgrade to the filtering system in the Mattapoisett Water Treatment Plant has reached its fine-tuning stages, and the Mattapoisett River Valley Water District Commission wasn’t at all thrown off by a corporate takeover of Koch Separation Solutions, the designer of the state-of-the-art system to be installed in the plant […] Read more »