Becky Tilden, director of the Marion Department of Public Works, appeared for an appointment with the Marion Select Board on January 17 to give the members a rundown on DPW matters.             Marion has 47.44 miles of road (up and down, so just under 95) to work, including the trimming back of road edges […] Read more »

The Rochester Special Town Meeting’s lone negative vote Monday was also its most debated.             After Council on Aging Friends Chairman Michael Cambra complained the town was trying to take away the council’s power to govern itself, a quorum of 163 residents gathered at Rochester Memorial School voted down Article 8, a bylaw amendment that […] Read more »

The trend for Marion’s boards and committees has been to move their public meetings back to the newly renovated Town House Annex Building, but the Marion Conservation Commission is content to remain at the Police Station on Route 6 with proven, hybrid-attendance options.             The commission’s January 10 meeting saw one public hearing result in […] Read more »

Sarah “Nancy” Dube, the proprietor of Lighthouse Liquors (664 Mill Street), gave an impassioned plea to the Marion Board of Health during its January 11 public meeting in response to an official report that the store had sold a package of cigarettes to a minor.             The board was apparently moved by Dube’s remarks and […] Read more »

A self-storage business is headed for the former Lockheed Martin complex off Route 6 in Marion after civil engineer Steve Gioiosa of SITEC visited the Marion Planning Board on Tuesday night seeking a Special Permit in a Limited Industrial-zoned property at 13 Barnabus Road on behalf of Sippican Holdings LLC.             The public hearing went […] Read more »

Rochester’s Zoning Board of Appeals met only briefly on January 11 to announce the withdrawal and postponement of its two posted hearings.                Chair David Arancio reported that the applicants for a variance of the 70% maximum floor-area ratio for a project at Cranberry Highway (off County Road) are requesting to withdraw the petition “without […] Read more »

Rochester’s Board of Health met on January 10 to approve an FY25 budget of $109,760 that is a 7.8% increase over FY24.             Rochester Health Director Karen A. Walega, however, emphasized that more needs to be done to boost employee hours to complete the tasks of a full-time board now under the constraints of a […] Read more »

The Buzzards Bay Coalition, along with their engineer and contractor working on The Bogs restoration project off Acushnet Road, came before the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission on January 16. The meeting was to discuss recent flooding of the site now fully under construction, which led to the transmission of soils beyond the scope of work, namely […] Read more »

Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday agreed to keep pursuing the town’s rights to the water on Red Brick Farm East land that is part of a 241-acre Conservation Restriction giving Rochester no rights to the groundwater that the property might produce.             Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior told the board Tuesday that he expected the issue to […] Read more »

            The Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library needs an up-to-date, easier-to-use website and to make its lower-level entrance more accessible to people with disabilities. Both concerns were the feature of the Library Board of Trustees’ meeting Monday.             The January 22 Special Town Meeting will be asking voters to spend $3,000 from Capital Improvement Funds […] Read more »