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 »
A new municipal building is being planned for the Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Departments. During the February 12 meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board, members heard from Henri Renauld, Water and Sewer superintendent, regarding the new building plans. Renauld stated that a combination of revenue sources will be used to offset the early […] Read more »
Reconfiguration of the intersection of Front and Spring Streets at Brew Fish restaurant from its present fork design into a hard turn is one of two changes coming to the stretch of Route 105 seaward of Route 195. The entry to Washburn Park off Front Street just southeast of the 195 interchange will […] Read more »
The Old Rochester Regional School District and Massachusetts Superintendency Union #55 announced on their Facebook page today that ORR District schools will be closed on Tuesday, February 13, due to the anticipated winter storm that is predicted to bring unfavorable conditions to the area. ORR District schools include ORR High School, Junior High and the […] Read more »
In order to preserve neighborhood character and maintain the distinct difference between investors who buy houses just to rent them out short term and those in the business of operating a rental establishment and also live on the premises, the Marion Planning Board is fine-tuning a bylaw on short-term rentals that it hopes will […] Read more »