Permanent Condition Still Talks

A 24 Parlowtown Road resident is learning as he goes about the trees posing danger and the brush growing into his yard.             Paul Drucker went before the Marion Conservation Commission on September 28 with a Request for Determination of Applicability to cut down and remove 14 tall trees and brush-cut to the ground.             […] Read more »

Fairhaven Sewer Plant Upgrades

            Mattapoisett’s Special Fall Town Meeting, scheduled for Monday, November 6, will feature several capital expenditures, including $350,000 for renovation to the Highway Department and $300,000 for roadway improvements. But those sums will be eclipsed by the $8,000,000 needed for the town’s 16% share of needed upgrades to the Fairhaven sewer plant.             During the […] Read more »

Support Mounting to Fight CR

            Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday agreed to join the Conservation Commission in its protest of what a recent regional Conservation Restriction agreement will do to the town’s water rights on 13 acres of Rochester land.             The board approved sending its own letter to the Select Board to take further action against the 241-acre regional […] Read more »

ConCom Wants Help Fighting CR

Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday took further action on the much-debated, 241-acre, regional Conservation Restriction that includes 13 acres at Red Brick Farm East but gives Rochester no rights to the water there. The commission decided to take its appeal to keep the town’s rights to that water local directly to the Select Board.             When […] Read more »

Literacy Work Only Beginning

            Upon her season-opening report to the Mattapoisett School Committee on September 21, Chairperson Carly Lavin focused on the Old Rochester Regional School District’s new literacy program launched last year.             “This is a massive change … a long-term goal, and it’s going to require real passion and perseverance to successfully implement,” said Lavin, identifying […] Read more »

Housing Would Necessitate Zoning Changes

            “I’ve reviewed the Master Plan,” began Planning Board member John Mathieu as Monday night’s agenda panned to New Business. Mathieu, who had previously been a board member and more recently returned when a vacancy made it possible. Mathieu said that the updated Master Plan draft is acceptable on a number of levels and focuses […] Read more »

Chewy Prescriptions 

            The three members of Marion’s Select Board agreed during their special September 28 public meeting at the Town House that the Hiring Committee delivered three excellent candidates for the job of finance director to be vacated at the end of the calendar year with Judy Mooney’s retirement.             “Well, I’ve got to say we […] Read more »

Briggs Permitted to Finish Cleanup

            Having been stuck in the weeds of a backstory that dates back to the early 1980s, the Marion Planning Board finally found its way to a solution on Monday night by voting 4-2 to lift a cease-and-desist order and grant developer Sherman Briggs the Special Permit he requested to complete cleanup of a mostly […] Read more »

New Committee to Explore Alternatives

            Rochester’s Select Board, meeting on Monday night, dissolved the Public Safety Feasibility Study Committee that was examining the town’s goal of improving Police and Fire Department facilities and created a Public Safety Facility Building Committee.             Public Safety Feasibility Study Committee Chairman Arnie Johnson told the Select Board that the feasibility report has been […] Read more »

Little Library Approval Rescinded

            Rochester’s Library Board of Trustees quickly dispensed with several of its most controversial issues in a stunningly brief meeting on September 28.             The board started its meeting in a Senior Center room crowded with area residents by adopting the town’s flag policy (rather than adopting its own), wherein the library will only fly […] Read more »