Prior to the school year, Rochester officials expected eight student residents to attend Bristol County Agricultural High School, but after that number unexpectedly jumped to nine, they were faced with a dilemma—the van they were using only held eight passengers, and a larger vehicle cost almost twice as much.
After some exploration of other options and some time spent in a larger, 12-passenger bus (which Town Administrator Richard LaCamera said cost around $44,000 per year), Selectmen feel that they’ve found a cheaper option in the Rochester Council On Aging’s 14-passenger van.
“It’s a much bigger bus,” said LaCamera, who said that they’re currently in the final stages of an agreement with the COA, which includes a driver for the van.
Selectmen said that it is the responsibility of the town to provide transportation for its students, and that currently, students from town who attend Bristol Aggie are shuttled to Stop and Shop in Fairhaven, where they board a bigger bus with other students from surrounding towns.
“We’ll have to get together collectively and finalize what we’re going to do,” said LaCamera, who said that the initial cost of the eight-passenger van was around $27,000. “We have to find a way to transport students.”
In other new, Selectmen approved a contract for new facilities manager Andrew Daniel, who was recently named as the replacement for Mike Meunier, who retired from the position at the end of 2013.
Parker said that Daniels salary would be around $28,900, which would be for half of this year until July 1, and that his full year salary would be around $60,000.
Daniel said that he officially started earlier that day and was familiarizing himself with the town’s buildings, and that he’d already received lists of things that needed his attention from those working in the buildings.
“Every place I went, I got a list,” he said, noting that he’d also come up with a maintenance request form. “I’ll keep up with that and I’ll be able to prioritize and get busy.”
As for the search for a new Town Planner, Selectmen said that they’d narrowed it down to one candidate—Mary Kane from Mattapoisett—and that they’d have a joint meeting between the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board to interview her.
Former Town Planner John Charbonneau stepped down from the part-time position in September to take a position in Raynham.
LaCamera also said Selectmen would also meet next week to discuss budgets for fiscal year 2015 because of the holiday coming up and because he didn’t want to wait any longer to present the budget.
He said that currently, he’s awaiting the Old Rochester Regional School District’s budget, and that there’s some concern on his end about how much they’re going to request from the town of Rochester.
“We are very concerned about it,” he said, saying that ORR had anticipated around $400,000 in state funding that they had not received. “We need to start communicating about it now.”
By Nick Walecka
