There is disagreement between elected officials in the Tri-Towns as to the efficiency with which the Old Rochester Regional School District has explained its request for a $12,000,000 debt exclusion for the purpose of capital expenditures on school buildings over the next two decades.
The warrant article common to Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester annual town meetings (all to be held on Monday, May 13) has been presented in three major projects to upgrade 99 HVAC units, replace 60 exterior doors on the junior and senior high school buildings and install a new public-address system that would allow unified communications.
Article 17, one of 46 on the Marion Annual Town Meeting warrant, was discussed during an April 25 meeting of the Marion Select Board to review the warrant for the May 13 Annual Town Meeting.
The loan proposed by ORR would also fund upgrades to the school buildings’ hot water systems, upgrade paving and curbs, improve the gymnasium and restrooms and provide LED lighting to the high school athletic fields.
“ORR did a great job presenting, we should have that available to the public,” suggested Marion Select Board member Randy Parker, crediting ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson during the warrant review held at the Music Hall.
Town Administrator Geoff Gorman agreed with Parker and indicated he would also seek to post information on the new Department of Public Works facility and the proposed patrol-boat replacement at marionma.gov.
Resident Steve Nojeim addressed the meeting, seeking clarification on the ramifications of the Rochester Select Board’s April 22 decision not to recommend the article.
“It is problematic … all three towns have to agree,” said Gorman, noting that since the article is asking voters to approve a debt exclusion, a yes verdict will only make it a ballot question at the Town Elections on Friday, May 17.
Last week, the Rochester Select Board acknowledged the buildings’ needs but stopped short of recommending the article while requesting greater detail in the expense information provided.
The Marion Select Board and Finance Committee both recommend a FY25 operating budget of $28,837,711, which represents a 4.72% increase over the FY24 budget of $27,536,903. After transfers from existing funds, the actual amount voters will be asked to appropriate is $27,124,757.
But there remains fundamental disagreement between the Select Board and Finance Committee over how to fund the harbormaster’s proposed, $800,000 patrol-boat replacement.
Articles 16 and 16A will give Marion voters the option of buying a new patrol boat outright, splitting the purchase between two $400,000 appropriations from both the Waterways Account and free cash, or funding the purchase entirely on debt, the principal and interest to be paid out of the Waterways Account (which derives its revenue from harbor-related fees).
While some citizens attending the April 25 warrant review consider the avoidance of a loan to be prudent, they also expressed dismay as to the lack of a Finance Committee representative to explain the committee’s position recommending a loan.
In recent weeks, Finance Committee Chairman Shay Assad sought to add the debt-option article (16A) to the warrant after insisting that a $400,000 appropriation from free cash would break a promise he says the town made to taxpayers that they would not be asked to pay for the boat.
In his comments to the April 25 warrant-review meeting, Gorman explained that he and Finance Director Heather O’Brien had been tasked with finding the most fiscally sound method of financing the patrol boat, producing Article 16 (the split).
Gorman further argued that since statewide police reform, the work of the Harbormaster Department significantly exceeds provisions of service to harbor ratepayers and now extends to the general public as an arm of the town’s Police Department. Thusly, he inferred, it has become appropriate for taxpayers to share in a burden, the services of which are no longer exclusive to boaters.
“They are really police officers on the water, same training, same accountability,” said Gorman. “(The harbormaster) doesn’t provide safety just for people who pay mooring fees. I respect the difference of opinion from the Finance Committee; that’s where we stand.”
None of the stakeholders have argued that the 27-foot Boston Whaler purchased in 2006 and upfitted as a patrol boat is not well beyond its 15-year lifecycle, only how to fund its replacement. The request is for a 33-foot boat with built-in, firefighting capabilities.
Article 16, which will ask voters to authorize a split in the boat’s funding between free cash and the Waterways Account, has been recommended by the Select Board but not the Finance Committee, the latter of which authorizes Article 16A buying the boat 100% on debt to be exclusively funded out of the Waterways Account.
Citing the $800,000 expense, resident Bob Partridge suggested that the town’s Marine Resources Commission and the harbormaster research available boats from federal government or the Coast Guard. Gorman explained that being a government-bid boat, the town is without such an option but that the town will continue to work diligently to find grant funding.
Parker expressed optimism regarding grant funding. “We feel good about it,” he said. Gorman added that Harbormaster Adam Murphy has a “spectacular relationship” with the state Seaport Economic Council (which largely funded the new Maritime Center under construction at Island Wharf).
Article 31 is another bone of contention within the town, as voters will be asked to authorize deletion of Chapter 120 of the Marion Code, the Stretch Energy Code.
According to Energy Management Committee member Bill Saltonstall, cancelation of the town’s stretch code would disqualify Marion from receiving Green Communities grant funding. Saltonstall told the April 25 warrant-review meeting that the town has already received $540,000 in related grant funding, and he questioned how the Finance Committee could possibly determine that such a decision would have no financial impact on the town.
EMC Chairman Christian Ingerslev stated that while the Stretch Code is not a prerequisite to a Green Communities designation by the state, becoming more energy efficient is. He also noted that an important change in the Stretch Code is a refocus away from reducing energy in buildings onto fossil fuels.
Regional Green Communities representative Lisa Sullivan will address the Select Board during its May 7 meeting. If Marion leaves Green Communities, it would become only the second municipality ever to do so, joining Rochester.
As of April 24, 295 of the state’s 351 municipalities hold a Green Communities designation.
Article 46 of the Marion warrant is a Citizen’s Petition requesting the town repair and keep clean its storm-drain system, pumping catch basins when full to prevent flooding on private properties. The article also requests the town investigate the source of excess water flooding the Ichabod Lane neighborhood.
The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, at 6:00 pm at the Town House Annex building.
Marion Select Board
By Mick Colageo