The Marion Select Board met on September 30 to vote on closing the November 9 special Town Meeting warrant and approving the ballot for the November 3 election.
The brief meeting featured endorsement votes from the Select Board on the three and only Town Meeting articles, two connected to the shared-use path that passes through Marion and Mattapoisett to Wareham.
The bicycle and pedestrian path are part of the South Coast Bikeway and Bay State path network. The Marion section will be approximately 3.8 miles. The State Department of Transportation has been working with local authorities to finalize path designs, which have required some road layout changes.
Final construction for the Marion section of the path will begin next spring and should be complete by 2029, before state and local authorities begin the extension to Wareham.
According to Town Administrator Geoffrey Gorman, one article will transfer the responsibility and rights-of-way of the shared use path to the Select Board.
Another article seeks approval from voters to alter the path slightly around the Washburn Park Road area and Spring Street, per state DOT’s design recommendations.
The third and final article will seek voter approval for phosphorus mitigation upgrades at the Marion Wastewater Treatment facility. The state Department of Environmental Protection has mandated the work, and the town must “break ground by May of 2027,” Gorman told the Select Board at its September 15 meeting.
At the September 15 meeting, Gorman said the town is expected to receive $1.2 million in fees from the Toll Bros. housing project at 78 Wareham Road. That project is building 48 luxury homes and other amenities by the Wareham border for a development called Marion Pointe.
Gorman also said fees from that project will be held in a sewer enterprise fund, pending Town Meeting approval on Nov. 9.
The Special Town Meeting will be held at the Sippican Multipurpose Room, 16 Spring Street.
For election voting information, log on to: www.marionma.gov/272/Town-Meeting-Election-Information
Marion Select Board
By Jeffrey Wagner