The Town of Marion Harbormaster Department will be allowed to remove trees that are interfering with the construction of its new Maritime Center that began in December and is expected to be completed by the end of summer.
“Basically, it was an oversight on our end. We never had any intentions of them staying. Obviously, the building is in that corner of the property,” said Marion Harbormaster Adam Murphy, who thanked the commissioners for responding quickly with a site visit to Island Wharf. “It’s going to undertake some (complicated) projects at the same time with the seawall coming to fruition in the real, near future.”
The Harbormaster filed a Request for Determination of Applicability for the removal of pine/evergreen trees along the northeast corner of the property where the new headquarters will be built.
Conservation Commission members Jeff Doubrava (chairman), Emil Assing (vice chairman), Shaun Walsh and Millie Seeberg (associate) heard from Murphy. The commission needed only three votes so Seeberg’s participation was limited to discussion.
Murphy said the groundbreaking of the construction would necessitate the excavation of the entire area. He said there have already been issues with the installation of the perimeter fencing where it runs into trees at the existing bathroom area.
“We’re just asking (the commission) to allow us to remove them. We’re going to get with the Tree Committee and replace trees to their wishes and put them in a location where it’s conducive to the site once it comes to fruition,” Murphy explained.
Murphy said the construction was set to begin on December 27 (and completed by August) but had begun the week before with the installation of helical piles and the drilling of test holes.
“They didn’t meet the specifications that they wanted to, so there’s a little delay figuring out if they’re going to drive down regular pilings versus (helical holes),” said Murphy, noting that a construction meeting was scheduled for December 28. “So the footing and the elevation is still up in the air how we’re going to get it there because they weren’t compliant with the helixes and there’s 68 of them, I believe.”
Murphy said the 68 helicals were supposed to be drilled to 15 feet, and of the six that were drilled, only one went as far as 14-feet deep. The rest, according to Murphy, were deemed noncompliant. Some went in approximately 8 feet and hit ledge.
“The engineers are working on a Plan B, if you will,” he said.
According to Walsh and Doubrava, the simultaneous seawall repair will alter the vertical design to a 1-to-1 slope, pulling the top landward and leaving the bottom of the seawall in its present position.
“With everything going on, it’s going to be a busy part of town, especially with that recent storm,” said Assing.
Murphy said the water rose 8 inches higher than it had in a prior storm of significance. Both Island Wharf and Silvershell Beach parking lot were under water.
Walsh fashioned his motion to issue the Harbormaster a Negative Boxes 2 and 3 Determination of Applicability in that the work, albeit occurring in an area subject to the protections of the Wetlands Protection Act, will not alter the area. Furthermore, the work is in the buffer zone but will not alter the resource area.
The commission was asked to comment to the Planning Board regarding Sippican LLC, 13 Barnabas Road.
“I believe they’re proposing to convert the maintenance shop at Sippican Corp. into a storage site, and this site is definitely within the buffer zone,” said Doubrava. “They came before us (with a RDA filing) to take the building down, so certainly they would need a permit for that – my opinion.”
The applicant has an order of conditions from the commission to drop the building and leave the concrete slab. The wetlands line, said Doubrava, is approximately 20 feet off the paved parking lot at the site.
The commission discussed Eversource’s notification of tree cutting in the right of way from Wareham town line to Point Road where the high-tension power lines run over the Weweantic River that separates Marion from Wareham. There was no permitting necessary with the project.
Doubrava noted from recent inspections he conducted on behalf of the Sippican Lands Trust that the swampy, overgrown land in the area would make a nice walk if it was made passable.
“It’d be really nice if that whole right of way was cleared. You could actually walk it because that gets you through the most barren parts of Marion,” he said. “But most of it you can’t walk it.”
The commission issued two full certificates of compliance to William and Elizabeth Weber for float modification at 21 East Avenue and to Barbara Grainger Trust-1994 for the removal of floats at 33 East Avenue.
A public hearing on the December 27 agenda for a RDA filed by Byron and Cynthia Deysher, 44 Lewis Street, was not heard because the application was withdrawn.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for Wednesday, January 10, at 7:00 at the Police Station, Route 6.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Mick Colageo