A variety of board appointments and one important follow-up to the vote to fund a new Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School facility dominated the Rochester Select Board meeting on Monday.
In a ballot question election on June 20, Acushnet, Carver, Lakeville, Mattapoisett, and Rochester, the five members of the Old Colony vocational education district, voted in the majority against supporting the district’s $289 million building project. Rochester went thumbs down on the construction plan with 831 votes “no” and only 579 “yes” votes.
Town Administrator Cameron Durant said it will take time for the district to develop an alternative to the plan it had hoped member towns would approve. “Evidently, the cost being proposed was too great for the average taxpayer. But the needs are there for Old Colony,” he said. “And we are willing to work with Old Colony to make the needed mechanical upgrades until the (Old Colony) school committee finds another path forward.”
The project would have built a larger, more modern building that would replace the serious infrastructure deficiencies of the current facility at 476 North Avenue in Rochester. Under calculations presented to member towns last year, the state School Building Authority’s reimbursement for the new school’s price tag is projected to be $129M. The remaining total cost that the school district members would share was estimated at approximately $159M.
Durant said he won’t know what that path forward will be until the Old Colony school board meets to discuss its next steps. That planning will take months to develop, he said. Necessary infrastructure upgrades will be more expensive without the MSBA funding. The repairs will have to be done slowly, piece by piece.
In other action, Durant announced the town Events Committee has planned a Town Picnic for the town common on July 4, from 12:00 pm noon to 2:00 pm. For 12:00 pm noon, attendees will be asked to bring bells to ring them in unison to commemorate the country’s 250th birthday.
The board approved a new Memorandum of Understanding to continue using Gateway Insurance as the insurance carrier for the Old Rochester Regional School District. Durant noted the ORR School Committee has yet to review this document.
The board approved a one-day liquor license for a Rochester Democratic Town Committee event on August 8.
The board approved the following appointments: Norman Bourque as a new member of the Conservation Commission; Halma Tiffany to the Historic District Commission; Douglas Sims as a full member of the Zoning Board of Appeals; and David Diata as a zoning board associate member.
The Rochester Select Board’s next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 6.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco