Author Talk with Marie Fricker

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Please join us at the Elizabeth Taber Library on Thursday evening, May 10, at 6:30 pm for an author talk with Marie Fricker. She will be discussing her book All in My Head: How a Hypochondriac Beat Brain Cancer. A book signing will follow.

Marie (Gallishaw) Fricker is a head writer for the 30-office Jack Conway Real Estate Company based in Norwell, Massachusetts. She has had freelance articles published in Boston Magazineand many other publications throughout New England. She was a longtime contributor to the South Shore Senior Newswriting a humorous column entitled “Motherhood the Second Time Around.”

In her previous position as a marketing director for Jack Conway & Co., she won five international communications awards for a book and video she wrote entitled The House that Jack Built. Before joining Conway in 1993, she was a publicist for the State Department of Education.

Born and raised in Arlington, MA, Marie earned a bachelor’s degree in English from UMass Boston, and a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University. She lives in Scituate with her husband Al. They have two grown children – Allison, a teacher in the Dedham Public Schools, and Jason, a Rockland Firefighter – and five grandchildren, Benjamin, William, Christian, Olivia and Sam.

Silvershell Beach is Going ‘Gaga’

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Ever heard of ‘gaga ball?’ If not, you’re not alone because neither had the Marion Conservation Commission until aspiring Eagle Scout Jackson Saint Don on April 25 proposed installing a gaga ball pit at Silvershell Beach for his Eagle Scout project.

“Is Lady Gaga gonna come play?” asked Conservation Commission Chairman Cynthia Callow. “No? Never mind…”

Saint Don, son of Conservation Commission member Kristen Saint Don, said he came up with the idea for his Eagle Scout project while at Boy Scout camp where he saw his first gaga ball pit. Saint Don said he approached Recreation Department Director Jody Dickerson and asked if he could make one for Silvershell Beach, and Dickerson gave the nod. Saint Don gave a Google Earth image of the beach and circled in red where Dickerson approved the gaga ball pit placement nearer to the road.

“The entire project is pretty simple in the fact that it doesn’t require many supplies besides wood and corner brackets,” said Saint Don, “but I found a way to make … recycled plastic drums instead of metal.”

The pit, which will be octagonal and 25 to 30 feet in diameter, will be constructed of pressure-treated wood dug about one inch into the sand. The pit can be disassembled and stored should a strong storm approach the area; otherwise, the pit would remain at the beach year round.

This concerned commission member Jeffrey Doubrava, who worried that perhaps a storm surge could send the pit into a neighbor’s house and asked if the pit should somehow be anchored. And although the project would undoubtedly be approved by the commission, said Doubrava, “I don’t want to be a hard case, but the person who was going to put two benches in Sprague’s Cove had to file a [Request for Determination of Applicability.” He continued, “If the rules don’t apply to everybody, pretty soon they don’t apply to anybody.”

Walsh said the commission required Susannah Davis to file a RDA for the Sprague’s Cove benches because the commission was unclear as to how many and what size benches and where she planned to place them. And although Saint Don’s project was likely within a velocity zone, the gaga ball pit is not a permanent structure. Furthermore, Saint Don demonstrated exactly what his plan was and where he would place the ball pit, Walsh pointed out.

“That being said, is this an activity that will remove, fill, dredge, or alter the [resource area]?” asked Walsh. “I think the argument could be made, ‘no.’ If the design is for a more permanent structure with stakes or what-have-you, then you start to get into a potential alteration.” He continued, “I don’t see what filing an RDA would accomplish. It doesn’t remove, fill, dredge, or alter a jurisdictional resource area.”

Still, Doubrava was concerned about consistency in policy and advocated for the RDA, and also about the potential for damage during a storm.

“I don’t think the first thing that’s on people’s minds if a hurricane is coming is, ‘Gotta go get the gaga pit,’” said commission member Joel Hartley.

“I do think that if a hurricane is coming, the [Recreation Department] or the DPW is looking to batten down the hatches and would be going to all the public properties … whether it’s lifeguard stands or benches or trash barrels or a gaga pit,” argued Walsh. “I’m assuming that’s probably the practice.”

And to Doubrava’s point, Walsh added, one of the benches was to be placed right on the water at Sprague’s Cove, which the commission only found out when Davis filed her RDA.

“I’m not suggesting we apply special rules just because it’s an Eagle Scout project,” said Walsh, “I just don’t see the utility in requiring an RDA for this type of project where it is really no more than … setting up a tent or some other easily removed structure.”

Callow agreed with Walsh.

“I think an RDA is excessive, but I think it’s a good project,” Callow said. “Again, Ms. Davis failed to tell the commission where she was going to put [the benches], how she was going to put them. This is not the case. I’m confident that it can be removed in a hurricane or a storm.”

The commission did ask Saint Don to contact the DPW to inform them of the project and work out any concerns from that department. Saint Don will return to the Conservation Commission with an update before the selectmen’s meeting.

Gaga ball is a fast-paced “free-for-all,” as Saint Don described it, where players of all ages and in any number-sized group can enter the pit and throw the ball at players below the knees – but the ball has to hit the ground twice, Saint Don said. “’Ga’ is Hebrew for ‘hit,’” said Saint Don, thus the double hit – ga-ga.

“What’s nice about this game is there’s no skill gap so people of all ages can play,” said Saint Don. “I figured it would be a nice addition to the town beach for the summer camp because I know there’s usually a lot of kids there and kids of all ages can play.”

“It sounds like a great sport,” said Walsh, “because as you said, kids and adults of all abilities can play it and … it’s much a game of luck as it is of skill … and it sounds like, in my opinion, a great addition to the Silvershell Beach area.”

Saint Don, 17, a student of Upper Cape Tech and a Boy Scout of seven years, said he one day wants to be an environmental officer for the Environmental Protection Agency.

In other matters, the commission responded to a complaint about 120 Front Street, owned by Christian Loranger, where a resident reported that some dumping of debris had occurred within the wetlands. And although there was a lot of debris making the site unattractive, the commission acknowledged that there was no dumping in the actual wetlands.

“Someone is not happy,” Hartley commented about the complaint.

Doubrava noted that the commission responds to all complaints lodged by residents; however, he added, “I don’t want to be used by the citizenry if there’s somebody they don’t like.”

Also during the meeting, the commission approved the Notices of Intent of two pier projects related in nature – an alteration to a Chapter 91 licensed pier at 91 Water Street and the moving and attachment of the abutting property’s pier to the 91 Water Street pier.

The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for May 9 at 7:00 pm at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.

Marion Conservation Commission

By Jean Perry

 

Marion’s Connection to the World’s Biggest Windmill

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It’s quite possible that you’ve never heard of the windmill on Cuttyhunk that was once the largest windmill in the world, but it’s likely that you’ve heard the names of two of the several young environmentalists, engineers, and idealists who built it back in the late 1970s.

John Rockwell of Marion and former Marion resident and Tabor graduate Roger Race were both there in Cuttyhunk some 40 years ago, and their labor along with the efforts of four other men provided an alternate energy source to the island in the midst of the nation’s energy crisis. And what they did could be considered not only revolutionary, but downright subversive in a society once completely dependent on foreign-owned fossil fuels.

Documentary maker David Vassar captured the entire project in the film Generation on the Wind, preserving the history of how the island of Cuttyhunk was once home to the world’s biggest windmill built only with limited implements and the basic methods available at the time, used by men who were ahead of their time.

Rockwell was living on the island in 1977, and he was acquainted with Allen Spaulding, who was in the throes of a plan to build a windmill big enough to power the entire island that at the time relied solely on generators fueled by diesel, something that was much more expensive on Cuttyhunk than on the mainland.

“In the movie, I talked about how I went out one day to say hello to him and see what he was doing,” said Rockwell from a boat off the coast of New Jersey on May 1. Rockwell liked the sound of Spaulding’s project and he offered to “shimmy up the pole,” said Rockwell, “And for, I think, fifty cents. I didn’t actually think he’d hire me; he was just impressed that I would do that. I didn’t tell him after that my knees were shaking when I got down.”

The project became a steady paycheck for Rockwell, who had no background in high steel work, “Which was basically what we did,” he said. “I knew about rigging,” and a lot of what the crew did was simply that – hoisting and being hoisted 120 feet in the air to build the massive windmill. There wasn’t any large-scale equipment on the island at the time.

Construction began in the fall of 1977 and was completed in mid-May the following year. “That winter was the blizzard of ’78, and we were shipped some parts and they got lost,” Rockwell remembered. And when it was finally time to attach the windmill’s nose with its three 40-foot long blades attached, Rockwell was up there suspended at the top of the tower, guiding the nose dangling from a crane onto its mounting point to be tightened and secured into place.

“It was sort of scary in retrospect,” said Rockwell. “It wasn’t really that scary when I was doing it.”

Rockwell pointed out a part in the film when he was ready to receive the blades from the crane moving them toward him, suspended, and there was an audible ‘groaning’ sound. Someone asked him, “What’s that?” Rockwell told him it was nothing, “But it was actually the main shackle holding the blades up in the air,” he said. “It was bending open! And when it clunked into place, it ‘plunked’ because the main shackle opened right up – in the right place, thank goodness.”

“After that, I realized I could do no wrong,” said Rockwell.

It was an interesting time, Rockwell said, and the interesting project included a group of equally interesting people. A “motorcycle nut” who was a mathematical genius created the custom-made computer program that controlled the speed of the blades’ rotation every tenth of a second, “Which was very impressive back then.”

“One guy was a Boston Celtics fan, and he quit because we didn’t get good TV reception on the island and he couldn’t watch the games,” Rockwell said. “One guy, whenever he went up in the air (to work on the windmill) he always dropped something, which is the only way you can get hurt, by being underneath and having somebody drop something on your head. If you fell, you had a thousand things you could grab onto … We called him Mister Drop.”

‘Mr. Drop’ had a family, though, and wanted to make more money. He left the windmill project to go work on a nuclear power plant in Virginia, “Which we all thought was pretty funny,” said Rockwell. “It was an interesting time.”

Rockwell was friends with Race, who was recovering in Marion from a serious motorcycle crash. “He was sort of feeling sorry for himself because it was hard for him to get a around…” Rockwell talked Race into joining him on Cuttyhunk, and Race joined the project and even stayed on for another six or so months after the windmill’s construction was complete and the 200 kilowatt wind-powered generator was powering the entire island, which it continued to do for eight more years.

Race remembers Rockwell calling him up and encouraging him to come up to the island. “I said, ‘What the heck, I’ll recover out there.’”

The windmill was a great idea, said Race, really cutting edge to try to build one of such a size and capacity to produce power. And just a few miles away on neighboring Block Island, NASA was at the same time building its own large-scale wind turbine, “And it was ten times as much money,” recalled Rockwell.

“NASA was coming over to see us; we were going over to see NASA…” said Race. “Building the world’s first commercially viable 200 kilowatt generator…. It really was a lot of fun.”

“We were all at the top every day, hoisted up,” said Race. “Yes, there were some near misses,” Race continued, like when he was on top of the tower and in the distance he could see a sudden, strong winter storm approaching. “I called down to John, I think, ‘Get me out of here!’ In about ten minutes … when we got to the ground it blew like hell…”

“But it was all fine at the end of the day, nobody got hurt,” Race said. “It was wonderful to be out in the elements and experience that.”

“I thought it was really cold,” is what Rockwell said was on his mind pretty much most of the time he was up building the windmill. “We were cold, it was wintertime, and we were working outside and we were really cold, and that’s what we were thinking about mostly. We were all in our twenties … and we weren’t thinking too much about profound earth-shaking things.”

But the boss, Allen Spaulding, was. Rockwell said Spaulding thought of the windmill as a work of “monumental art.”

“I took that to heart,” said Rockwell, “and I always thought if I ever built anything, I’d want it to be a piece of monumental art like his windmill was.”

Looking back at the experience, Rockwell said the lesson he learned was a simple, yet empowering one – “You can do just about anything, if you think about it.” Building an 80-foot tower of steel with no gigantic cranes using old-fashioned construction techniques – “And when we had a problem we just sat down in a circle and we figured ‘em out. And the windmill produced a lot more power than we thought it would.”

As an engineer who does a lot of traveling, Race said everywhere he goes – France, Scotland, Canada – “I see [wind turbines] everywhere else and I think, wow, we were just so far ahead of our time.”

Generation on the Wind was recently digitally re-mastered and re-released in a theater in Texas on April 22, and in San Francisco the following day, just in time for Earth Day 2018, 40 years later. And, if all goes as planned, Netflix will acquire the rights to the film, making it available soon to an even wider audience.

The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature, won the “best documentary” blue ribbon at the American Film Festival, and won “best documentary” at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

A short ten-minute abridgment of the documentary can be viewed by visiting http://tinyurl.com/vimeo-wind.

By Jean Perry

 

Academic Achievements

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Bryant Universityis committed to the pursuit, recognition, and celebration of academic excellence. Christopher Carando, Class of 2018 from Mattapoisett, has been named to Bryant University’s Deans’ List for the fall 2017 semester.

A Century of Tabor Rowing

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In 2017, Tabor Academy’s rowing team competed for its 100thseason, an anniversary matched only by a handful of high school programs in the United States. In that time, the team has had unprecedented success on an international scale. The story of this historic rowing program is told in the new feature documentary “A Century of Tabor Rowing,” which premieres at Tabor Academy on May 20at 4:00 pm.

The film is over a year in the making and features over 40 interviews with Tabor rowers and coaches through the decades. With its combination of historical and contemporary footage, the film provides thought-provoking commentary on changes in the sport through the years.

The documentary was written, directed, and produced by Jack Gordon (Marion, MA), a graduate of the Class of 2017 who was also a member of Tabor’s 2017 Henley Crew. Currently, Gordon is a coxswain at the University of California, Berkeley. After the screening, Gordon will be joined onstage by alumni rowers from various decades for a panel discussion to discuss their experiences rowing at Tabor and beyond.

The premiere of the film is free and open the public and will take place in the Fireman Center for the Performing Arts in Hoyt Hall at 235 Front Street, Marion, at 4:00 pm. The documentary runs for approximately 70 minutes.

Walk in the Woods

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There will be a Sunday Morning Family Walk in the Woods entitled “Loving God’s Creation” on May 6at Munn Preserve in Mattapoisett. The Mattapoisett Congregational Church Sunday School and Mattapoisett Land Trust will lead a spiritual walk for children and their parents to explore emerging Spring beauty, the importance of salt marshes, local history and ways to be Stewards of the Earth. It is an easy walk, on an unpaved road, wide and flat, to a beautiful cove and the “healthiest waterway on Buzzards Bay’s western shore.” We will walk on one of the oldest roads in town – originally an oxcart road and property once owned by John Hancock. Bring bug spray, long pants, and comfortable shoes. The road is stroller friendly. Program is 10:15 – 11:15 am. You are welcome to bring a lunch and stay longer. Signs for parking and trailhead are at the end of Mattapoisett Neck Road just before the Antassawamock Community. Contact Patricia Berry at radiantwaves.pb@gmail.com to sign up or with questions. Check the Mattapoisett Congregational Church and Mattapoisett Land Trust Facebook pages for more info. This is a free community event for all ages.

New Day, New Director for RMS Drama

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Big shoes to fill? We won’t even go there as the Rochester Memorial School students prepare for their spring play sans their director, Danni Kleiman, who retired last year after directing the student actors for 31 years. But as the students debut their play “A Stranger in Camelot” on Friday, May 4, the audience will see that it’s a new day for RMS, with a new director who shares Kleiman’s passion for enriching RMS students through drama.

RMS teacher Karen DellaCioppa is no stranger to the RMS stage. She had been assisting Kleiman for years behind the curtain before she took on the position as director of the school’s annual spring performance.

“I’ve been helping Danni for a long, long time,” said DellaCioppa during a dress rehearsal on Monday. And when Kleiman retired last year, the big question on the fate of the spring play was, “Do we let it stop or do we keep it going?”

“I really do believe the students get a lot out if it,” said DellaCioppa. “To let it go would be doing a disservice to them.”

This year’s play is an adaptation of Mark Twain’s 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, altered to fit the contemporary culture of technology and the ingenuity of the modern tech-centric mind.

“I’m not a Shakespeare expert, so I couldn’t do a Shakespeare play,” said DellaCioppa. Shakespeare was Kleiman’s thing. “But I wanted to present something that the kids wouldn’t know anything about, and I like Mark Twain.”

Hunter Bishop plays Hank Morgan, a 2018 RMS student who’s tech savvy and possesses the spirit of an inventor. During an argument with a fellow student named Hercules, played by Jack Jones, the two fight over how the RMS spring drama should be run and fists start swinging. Hercules knocks Hank unconscious and as the curtain is lifted, Hank finds that he has been transported back in time to 6th century Camelot, smack dab in the middle of King Arthur’s Court.

Hank, whose arrival is mistaken as an attack by a scary dragon, is taken prisoner and sentenced to death by King Arthur. But, luckily for Hank, he paid attention in history class and recalled that a total eclipse of the sun was to occur on that very day. Hank announces he is a magician and unless he is freed he will plunge the land into darkness. Just then the moon covers the sun and Camelot is in a panic. Hank is released on the grounds that he is accepted at court and allowed to go into business alongside the king, and he transforms the medieval kingdom into a modern-day corporation. He is knighted as “Sir Boss,” short for Sir Hank Morgan of Rochester, Massachusetts – a place no one at court had ever heard of.

“This one was fun to do,” DellaCioppa said. And with the school’s extensive collection of Shakespearesque costumes and sets, the transition from Shakespeare to Camelot was a logical one.

There’s also a new element to the play this year – live farm animals.

“In the story, there’s a lot of magic,” said DellaCioppa, and one of the scenes entails a character under a spell who mistakes two pigs for two princesses. “The kids are really excited because we’ve never had real pigs here,” said DellaCioppa.

And just then, before the student actors entered the stage for their rehearsal, out walked Kleiman herself from behind the curtain making some last-minute arrangements of sets and sound equipment.

“She offered to step in behind the stage, basically, so it’s really like a whole role reversal,” said DellaCioppa. “It’s been fun, and I’ve been sort of relying on her expertise.”

Perhaps it’s safe to say that ‘old’ directors never retire, they just go behind the scenes.

The play opens this Friday, May 4, with showtime at 7:00 pm in the Rochester Memorial School cafetorium. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for kids.

By Jean Perry

Geraldine “Gerry” (Francis) DeCosta

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Geraldine “Gerry” (Francis) DeCosta, 89, of Mattapoisett died May 1, 2018 at Sippican Healthcare Center after a brief illness.

She was the wife of the late John N. “Jackie” DeCosta.

Born in New Bedford, the daughter of the late Antone and Mary (Paes) Francis, she was raised in Acushnet and lived in Mattapoisett since 1949.

Mrs. DeCosta was a communicant of St. Anthony’s Church in Mattapoisett.

She was formerly employed by Acushnet Company for 18 years until her retirement.

Mrs. DeCosta was a member of the Florence Eastman American Legion Ladies Auxiliary and the Mattapoisett Council on Aging.
Survivors include her son, John DeCosta, Jr., and his wife Marianne, of Mattapoisett; 2 daughters, Carolyn Lopes and her husband Clifton, of Mattapoisett, and Jacqueline Barrett and her husband Bruce Lemieux of Bath, Maine; 5 grandchildren, Brae Barrett of Bath, and Kelly Lopes-Bell, Tiffany Lopes, Clifton Lopes and John DeCosta, III, all of Mattapoisett; 11 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

She was the grandmother of the late William DeCosta and the sister of the late Edith Davis and William Francis.

Her Funeral will be held on Friday, May 4th at 9 AM from the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Route 6, Mattapoisett, followed by her Funeral Mass at St. Anthony’s Church at 10 AM. Burial will follow in St. Anthony’s Cemetery. Visiting hours will be on Thursday, May 3rd from 3-8 PM. For directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

BOH Wants to Control Homegrown Marijuana

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The Marion Board of Health wants to regulate and require a permit for private residents to grow recreational marijuana at home, and it approved the draft regulation during its April 24 meeting.

The board has been under the advisement of its casual consultant, Cheryl Sbarra from the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, on possible municipal regulation of recreational marijuana commercial establishments, and in a general “model” regulation she provided to the board there is a policy option to permit and regulate “grow your own” so-called “operations.” This option, however, is marked by an asterisk because Sbarra, and the committee she sits on, is uncertain any board of health has the legal authority to do so.

The law that was enacted upon voters’ adoption of the 2016 statewide referendum Question 4 to legalize recreational marijuana granted to citizens the right to grow six plants per adult, up to 12 plants, within the home without a permit.

The Marion Board of Health’s draft regulation does not specify how much they would like to charge a resident for a permit to home grow marijuana that they are legally allowed to grow, but the regulation does specify that permits would expire on December 31 of every year and need to be renewed.

The board also inserted a section that would require compliance of home inspections. The section reads, “Each applicant shall submit to a pre-approval inspection by the Marion Board of Health or its designated agents, which may include fire officials and building inspectors, to ensure that the location for cultivation complies with public health and safety requirements and practices, including fire safety and building code provisions.”

            Another section states that residents would have to submit to further “reasonable” inspections, while another section states that, should the Board of Health or its agents encounter mold or other diseases infecting the plants, the Town could then destroy the plants, “…as well as surrounding plants, to prevent a threat to the public’s health.”

            In a follow-up after the meeting, the Board of Health was not entirely confident on what it was they were regulating. When asked if the regulations they approved that night would regulate the six plants per adult (12 maximum per house) or some additional marijuana growing operating inside a home, Chairman John Howard replied, “I’m not sure.”

Howard said he was not sure how many plants an adult was allowed to grow at home at this time, and whether a town-issued permit would affect that number.

When asked why the board chose to include a section requiring a home cultivation permit, which is not required in any Massachusetts community, Howard mistakenly stated, “The [Cannabis Control Commission] established that as part of the state regulation.”

The CCC released its comprehensive regulations on recreational adult-use marijuana commercial and retail establishments in March, but it did not include any language pertaining to personal home cultivation that would supersede the referendum vote that permits home growing.

The board’s draft regulation does not state a specific fee it would impose should it find legality in the measure, nor did it state any penalty or how it would enforce its regulation.

The rest of the regulations pertain to commercial marijuana establishment licenses, which do not appear to deviate from the CCC’s regulations released in March.

The Board of Health must hold a public hearing on its proposed marijuana regulations allowing for public comment before voting the regulations into law. That public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, May 22, at 4:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

The next regular meeting of the Marion Board of Health is scheduled for May 8 at 4:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

Marion Board of Health

By Jean Perry

 

Board Wants Stricter Solar Bylaw

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The Rochester Planning Board has some upgrades it wants to add to the Town’s solar bylaw, and on April 24 board members discussed the best ways to go about bolstering the bylaw and making it a bit more restrictive.

At the top of the list, the board wants to impose a 300-foot setback from any roadway, public or private, unless existing topographical features would naturally screen the solar panels from view.

“That’s not unheard of,” said Planning Board Chairman Arnie Johnson. “I think this would help us try to preserve somewhat without being too invasive on property owners’ rights.”

But as board member Gary Florindo pointed out, being too close to the panels is just as important to abutting property owners as it is for people passing by on the roads, sending the conversation in another direction with the suggestion of imposing a setback on property lines.

The state and the ensuing bylaws are relatively accommodating to solar developers, Florindo pointed out, “But we should also be accommodating the taxpayers of Rochester.” After all, added board member Ben Bailey, people don’t move to Rochester so they can look out their windows and see a bunch of steel and glass. And with six or seven solar projects lining up for Planning Board approval, as Town Planner Steve Starrett pointed out, the board should get its proverbial ducks in a row.

Board member Chris Silveira suggested that within the residential/agricultural zone – pretty much most of Rochester – maybe current regulations surrounding those setbacks would already apply, and maybe the same 100-foot setback for a “major farm building” should apply to solar panels.

“They are structures,” Johnson pondered.

“Yeah they are,” said Bailey, “and they’re a major structure.”

The board agreed to pose the legal question to Town Counsel Blair Bailey, and if he did not see it that way then the board may pursue a 100-foot setback from abutting lot lines in the solar bylaw.

The board also seeks to reduce the threshold for defining “large-scale” solar farms from 250 kilowatts to 200 kilowatts.

Johnson said he would prefer to address large-scale tree clear-cutting in regards to solar projects as well, but town counsel advised not to try to make too many changes to the bylaw at one time, at the risk of Town Meeting voting down an article proposing numerous changes all at once – something that has happened in the past.

An article that was sponsored by the Board of Selectmen to extend the recreational marijuana establishment moratorium until July 2019 will be vetted during an imminent public hearing before the Planning Board, but according to Starrett, the Attorney General’s Office has declared that it would not be approving any further moratoriums beyond the December 31, 2018 date of expiration. Johnson was unsure how that would play out on the Town Meeting floor, but the board’s only concern is hosting the public hearing and making its own decision on whether to recommend, not recommend, or take no position on the article.

As Johnson pointed out, if the townspeople preferred to ban all recreational marijuana establishments in town, the article would have to be approved by Town Meeting and then a subsequent ballot question would have to pass.

Another article that will be vetted during a public hearing is an amendment to the Site Plan Review Bylaw specifying that an applicant who needs approval by both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals shall appear before the ZBA before it must seek approval from the Planning Board – a “housekeeping” item, as Johnson put it. This amendment would simply save the applicant money on engineering costs and also time, since a project could not come to fruition without ZBA approval and the Site Plan Review is a lengthy process with the Planning Board.

This matter came up during the Rochester Farms appeal, with the appellant party arguing that the bylaw implies a project should go to the Planning Board first before the ZBA.

“So this clarifies it and closes that loophole,” said Johnson.

The public hearings for all these bylaw change articles will be during the board’s May 16 meeting.

In other matters, Johnson announced that the board’s approval of the Borrego Solar Systems solar farm slated for the corner of Rounseville Road at Mendell Road was appealed and will be heard during a public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals on May 24 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall.

The next meeting of the Rochester Planning Board is scheduled for May 8 at 7:00 pm at the Rochester senior center on Dexter Lane.

Rochester Planning Board

By Jean Perry