Spring Street, formerly known as Phase 4 of Marion’s Village Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan, was bumped up to be the next phase the town will tackle, putting Spring Street ahead of Main Street, formerly the very next phase of the plan.

Jennifer Francis, on behalf of the Planning Board’s Transportation and Circulation Task Force, asked the Marion Board of Selectmen on April 3 to consider revising the scheduled order of the village infrastructure plan in order to put to good use some grant money Francis says the Planning Board intends to pursue stemming from that board’s progress towards acceptance into the MassDOT Highway’s Complete Streets Funding Program.

With up to $400,000 in grant money, the plan for Spring Street is to install a “multi-use” path with a section of road carved out from the wider road of Spring Street, connecting Tabor Academy with Sippican School and the library, and eventually possibly all the way to the bike path slated for the other side of Route 6.

“There’s room to have a multi-use path,” said Francis, adding that it wouldn’t interfere with traffic or with parking. “[There are] a number of benefits that would make this project, I think, really attractive for the town.”

Francis proposed combining the Spring Street project with the Town’s existing infrastructure plan for the village, which could include further funding of up to $1 million at some point when the town is once again eligible for that particular grant after having received it three years ago.

“In addition to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) related opportunities, we think that we can put a lot of money from a lot of different sources together to make this project work,” Francis said. “We think this project would benefit pretty much the entire town…. People would really enjoy it.”

Francis said this would be the first major transportation project resulting from the Town’s new Master Plan.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Jody Dickerson voiced some concern over further putting off Main Street, but he understood that the timing of the proposal would make sense.

Both selectmen approved the request.

In other matters, Town Administrator Paul Dawson said the Town would be submitting a proposal for a grant for $191,650 to establish a stormwater monitoring program, a regional effort with other area towns in the Buzzards Bay region.

The Town would have to locate all stormwater outfalls into the bay and conduct sampling tests to monitor water quality.

“We think we have a pretty comprehensive and good application here, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be invited into the next step,” Dawson said.

Dawson also reported that the FY19 budget would have to be adjusted to accommodate a $41,400 shortfall in the estimated payment on a new fire truck the Town purchased three years ago.

Dawson said the initial estimate in the budget was $31,000, but just that afternoon the real number came in: $75,500.

Dawson recommended simply adjusting the budget since the loan was a debt exclusion. Spreading the difference out another ten years to cover the discrepancy was less feasible than altering the budget to absorb the cost.

“It’s a simple fix,” Dawson said, before the selectmen voted to approve his request.

Also during the meeting, resident Sherman Briggs asked Dawson and the selectmen about construction debris that over time was allegedly illegally dumped at the transfer station on Benson Brook Road, a topic that had come up in past Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District committee meetings and brought up this night during Dawson’s CMWRRDD update.

Briggs asked who owned that particular part of Benson Brook, and Dawson confirmed that it was the Town of Marion. Briggs then asked how much it would take to clean up the debris, and Dawson said he did not yet know.

“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface to that,” Dawson stated.

When Dawson again referred to the dumping as “illegal dumping,” Briggs argued that the dumping was not illegal, but allowed by the Town. Briggs said all the debris dumped at that site originated from various Town projects, including the Converse Road project and various water and sewer projects over ten years.

“That’s where it all came from,” said Briggs, “and those spoils were up to the contractor to own and dispose of,” Briggs continued. “We didn’t make a very good decision to take those spoils … and now take thousands of dollars to clean it up.”

Briggs suggested some transparency, adding, “The taxpayers are gonna have to pay for that. That’s transparency.”

In a follow-up after the meeting, Briggs claimed that the Town had actually received an estimate on the cost to clean up the contractor waste – for $115,000 – despite Dawson’s denial. Briggs asserted that contractors were “allowed” to dump the waste there, even though the waste disposal was part of the project bid.

During the meeting Briggs also asked the selectmen, who are also the Water Commissioners, what was happening with the Town’s water at Perry Hill. Dickerson said he wasn’t aware of any issues, and Briggs suggested the board look into any rumors about issues with the water and then bring it back in two weeks for discussion.

The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is scheduled for April 17 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.

Marion Board of Selectmen

By Jean Perry

The Rochester Memorial School budget for fiscal year 2019 was approved during the March 29 meeting of the Rochester School Committee after a brief presentation by Superintendent Doug White and Business Administrator Patrick Spencer.

The budget was up this year by $180,000, or 2.96%, totaling $6,256,108.

“I think this budget provides the support necessary to continue the wonderful education for our students in Rochester,” said White. “I think as you go through this, you will see we’ve made some significant gains … to provide that quality education to our students.”

The budget, said White, supports the school’s developing technology needs, as well as evolving security needs, while maintaining optimum class sizes.

Driving the budget this year are various increases and decreases in different areas of the budget in staffing, regular education, and special education.

Staffing will see an $86,000 increase with contractual obligations, and some staff has been shifted and realigned according to student needs.

Also, said White, “Our grants for kindergarten are not as hefty as they once were, so we need to pick up some of those costs within our local budgets,” to the tune of a $66,000 increase.

“We’ve done a great job of offsetting some of the costs,” said White, not only in decreased utility costs, but also through the rental of space to outside entities. Furthermore, White said outsourcing custodial services will also save the district an additional $35,000.

Overall, by shifting staff within the school, the district was able to cut back $124,000.

Special education increased by $47,000 and regular education by $132,725.

The RMS student population has hovered between 450 and 475 students over the past several years with the exception of one year when student population reached 515. As of now, it stands at 507.

“We see a trend down a little bit, but we also know there’s growth in town and those numbers may continue to increase … which is the trend around the state,” White said.

The next meeting of the Rochester School Committee is scheduled for May 10 at 6:30 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.

Rochester School Committee

By Jean Perry

On April 3, the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen along with Town Administrator Michael Gagne and Mattapoisett Fire Chief Andrew Murray sat around the conference room table ready to discuss realities and pressing needs of the town’s fire station.

Armed with a newly released Employee Safety for Fire Departments document dated March 23 from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development’s Department of Labor Standards, the document listed the minimum regulations fire departments in the state needed to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards and Massachusetts General Law. It was no surprise to anyone sitting at the table that Mattapoisett’s fire station wasn’t meeting the standards in many significant ways.

Murray pointed out the major areas that he had previously pointed to during Finance Committee and Capital Planning Committee meetings as areas of critical concern.

Under the category “Facility Safety,” Murray said the current building failed all three line items: electrical wiring; stairways, railings and floor maintenance; and ventilation for truck exhaust.

Murray said that smaller line items such as a ‘sharps’ container would be addressed immediately, but more critical matters such as decontamination procedures for gear and staff were beyond the scope of what the current structure could accommodate – there simply isn’t room.

Again, Murray said that with diesel fumes infecting the apparatus floor where the gear is kept, personal protection equipment couldn’t be adequately cleaned. He said keeping equipment clean was very difficult as well due to carcinogenic particulates in the atmosphere.

Murray also said, with the lack of sufficient bathroom facilities (there is one toilet to serve the needs of the entire department), and no shower rooms, personnel were taking “toxins home” after every call. And regarding female firefighters, there were no designated facilities of any type.

Murray said that in February, OSHA began an on-site inspection and had the power to levy fines for violations. He said first offenders would receive a written warning and 30 days to comply, but that clearly the Mattapoisett fire station needed immediate attention. He said a meeting is scheduled for April 11 to begin the discussion with the OSHA inspectors as to how Mattapoisett could comply.

Gagne presented an updated schedule of retiring debt service to the give selectmen some insight into how the town might go about financing a new fire station that may have estimated costs around $7 million. He said that by using free cash in combination with retiring debt, some money could be earmarked without going over the 2.5% levy.

But Gagne said that in conversations he has had with town officials in Carver, more creative financial planning might be worthy of consideration.

In Carver, Gagne said, a decision to put new growth revenue aside to pay for their new fire station and school had allowed those projects to become a reality.

“I think that’s an interesting concept,” he said, adding that once the second Crystal Spring solar array is completed, about $70,000 per year of new revenue would be secured. “I would recommend we set up the debt stabilization fund and put that new growth in there.” He said, in this way, the fire station might be funded partly from new growth and partly from retiring debt, calling it “a nice blend.”

Board of Selectmen Chairman Paul Silva asked about updated construction estimates, saying figures that were advanced years ago were not adequate to determine how much money would be needed. “Until we know what a new fire station will cost, we’re just talking,” he said.

Murray said he had hoped to include the talents of students from surrounding vocational schools as well as work-release programs available through the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department for non-violent offenders. Such skills as painting, landscaping, and carpentry from these sources might help to keep overall construction costs down, he believed.

Silva said, “Our priority is to drill down.”

Of the construction of a new fire station, Silva said, “I think it’s important not to do all the work at once. You need the right footprint … but not all the bells and whistles.” He said that the previous attempt to gain voters’ agreement on a new fire station had been met with resistance and ultimately caused the project to go down in flames on the Town Meeting floor. “We learned our lesson,” said Silva.

Selectman Jordan Collyer, who is also a senior member of the Fire Department, said, “I don’t want to see us get stuck in analysis paralysis.… We have to meet a certain need. We need to find a balance to get the job done.” He said the current building was “atrocious” and thought the bid should include a turnkey building versus a shell. He said, “I know we want to use retiring debt, but we are going to have to borrow something – the cost of construction isn’t going down.”

Silva said, “The bottom line is … we are running out of time.”

The No. 1 one issue for Gagne was to drill down on the numbers and ask Town Meeting during the May session to take $260,000 from free cash to do a study of both the fire station and the Town Hall building.

Regarding the Town Hall building, Gagne said it would be interesting and relevant to get solid demographic numbers on the town’s population in light of fewer student enrollments.

“My recommendation is we take a harder, more in-depth look at school capacity, merging classes into one building and then utilizing the space for Town Hall departments and the Council on Aging before we look at new construction,” Gagne said.

Returning to the fire station issue, Silva asked that Murray prepare a presentation for the May Town Meeting to bring voters into the conversation.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen is scheduled for April 24 at 6:45 pm at the Town Hall.

Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen

By Marilou Newell