Now that the private use of the Town-owned Rochester Country Fairground by the SouthCoast Working Dog Club has caught the attention of the Rochester Board of Selectmen, the regulations surrounding fairground use could change – and the SouthCoast Working Dog Club may have to find another place to hold its regular four-days-a-week training sessions and special events.

The topic first came up in July after a number of complaints lodged by Pine Street neighbors about barking disrupting the peace.

Back in July, the Rochester Country Fair Committee, which granted the club permission to use the fairground in exchange for in-kind upkeep of the grounds, supported the dog club’s use of the property, saying that the Town and the Country Fair benefitted from the club’s presence at the fairground.

However, on August 7, selectmen questioned whether or not allowing a private entity to use a Town-owned space for four days a week, nine hours a day was the original intent of the somewhat vague policy governing fairground use.

What began as a general discussion of concrete regulations surrounding acceptable kinds of events that could take place at the fairground turned into a question as to whether the Town should continue letting the SouthCoast Working Dog Club use the fairground as often and as regularly as it does now.

Kicking off the conversation, Selectman Greenwood Hartley suggested that perhaps allowing the dog club to use the fairground on a regular basis constituted a change of use of the property and should go through a public hearing process.

Country Fair Committee member Kelly Morgado pointed out that, although review of fairground regulations was up for discussion, the committee was not informed nor was it invited to attend the meeting.

As the conversation continued, Co-Chairman of the Country Fair Committee Dave Souza expressed frustration about the seemingly increasing complexity of fairground use.

Souza lauded the board’s draft of fairground use regulations; however, he said he had hoped the Country Fair Committee could be involved in the development of the regulations. Souza’s tone shifted as he explained how the country fair has become “nothing but a money-costing thing out of everyone’s pockets.”

All of this talk about regulations and fairground use, said Souza, “…is just taking the wind out of our sail.”

“Everything is just getting so hard to do. Something so simple … that’s become hard,” said Souza. “I’m sorry that we can’t keep them all happy,” Souza continued, alluding to neighbors complaining about the dog barking. “It’s just time for the Town to say either do it or don’t, because we’ve just lost the drive. When it becomes too much grief, your love for doing it goes away pretty fast.”

Souza said he was glad the selectmen stepped up to address the matter, “because it does take a lot of heat off of us.”

The Board of Selectmen voted to form a committee of five to study fairground use that would consist of the town administrator, a selectman, town counsel, a Country Fair Committee member, and a Pine Street neighbor not on the Country Fair Committee.

Once a representative from the SouthCoast Working Dog Club said the club has permission from the Parks Committee to use other properties in town, Selectman Naida Parker asked if it was possible to spread out the dog club’s activities over a number of properties so that it wasn’t all concentrated at the fairground.

As for allowing one group to use the Town property so regularly, Hartley said, “It’s not at all what was intended from the beginning.”

“This brought up a lot of issues that we’re trying to decipher,” said Board of Selectmen Chairman Brad Morse. “It kind of developed its own storminess here, especially with the neighborhood.”

Parker added, “I think we also need to do some serious thinking … and come up with something reasonable.” She said the dog club should look to other places to hold larger events such as two-day agility training shows. “I don’t think the neighborhood really wants to see something like this at this point.”

Hartley suggested postponing the discussion until the next meeting to allow the board to ponder the matter. He later said, “I am not in favor of any repetitive use of a non-town organization day after day … week after week. I think it’s a bad precedent to set.”

Morse added, “The intent of the Town property is not use the property nine hours a day four days a week by a [private] group.”

The matter was tabled until August 21.

The Lions Club and the Fire Department did, however, receive permission to host a “Touch-a-Truck” fundraising event at the fairground on October 23. The event is sponsored by the Lions Club and will benefit the Fire Department.

“[It’s a] use of a Town property by the Town, for the Town,” said Morse.

Souza said this was the perfect example of how to use the fairground.

The selectmen also set the Fall Special Town Meeting for Monday, October 23, at 7:00 pm at Rochester Memorial School.

The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for August 21 at 7:00 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.

Rochester Board of Selectmen

By Jean Perry

During the August 7 meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board, the agenda was extremely lean. With no hearings or planned public discourse of any kind, the board members focused their attention on bylaw updates and changes that have been long in the making.

But after putting those aside and inquiring if there was any other business, Chairman Tom Tucker quickly became frustrated – the topic was Brandt Point Village.

Once again, Tucker asked Planning Administrator Mary Crain if the current development team had responded to the board’s request to meet with them vis-à-vis to discuss the list of incomplete projects at the large subdivision and to respond to why things weren’t moving along as agreed many months prior. “They still have ignored our request,” he said.

“This has been going on since 2008,” said Tucker, appearing to be addressing the board’s newest member Janice Robbins. “We’ve asked for a cease and desist…[and] we’ve been refused.” He said the Town did not have an appetite to shutdown construction in order to gain compliance.

The Planning Board, over the nearly ten years since the subdivision was permitted, has seen several development teams come and go.

Robbins asked if an agreement had been signed for certain activities at the site with the latest team, Marc Marcus and Armand Cotelleso of Omega Financial. Tucker responded ‘No,’ just verbal confirmation that specific things would be completed by last January 2017. Robbins remarked after the date on the current surety agreement was determined, January 2018, that “Technically, they are not out of compliance.”

It was explained to Robbins that, although legal documents governing the subdivision indicate that all Phase 1 items such as sidewalks, septic certifications, mail kiosk, stormwater management systems, and roadways must be up to independent peer review standards and were to have been completed by January 2017, it was basically a verbal contingency placed on the acceptance of their construction surety.

Tucker felt that since the verbal agreement had been written down and videotaping of that agreement archived, that was sufficient to get work at the site completed.

Tucker also believed that since occupancy permits were being withheld on Phase 2 pending completion of Phase 1 “they would get things done.” Now the Planning Board was again faced with how to gain Phase 1 compliance.

Tucker asked Crain to contact the Town’s legal counsel to ascertain what they could do at this juncture. Crain responded that counsel had said they could re-open the public hearing process and rescind the subdivision permit.

Robbins wondered aloud what would happen if that were to occur. Tucker said, “They either walk away or finish.”

Gail Carlson, also a new member of the board and resident of the beleaguered subdivision, added that gaining cooperation from other board members to collectively come up with a strategy that might assist in gaining cooperation from Marcus and Cotelleso was needed.

Crain and Tucker noted there had been a lack of response from the Conservation Commission and Board of Health when the Planning Board had previously reached out for assistance.

Tucker asked Crain to contact Town Administrator Michael Gagne, town counsel, Field Engineering (the Town’s peer review consultants), the Conservation Commission, and the Board of Health with an invitation to attend the next meeting of the Planning Board.

Earlier in the evening as Planning Board members reviewed the bylaw governing signs, it became apparent that a draft executed by Crain several years ago when she was a Planning Board member might not be robust enough when contrasted against the sign bylaw the Town of Rochester composed.

Crain had been employed by Rochester as the town planner when that document was written and accepted by the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

Tucker asked Crain to re-visit Mattapoisett’s draft, incorporating certain line items from the Rochester document and returning to the next meeting with a more fully fleshed out draft for their review.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for August 21 at 7:00 pm in the town hall conference room.

By Marilou Newell