It was all business at the monthly meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee on July 30 as the group prepared for upcoming sessions with local contractors and residents in preparation for the Fall Town Meeting.

The committee is placing an article on the warrant proposing the Town adopt the “Stretch Energy Code,” a bylaw “for the purpose of regulating the design and construction of buildings for effective use of energy … [and] provide a more energy efficient alternative to the Base Energy Code.”

The bylaw, which a Town Meeting must adopt and is a requirement for Green Community designation, would apply to new residential constructions and commercial buildings.

Despite not having received comments back from town counsel on the document, the committee approved, in large part, a draft crafted from the Town of Dighton’s, with minor changes specific to Marion. That language has already passed muster with the Attorney General.

The region’s Green Communities Coordinator Seth Pickering is assisting the committee in tweaking the language of the bylaw as well as with public outreach to help the residents and contractors understand the bylaw’s individual elements. The committee, with Pickering, will be hosting two informational meetings to introduce the bylaw to the public. The first one for Marion Town Officials and construction contractors on Monday, August 27, and a second session for the general public on Monday, September 24. Both meetings will be held at the Marion Music Hall.

In other business, someone contacted Chairman David Pierce expressing an interest in developing a solar array on the town landfill, referred to as the “Benson Brook Solar Array.”

Committee member Jennifer Francis reported that in order to entertain a new proposal, the Town would need to issue a new Request for Proposals to obtain information on developers’ interest in the project. The committee must also ask the town administrator to submit a pre-application to Eversource.

The committee will ascertain whether it is possible to connect to the grid from the location at the landfill.

Members Bill Saltonstall and Christian Ingerslev are working with the Mass Energy Insight Program, a web-based program designed to help towns “understand their energy use and reduce their carbon footprint.”

Preliminary numbers indicate that Sippican School comprises 14 percent of the Town’s energy use, while the pumping stations, including the landfill, use 22 percent. The Town’s energy is powered 10 percent by oil, 44 percent by natural gas, and 46 by electricity.

The LED streetlight program is moving forward as the Town awaits an estimate from Eversource for the cost to purchase the old existing streetlights, expected at around $10,000.

Francis reported that the “big money” will be in purchasing the new LED lights, but that the overall savings will more than make up for that. Saltonstall noted that the purchase may be funded with the money generated by the First Generation Wind project, which has made the town roughly $167,000 in two years.

The Town is also looking into getting some new electric car charging stations and will need to determine their locations and the manufacturer. Ingerslev observed that while on a recent visit to the harbor, there were no signs or any indicators of the two charging stations located there; therefore, there were regular cars parked in the spots designated for the electric cars.

Marion Facilities Director Shaun Cormier, who attended the meeting, indicated that after installing the charging stations, “[he’s] getting a lot of pushback from the people who run the wharf,” he explained, to not install signs or paint the parking spots to indicate restricted parking. Saltonstall noted that parking is at a premium at the harbor, but having the charging stations there “doesn’t make much sense if we are not willing to designate the space to electric [vehicles].”

Cormier suggested the committee make a formal request to the town administrator for the signs and line painting.

While the committee considered moving the charging stations to a new and more convenient location, depending on the access to power, Pierce concluded that the committee should move incrementally on the ideas and first facilitate getting signs installed.

“We are here to help out!” Pierce declared.

The next meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee is scheduled for August 27 at 7:00 pm in the Marion Music Hall.

Marion Energy Management Committee

By Sarah French Storer

Some members of the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District Committee were perplexed on July 25 when Wareham CMWRRDD Committee member Gary Buckminster suggested the district, as it is structured now, should cease to exist.

“I personally feel that the CMW should be no longer,” Buckminster said, raising eyebrows just as the committee had received six applications for the executive director position.

Marion Town Administrator Paul Dawson was leading the discussion on how personnel costs were down after a longtime district employee retired and part-time/over-time municipal workers had been filling in the gaps, and committee members were considering what was best for the district – consolidating, selling off property, cutting its losses, “biting the bullet now,” as Dawson put it. That’s when Buckminster suggested they trash the district as they know it.

“I think that it should be a municipally-run program,” Buckminster said. Let the three towns hire their own employee to run their portion of a differently structured “district” and hire a private hauler to collect the trash.

The “sticker price of the future,” said Buckminster, is a high one. “[It’s best] not to try to maintain a program that’s going to cost a lot of money. … I’d hate to see us go through all this effort of hiring someone. … It should be a town-run organization and let it be a cooperative effort between the three towns.”

That was the first he’d heard the committee mention dissolving, Dawson said. “It’s certainly not the road we’ve been travelling, not to say we couldn’t.”

There is still a contract, Dawson pointed out, but he was just as concerned about political fallout of even the mention of dissolving the district.

“There are going to be political issues here,” said Dawson. “Ironically, I think it’s going to be more difficult in the Towns of Carver and Wareham than it will be in Marion, because Marion still has its own curbside collection.”

Carver and Wareham do not provide curbside trash collection, Dawson said, adding that although no study has been done on usage of the Marion and Rochester facilities, he estimates that at least half the people who utilize the Marion transfer station are from those two towns because they do not want to pay a private hauler.

“It’s going to be those folks – the leaders of those communities – that are going to be hearing from them, loud and clear,” said Dawson.

And with six applicants to fill the executive director position left vacant after Ray Pickles was fired in January, Dawson said the sudden talk of a change in direction surprised him.

District Committee Chairman Steve Cushing said he feared the blowback of the mere mention of dissolving. And after the closure of the Marion compost pile, as Dawson pointed out, Marion has had its own share of blowback.

“If we change total direction and start to talk about eliminating … perhaps all of the other services, … politically it’s going to be a mess,” said Dawson.

For Buckminster, he would prefer to see operations run by municipal workers, not district workers, he reiterated.

Currently, under its contract with SEMASS, the district receives 100 percent reimbursement for operations costs, including employee pay. Marion Director of Finances Judy Mooney told the committee, “I don’t know how it would work if you dissolve – you won’t get the reimbursements anymore.”

This district is going to carry forward,” said Dawson, at least for now. “It may look totally different, and maybe it needs to look totally different,” which is what Dawson said he thought was going to be determined once a new executive director was on board to help determine the district’s future. “It’s gonna take an executive director to … sort through it.”

“[The district] may drop off at the end of 2020,” suggested Cushing, “but we need somebody to grab the reigns here and figure out over the next two years.”

The committee acknowledged that Pickles made some unilateral decisions that would drastically alter the future of the district, which would include Pickles’ unauthorized decision to decline another contract with SEMASS once the current one expires in 2020. Changing the district – the contract, town assessments, appropriations, the absorption of costs, budgets – “All of that takes some time,” said Dawson.

Cushing conceded that he wasn’t sure which direction to go in.

“The ins and outs of refuse disposal – I’m at a loss,” said Cushing. “I only know what I’m doing to a degree and that’s it.”

The committee decided to continue the process of selecting a new executive director, a position only guaranteed for a roughly two-year contract. The committee agreed to allow the three town administrators to review the six applicants and present a set of finalists to the committee.

In other matters, the district will not be holding a hazardous waste disposal day until at least next year.

The next meeting of the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District is scheduled for August 22 at 5:00 pm at the Marion Police Station, but the committee may schedule a meeting before then if something arises.

Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District

By Jean Perry

The Marion Conservation Commission on July 25 got a preview of Shea Doonan’s latest plan for another aquaculture farm in Marion waters, ahead of the Board of Selectmen’s aquaculture hearing that following Tuesday.

The commission couldnot issue a determination that night for Doonan’s Notice of Intent, not without comments from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, but they did get the gist of the plan along with details pertinent to the commission’s jurisdiction.

Doonan wants to establish an aquaculture farm off Mitton’s Flats spanning 21,609 square feet – 100 feet by 230 feet in size.

The project would include a series of buoys with a number of floating bags and cages attached that would rise and fall with the tides, with low tide averaging around 2.5 feet in depth, according to Doonan.

“The lowest tide I’ve ever seen … probably has two-and-a-half feet,” said Doonan, but the tide changes and the total he gave would be the average, give or take some inches.

Doonan said there are no moorings in the area he has slated for the aquaculture farm, which is nearby the opening of Hammetts Cove.

Commission member Cynthia Callow asked if all abutters concerned had been notified, to which Doonan said they had – perhaps not for the Conservation Commission public hearing; however, he said that in general abutters have been told of the project.

“They came and gave their arguments,” Doonan said.

Abutters had been notified of the Board of Selectmen hearing on July 31, Doonan said.

According to Doonan, although maps had shown the presence of eelgrass at the proposed site, a state agency arrived to perform a physical inspection of the site, ultimately finding no eelgrass inside the affected area. Chairman Jeffrey Doubrava read the letter from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries confirming that no eelgrass was spotted during the in-water survey.

Doonan’s NOI hearing was continued until August 8.

Also during the meeting, the commission approved the Notice of Intent for Derek Maksy, 7 Bournehurst Road, to add an in-ground pool next to the house, remove a cesspool and install a septic system, a circular driveway, garage, and clear a 12-foot cart way to access a picnic area. The commission’s only concern was accidental clear-cutting by a third party, so the commission issued special conditions to the Order of Conditions: the placement of boulders to mark the boundary of the 15-foot no-touch zone, and to notify the commission once erosion control implements have been installed and before lot-clearing work begins.

The public hearing for the NOI for the Dexter Beach Association was continued until August 8 to allow for the submission of further information. The association is looking to perform some beach nourishment by adding 100 cubic yards of sand above the mean high waterline, as well as east and west of the beach area. The association’s representative said storms cause sand to be washed away, leaving behind craters and extensive erosion.

The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for August 8 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Music Hall.

Marion Conservation Commission

By Jean Perry