The Marion Conservation Commission on December 14 gave the green light to the Marion portion of the bike path, giving preliminary approval by accepting the wetlands delineation lines.

The bike path, which will traverse the Mattapoisett town line, across Route 105, over to Washburn Park and up to Point Road still has a winding path ahead of it, but with this first task now checked off the list, further progress can now ensue.

John Rockwell, chairman of the Marion Pathway Committee, wrapped up his site visit with the commission that took place over the course of the prior weekend, where Rockwell and some commission members walked the areas from the Washburn Park to Route 105 on Saturday, then Route 105 to Mattapoisett on Sunday.

“There’s a lot of wetlands,” said commission member Norm Hills, adding that only the right of way was flagged in some areas while there were still some wetlands inside the area. “There’s plenty of wetlands there, that’s the bottom line.”

Regarding two particular places where stormwater runoff cuts through the path to reach the lower-lying wetlands, Hills said, “This will have to be addressed as part of the effort when they do the work.”

Hills suggested a culvert of some sort.

“There’s a whole drainage problem,” said Rockwell, “So that will be fixed, and we found the two spots.”

Hills said there are no problems with the wetlands lines, per se, but the problem comes when the workers start within those two problem spots.

Rockwell said that once the project reaches the 25 percent progress benchmark with the state agencies, there would be a public meeting for abutters and neighbors to join the conversation.

Owner of some abutting property near Point Road, Sherman Briggs, said his only concern was a line of trees he wanted to stay put.

“It took 40-something years in order to grow those trees and block the highway so it’s kind of a concern of mine,” Briggs said.

The commission closed the hearing and approved the wetlands lines as presented.

The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for January 11 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry

The Old Rochester Regional High School administration, along with the Rochester and Mattapoisett Police Departments, had been investigating a reported potential threat made towards the student body at the high school, and Principal Mike Devoll followed up the report on December 9 with an email message to parents.

In the December 9 letter, Devoll explained that a student had reported to the administration that an alleged threat had been made, which the school promptly looked into. An investigation turned up nothing substantial, however.

“The investigation revealed that there was no threat made towards anyone at ORRHS, there was no ‘hit list’ as was rumored by many students, and there was no intent to harm anyone on the ORRHS campus,” stated Devoll.

Police determined that the students were safe and would continue to remain safe, Devoll added.

Then ten days later, on December 19, Devoll issued another email to parents to further put their increasing fears and speculation to rest.

Devoll wrote, “From that initial report, a number of rumors have spread around the communities that have all gone unfounded.”

Devoll said administration, along with police, followed-up on all rumors and allegations and found nothing that substantiated any alleged threats.

In the meantime, the school has fielded a number of calls over the last week from parents with concerns over rumors their children had been telling them, Devoll said. School staff had also been meeting with students individually, debriefing them on the matter in order to address student concerns as well.

“We will continue to speak to anyone that has concerns or has reports that warrant investigating,” said Devoll.