The Marion Board of Selectmen voted on November 3 to move forward with an application for a New England Program Water Quality Management grant, although voters at the October 26 Special Town Meeting tabled the article to appropriate $50,000 to obtain the $200,000 grant to study the feasibility of expanding municipal sewer service to Aucoot Cove residents of Marion and Mattapoisett.

Voters expressed concerns about such a project, asking who would pay for the sewer expansion, why should the Town provide service to Mattapoisett, and how could the town expand sewer services with a current moratorium on new sewer tie-ins?

Even though the selectmen were denied the $50,000 at Town Meeting to contribute to the grant, Town Administrator Paul Dawson said he subsequently discovered that instead of contributing the cash, the Town could contribute in-kind services totaling $50,000. An example of in-kind services would include the pro-bono assistance of the engineering firm in applying for the grant, as well as assistance from the Buzzards Bay Coalition in preparing the grant application.

The sentiment of the selectmen was that we will never know if the expansion is possible unless we move forward with the engineering study.

The pressure was on with a Friday deadline, just three days to submit the final application. Selectmen and Dawson maintained that pursuing the study with grant funding would show a good faith effort to reduce nitrogen pollution in the harbor on behalf of the town to the EPA, which is still considering the final terms of a new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

“It is very important [to know] that we have to give something to get something,” said Selectman Jonathan Henry. “In a nutshell, I think … it’s critical for us to get this grant … and do this with a view toward reducing nitrogen in Aucoot Cove.”

Dawson posed the question on public policy: “What exactly is the will of the voters here?”

Chairman Stephen Cushing pointed out that moving forward with the grant application does not commit the Town to the sewer expansion project. Dawson commented that no one was even sure whether it was possible or not. They all agreed on one thing, however – going for this grant might reflect positively on the EPA as it makes its NPDES decision.

“We’re trying to deal with a federal agency that has a really large hammer and they’re about to hit us with it,” said Cushing. And the selectmen are looking to shield the town from taking “one hell of a hit,” as Cushing put it.

Furthermore, the motion made by Town Meeting was to table the article – not reject it, as selectmen pointed out.

Unanimously, the board voted to pursue the grant, using the value of $50,000 of in-kind services instead of the cash as the town’s contribution.

In other matters, selectmen voted to offer the harbormaster position to current Assistant Harbormaster Isaac Perry, although Henry first recommended the Town move ahead with a formal application process “to see what’s out there.”

“I have spent some time at the harbormaster’s office. I observe what goes on,” said Cushing, who said Perry could easily move into the position with competence and confidence. “I don’t see a real need to go through the whole posting and interviewing when we have a very, very strong person in … the position.”

Selectman Jody Dickerson agreed.

“I just think this person is perfect for the job,” Dickerson said. “I think, if we’ve got steak, why have hamburger?”

For the record, Dawson said, Perry has submitted a letter of interest in retiring Harbormaster Michael Cormier’s position. Cormier officially retires January 1, 2016.

Also during the meeting, selectmen accepted the recommendation of the Board of Assessors to raise the tax rate by 20 cents and to keep a single tax rate rather than split the tax rate between residential and commercial properties.

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

By Jean Perry

The Rochester Board of Selectmen voted November 2 to indefinitely postpone the November 30 Special Fall Town Meeting until pending legislation finally resolves the matter of the 2015 Annual Town Meeting’s lack of a quorum.

In light of the after-the-fact discovery of the absence of the quorum, the Town contacted the attorney general’s office and was required to file special legislation to accept the results of the Town Meeting votes; otherwise, the town meeting would have to be repeated.

Town Administrator Michael McCue said, with the legislation still under review by the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, it would be best to hold off on holding a subsequent Special Town Meeting until the previous one was officially accepted.

McCue said the move was intended to “give the townspeople the assurance that everything is settled.”

“We don’t want anything hanging over the Special … if there’s any question on the legality of the Annual,” McCue said during a follow-up interview.

McCue said he would be attending a hearing in Boston with the joint committee on November 13 to hold informal talks on the special legislation. McCue said, given the circumstances, he could not guarantee the issue of the Annual would be resolved by November 30. Furthermore, with the holiday season approaching, he doubted there would be any subsequent Special Town Meeting until further into 2016.

“I felt it made more sense to make sure that we had a successful Town Meeting that is not a question anymore.”

Selectmen voted unanimously to postpone the Special.

In other matters, the board voted to accept the donation of a roughly 100-acre parcel on Snipatuit Road from the Melink Corporation, developers of a proposed solar farm abutting the land. Concerns over liability to the Town were put to rest once the town’s insurance provider told McCue that there would be no additional costs to the town’s insurance policy.

“My concerns … centered around exposure of the Town and costs to the Town,” said McCue. “The exposure to the Town would be minimal … if not non-existent.”

Concerns about the loss in tax revenue were also dispelled, given that the loss to the Town would only be $78.

Also during the meeting, Water Commissioner Fred Underhill introduced a draft of a proposed bylaw aimed at curbing local businesses and commercial entities from the unpermitted taking of water from area natural water resources for commercial gain.

The proposed bylaw comes on the heels of a number of recent complaints that local landscaping company Yard Boss had been pumping water from Snipatuit Pond and from the Mattapoisett River off Route 6 directly into its hydro-seeding equipment truck without a permit and without any visible safeguards in place to protect the environment from cross-contamination.

Underhill said all four towns – Rochester, Marion, Mattapoisett, and Fairhaven – belonging to the Mattapoisett River Valley Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee would need to adopt a similar bylaw because they are “under the gun from DEP.…”

“And here we have commercial entities that are coming in and taking out water resources, selling it … sometimes on private property,” said Underhill. “We have some serious problems…. The DEP is forcing the water departments in the three towns … to do a lot of mitigation and it’s gonna get very expensive and it’s requiring the district to monitor the flow of the Mattapoisett River and if there isn’t enough water going down there, we’re gonna have to take strict measures to cut off people from using outside water.”

The bylaw was to appear on the November 30 Special Town Meeting but will instead be reviewed and approached at the next scheduled town meeting.

The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for November 9 at 6:30 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.

By Jean Perry