Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday continued its public hearing on the Notice of Intent application to install two stone posts at the end of the driveway at 67 Old Schoolhouse Road to September 3 after complaints from a meeting room packed with abutters.

            Mark Hughes of 63 Old Schoolhouse Road said he was looking for the exact location of that new gate because the Highway Department told him he had to have a turnaround for emergency vehicles and trash haulers at his part of the road. He and other abutters expressed concern that there be enough turnaround space for these vehicles.

            Applicant and 67 Old Schoolhouse Road resident Nicholas Araujo said his driveway was never a turnaround area. He explained he was there to reapply for an Order of Conditions issued by the commission that had expired. That application included having to remove a section of his loam and relocate it into his yard.

            Commission Cochairman Ben Bailey motioned for the continuance after noting the abutters concerns were beyond the ConCom’s jurisdiction because they are about “health and safety,” not conservation. Bailey said the abutters need the time to find an official plan that specifies the need for a turnaround configuration at that end of the street. Otherwise, the ConCom would have no reason to deny the location of the gate.

            “You have to have some document from someone that says he can’t have a gate there,” Bailey said. Hughes agreed to find that documentation.

            Next, the commission approved the Notice of Intent application to install a temporary access path to the Town of Marion’s North Well on New Bedford Road after a plea from Marion Department of Public Works engineer Meghan Davis.

            Davis explained the road to that well has deteriorated of late because of the wetlands there, but road access is needed there to fix recent electrical issues as soon as possible.

            Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior said this will be a NOI for a temporary path, while Marion creates a design and files a NOI for a permanent road. Davis said Marion would like to begin the work in August or September when the conditions there are the driest possible. The board approved the NOI with standard conditions.

            In other action, the commission approved certificates of compliance for the completion of work to construct a single-family home at 198 Burgess Avenue, a single-family dwelling at 48 Bowen’s Lane, a single-family house at 203 High Street, a single-family home at 610 North Street, a single-family dwelling at 60 Clapp Road, and to demolish an 8×10-foot shed with associated earth work and clearing of vegetation at 422 High Street. Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly explained most of these are projects finished years ago that never received their compliance certificates.

            The commission further discussed the Herring Run Restoration and Maintenance project, which intends to clear the sometimes-clogged herring-run area from Hartley Farm Pond to the start of the Rochester Memorial Day Boat Race.

            Bailey said he and member Bill Milka took a canoe out to that area of the pond and measured the depth of the mud and vegetation. The commissioners agreed the current plan should be utilizing mats made of old railroad ties to cushion the small excavation equipment that will scoop out that clogging material. Bailey said he will prepare a map based on his and Milka’s measurements.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Conservation Commission

By Michael J. DeCicco

            The Mattapoisett Finance Committee will be welcoming three new members, Aaron Goldberg, Kathy Costello and Karen Keenan, after a unanimous vote followed separate interviews of the three candidates on Tuesday night at Town Hall.

            The three come from diverse backgrounds, and the interviewing committee comprised of Town Moderator Lizanne Campbell, Select Board Chairman Jordan Collyer and Mattapoisett School Committee Chairperson Carly Lavin came away from the interviews more than satisfied.

            “We have three excellent candidates with three amazing resumes,” said Collyer, who was attending the meeting remotely.

            The only detail yet to be ironed out will be the length of term for each new member. The openings must be filled according to the remaining time on each term vacated.

            To avoid the appearance of arbitrary selection, they determined that Keenan, who interviewed second, will fill the longest open term because she was first among the three to apply for consideration. Costello, who interviewed last, was second to apply, and Goldberg, who interviewed first, will serve the shortest open term among the three.

            All of the candidates were enthused to join the Finance Committee, and Lavin began each interview by thanking the candidates for their willingness to volunteer their time and experience.

            “It certainly takes a village to run this village,” she said.

            Goldberg, who retired in January from a company he started in 2012 and also worked for tech company Ziff Davis, is looking to offer his analytical expertise when he’s not following his two children currently playing college sports.

            His background is not in accounting but as an improviser, focusing on “how do the numbers fit together,” prioritizing and finding creative solutions for difficult financial challenges.

            Goldberg brings municipal-government experience from Plainville, where he served on ad-hoc committees that helped launch the Plainridge Park Casino and an affordable-housing project. In his nine years in Mattapoisett, he has served on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals and on the Holy Ghost Grounds Re-use Committee.

            Goldberg said he likes to work with other people because different perspectives help achieve consensus.

            “I don’t think anybody holds all the keys to the kingdom,” he said. “Hopefully I’m not replicating people here.”

            He said things tend to get done when a group builds a financial approach. “The key is to know where you want to get to,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a ton to learn.”

            Keenan is the former chief financial officer of a bank. She has been a summer resident since 1997, but having recently retired she has been a full-time resident the past two years. She said this is the first time she has seen any requests for finance people. Keenan still serves on two bank boards but has never worked in a municipality.

            “It’s important to listen to the emotions,” she said. “People will tell you what they want, but it can’t be based just on that. You just keep coming back to it, and cooler heads will normally prevail.”

            Lavin also has experience in the corporate world and acknowledged the difference working in the town environment.

            “People have a lot of passion when it’s about their home,” she said. “One of the beautiful things about Mattapoisett is we have so many people who care. We can have rational thoughts prevail, that’s a very good thing.”

            Costello is well known in Mattapoisett, having worked as the administrator for the town’s Assessing Department as treasurer/collector and administrative assessor. She ran unsuccessfully for a Select Board seat in May.

            “I wanted to be part of the town again. If you feel like you can be helpful, you should,” said Costello, who has other employment but after taking a little break has time to assist the town. “I have a pretty good view what Finance Committee is all about. I’ve sat before them many times. I think it would be a welcome addition to what I do, and I have the time to do it.”

            Collyer vouched for Costello’s helpfulness in her prior role and believes that she, along with Goldberg and Keenan, will make a positive impact on the FinCom.

            Given an opportunity to ask questions, Goldberg focused on the timeline of the Finance Committee’s involvement.

            Assistant Town Administrator Katie Stephanian, who moderated the meeting, summarized the process whereby department heads make requests and, except for larger items such as capital requests, the Finance Committee tries “within reason” to work on meeting those budgetary needs.

            Lavin pointed to a challenging 2024 budget season that saw other towns make cuts, something Mattapoisett was able to avoid.

            “We understand we can’t just spend money, it has to be long-term sustainable,” said Lavin, pointing to disagreements amidst healthy discussion.

            In her short time as town moderator, Campbell has been impressed with Town Administrator Mike Lorenco’s knowledge of Mattapoisett’s financial situation and his ability to apply such information in timely situations.

            Collyer said Mattapoisett is considered by the state Department of Revenue as a model municipality from a fiscal-stability standpoint.

            “We face our challenges head-on,” he said, crediting, “sound planning and very, very open, honest conversation.”

            Goldberg also asked about grant-writing responsibilities; Collyer said that does not fall onto the Finance Committee.

Mattapoisett Finance Committee

By Mick Colageo

            Marion’s Historic District Draft Bylaw is not quite ready for public consumption, but two key votes held during Monday’s Zoom meeting of the Study Committee have positioned the document for critical next steps.

            “This is a huge step forward,” said Committee Chairman Will Tifft.

            On Monday, the committee approved changes to Sections 1-8 of the draft and approved Sections 9 through Appendices that were recommended by consultant Eric Dray at the committee’s last meeting on July 21.

            Monday’s meeting provided an opportunity to review those changes and vote to push the document forward. One of those changes would have the Sippican Historical Society document buildings to be demolished rather than requiring a homeowner to do so. Public and private signage was also addressed.

            “The mission of the committee is to study options for historic preservation in a local community and to then make a recommendation to the commonwealth and the local community as to what should or should not be done. The committee has not yet made a formal recommendation, but we have the committee on a path to recommend that the town pass a bylaw defining a historic district and defining what the requirements of that historic district might be,” explained Tifft. “We have publicly stated in a presentation going back over a year … the committee has been leaning towards a bylaw that is materially less rigorous than is commonly the case in the commonwealth. We are very much taking into account people’s concerns … what people might perceive as an overly demanding set of rules that would prevent people from making their own home their home. We’re still on that path.”

            Tifft said the committee does not wish to copy places such as Nantucket or Edgartown and demand front doors are painted a certain color or that certain types of materials and processes are necessarily followed in construction projects. The priority, he said, is to help Marion maintain a character in appearance, not necessarily turn the town into a museum.

            “We have deliberately exempted things like signs and fences and lights and window treatments,” he said. “We’re very much conscious – there’s a value in people’s individuality … they should be able to change over time.”

            Late year, the Marion Select Board approved the creation of a local Historic District Study Committee, appointed Tifft, Margie Baldwin, Jill Pittman, Dan Crete, George Morton and Stephen Swain as members. Meg Steinberg of the Marion Historical Commission has been acting as an advisor to the committee.

            Having researched required processes for the formulation of a historic district, the committee arrived at a tentative definition of the village and, on September 12, 2023, presented results of a village-wide survey to a large gathering at the Music Hall. The survey was sent to approximately 200 property owners, bringing back 80 responses. The 39% response rate was enthusiastically received as a valid representation of the village.

            Tifft told that initial gathering that the committee was created not because some people were being “frivolous” or that they were worried a big-box store would be dropped into the village but because of what the town might lose without a bylaw.

            “Some buildings were being torn down, some things were being changed in ways that were not necessarily in the character of the town,” said Tifft, clarifying that the committee had not predetermined a problem and a solution but wanted to find out what “other people in the town and particularly in the village thought about it.”

            Dray, whose services are paid by the Sippican Historical Society and partially funded via Community Preservation Act funds as awarded by the town’s Community Preservation Committee, calls Marion’s village the “most historic, intact village on the south coast.”

            Tracing the growth of the village to the effect that the 1799 Meeting House (now the General Store) had on Main Street’s modest residences, Dray showed that by 1858 the village had taken its current shape, except for Front and Cottage streets. By 1879, Front, Hiller, South and Water streets were filling in.

            It wasn’t until the early 20^th century that seasonal population began dictating jobs. With the decline of the marine-related economy and the coincidental emergence of tourism, larger cottages appeared on Water Street. The Sippican Hotel and Casino no longer stands, but it was impactful in that Marion became a destination from far-away places.

            Defining the beginning and end of Marion village is something Dray sees as self-evident in iterations as shown on period maps. The result is a geographically uneven shape but one that follows key streets developed over time. That includes Main Street clear out to Route 6 (including Sippican Elementary School), Front Street only briefly north (not including Tabor Academy’s sprawling campus), the block encompassing South Street and the full extension of Water Street as influenced by hotel-driven development.

            Dray shared visual examples of the main architectural styles represented in the village over the years. The committee does not see Marion as cookie-cutter in its architecture.

            While the survey indicated that nine of 10 village homeowners believe in the preservation of a historic district in Marion, only 71% (42% yes, 29% maybe but needing more information) said they would support the district’s review of character-defining details of historic buildings such as decorative door surrounds, as well as additions, demolitions and new constructions.

            Tifft noted at the time that a Town Meeting vote to pass a bylaw would require a two-thirds majority.

            Limiting the historic district’s review to additions, demolitions and new constructions would boost yes-vote responses to nearly 52% with another 22.41% wanting to know more.

            In the 10-plus months since that informational meeting, the committee has been working behind the scenes, using survey feedback while researching other such efforts in the region with the goal of coming up with a draft bylaw that it hopes will reflect the will of the survey participants.

            Committee member Margie Baldwin asked on Monday at what point the committee should seek Town Counsel to weigh in before taking its informational pamphlet to the Planning Board or Select Board. Tifft noted that the draft bylaw will also be reviewed by the Massachusetts Historical Society (in an advisory capacity).

            “Just looking at how slow this process has been … we should keep trying to move forward,” he said.

            In response to Baldwin’s concern over confusion among residents, Steinberg said she has written an article explaining different entities such as the Marion Historical Commission and the Sippican Historical Society but will revise her article to include material on the Historic District Study Committee.

            Dray’s latest changes are meant to go before the Planning Board in November.

            The committee has an informational pamphlet that will feature the theme, “Educate, celebrate, preserve” and identify Marion village as “a history worth preserving.”

            The committee discussed logistical matters of the pamphlet’s presentation.

            The next meeting of the Marion Historic District Study Committee is scheduled for Monday, August 19, at 4:30 pm.

Marion Historic District Study Committee

By Mick Colageo