During the March 7 meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board, members signed covenant modifications to The Bay Club’s recent trash agreement with the Town. Clearing this hurdle allows the subdivision association to seek inclusion in public trash collection from the Board of Health.

In recent months, the Planning Board has been under pressure from at least two other residential associations to make modifications to their covenants with the Town – modifications that would allow them to request from the Board of Health trash collection as part of the Town’s contract with ABC Disposal.

Prior to the changes, these residential covenants routinely included text excluding them from the town’s trash collection contract, which placed the financial burden of trash collection squarely on the residents living in such developments.

The Village at Mattapoisett located off Route 6 was the first to receive an addendum to their covenant. Daniel de Luz, an outspoken proponent and resident of the complex, was successful in his bid to make covenant changes when he found that the Town’s contract with the disposal service provider included the language “that all residents shall,” making the subdivision entitled to trash collection.

After consulting with town counsel, the Planning Board, with the assistance of member Nathan Ketchel, drafted language that would clear the way for private subdivisions to approach the Board of Health seeking trash collection inclusion.

Next came Brandt Point Village, a single-family housing subdivision located off Brandt Island Road requesting the same modification. That request eventually received approval as well. Now it was The Bay Club’s turn.

On this night, Planning Board Chairman Tom Tucker noted again, as he had in previous meetings, that the Planning Board was not approving trash collection per se, but instead simply making language changes that allowed the residential associations to approach the Board of Health for approval.

Ketchel’s verbiage, as accepted by the Planning Board and vetted by town counsel, includes text specifying that the addendums would be voided if trash collection costs increased by adding these residential associations to the Town’s disposal contract.

During the informal discussion segment of the evening’s agenda, Joseph Furtado, owner and developer of the Brandt Point Village subdivision, accompanied by attorney Jack McGreen, requested the board’s consideration of a tri-party agreement that would allow a cash surety on Phase 2 of the development.

Furtado has been a principal in the development for about a year, but found it difficult to move the project forward into Phase 2 due to incompletion of Phase 1 by the previous developer.

Such items as unsatisfactory roadways, problems with stormwater management systems, and conservation issues have plagued both the town and the residents prior to Furtado’s involvement with the project. For his part, Furtado had during previous hearings with the Planning Board given his word that all Phase 1 items would be satisfied before Phase 2 would begin.

And it was his word that carried weight with Tucker on March 7.

“Mr. Furtado has given us his word and we are going to get a financial agreement,” Tucker said.

The tri-party financial arrangement, as explained by Planning Board member John Mathieu, ”allows the lender to hold construction funds which the town can access if the work isn’t done.” This new financial agreement with the town and the lender will allow Phase 2 to begin now.

Furtado will return to the Planning Board on March 21 for a public hearing and to complete the new surety agreement.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for March 21 at 7:00 pm in the Mattapoisett Town Hall conference room.

By Marilou Newell

During the March 3 meeting of the Rochester School Committee, Chairman Tina Rood told members, “The piece about the override is not positive to everyone….”

Rood had recently attended the Old Rochester Regional school district budget meeting on February 29. That summit meeting included finance committee members and administrators from the Tri-Town. The possibility of a proposition 2½ override to offset the budget had been suggested by school committee members; however, it was not warmly received by the towns, she said.

“We only have property,” Rood said in explaining how Rochester supports the schools’ budgets, primarily through the assessment of real estate taxes. “It may be time to look at that override in addressing costs in a long term way and that our selectmen and administrator look at that for our schools,” she continued. “It’s time to consider what is right for our schools,” she told the school committee members.

Superintendent Douglas White added, “The ability to raise funds are slim.”

White said the towns were pushing the ORR district for OPEB (other post-employment benefits) planning. The looming financial specter of increasing post-employment commitment for those who have and will be retiring from the school system now stands at $15 million, White told the committee. “But we have little or no ability to fund that,” he added.

Business Administrator Patrick Spencer said, “Five or ten years down the road these costs will come home to roost … but we have no feasible way to fund them.”

White said the FY17 ORR operating budget sits at $17.5 million, a 2.9 percent increase.

Rochester’s local school budget stands at $5.9 million, Spencer said, a 2.4 percent increase.

Cut from the FY17 proposed budget is a health teacher, coupled with various cost-cutting strategies in the operating budget. Spencer also noted that the current $200,000 Chapter 70 surplus would be reduced to $70,000 in 2017.

Regarding the proposed 2017 school calendar, committee member Sharon Hartley stood firm in her resolve that half day scheduling was inefficient in both teaching students and giving teachers adequate time for training programs.

“Education suffers and full days are better for staff development,” she said.

The next meeting of the Rochester School Committee is scheduled for April 7 at 6:30 pm in the Rochester Town Hall meeting room during which the Rochester Memorial School budget will be vetted.

By Marilou Newell