Rochester Country Fair Board of Directors Co-Chairman Dave Souza lauded the Rochester Fire Department for their accommodation and generosity with resources and manpower during the country fair this year, but expressed disappointment when explaining that police expenses are by far one of the most significant expenditures of the yearly event.

Everything went smoothly during this year’s country fair, Souza told the Rochester Board of Selectmen on October 7, although the heat on Saturday and Sunday during the fair kept many people from coming out, which cut into the fair’s revenue to cover costs of the fair.

“My only thing with the whole fair … is the cost of the fair is getting more and more expensive,” Souza said, with the biggest expenses being police and fire. “I don’t want to fight with police and fire. Fire does awesome for [the fair].”

Souza said the Fire Department charges about half for its support services. “We get a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff,” said Souza. But with the cost for police reinforcement, said Souza, the country fair does not get a break.

“Police are different,” said Souza, acknowledging that with the police “it’s a whole different union system.”

“I just wish that we could get that [cost] down and help a bit,” said Souza. “We’re not out here on [Route] 105 anymore. We’re not fighting highways.…”

When he takes his son to play soccer on weekends, Souza said, “Watch the amount of cars…. Just as many cars go out,” said Souza, but no police presence is required. “We (the country fair) have to have four or five.”

Board of Selectmen Chairman Richard Nunes said the Rochester Road Race is in the same pickle.

“I’m not trying to stir up trouble,” Souza said. “The fair is a very tough thing to run with the money we have…. “Julie [Koczera] and I are very tired … and as the fair continues to grow, you get more tired.”

Nunes questioned whether the parking area of the fairgrounds could somehow double as a ball field to help generate revenue for the country fair, but Souza rejected the idea.

“You throw that idea at us, I’ll walk away tomorrow,” replied Souza. “…But if you want to do it go ahead and do it…. I don’t want any part of it.” He continued, “Where would it benefit the fair? Where are you gonna park everyone?”

“And then, when you get the grass all nice and pretty, you want people to come and drive their cars on it?” added Julie Koczera, co-chairman of the Rochester Country Fair Board of Directors.

And, unfortunately, our whole society revolves around insurance, as Souza put it.

“That’s what’s killing us,” he said.

There will be no parade for next year’s country fair, but the group is working on expanded kids’ activities and adding more tractor pulls and wrestling events.

“As much as I’d like to see [the parade], I can’t justify the cost,” said Koczera. It costs roughly $800 in mainly police details just for the parade.

The country fair spent about $52,000 this year.

The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for October 19 at 6:30 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.

By Jean Perry

Despite its creation of a further non-conformance, the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals was poised to approve the Special Permit for Dale Allison of 359 Delano Road on October 8 when Allison presented an altered plan that increased the non-conformance slightly less than the previous plan and satisfied a neighbor’s concern that the new house to be constructed would be too close to his property.

“Every time you reduce a non-conforming setback it’s a good thing,” said ZBA Chairman Eric Pierce. “So that’s an improvement.”

Allison plans to raze the existing small cottage to build a two-story dwelling, to which several neighbors expressed support during the last meeting of the ZBA.

Allison told the board that his abutting neighbor, whom he referred to as Lucky Evans, expressed his concern at the September 24 meeting that, although the plan was a nice addition to the neighborhood, it encroached structures on his property too much for his comfort. Allison altered the plan to slide the proposed house five feet away from the lot line, the only change to the plan.

“I think that’s a very positive change,” said Pierce. “I’m feeling positively toward this project.”

The board granted the Special Permit.

Also during the meeting, the board granted a Special Permit to Susan Titus of 36 South Street to remove an existing screened-in porch to construct a new 13-foot by 13-foot four-season room.

Titus had submitted two letters of support from neighbors who said the new addition would improve the neighborhood.

“It seems straightforward to me,” said Pierce.

The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled for October 22 at 7:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry

Sippican School students scored lower than expected on the new PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) online exam, Superintendent of Schools Doug White told the Marion School Committee on October 7, adding that the Massachusetts Teachers Association is lobbying for a three-year moratorium on all standardized testing.

The low scores on the PARCC exam – a newly employed testing system that is part of the Massachusetts Common Core objectives – seemed to surprise the School Committee members. White assured them that lower scores were not completely unanticipated, since the testing format was new to the students.

White said the developers of the PARCC testing system and schools using the product were aware of scoring inconsistencies and will continue to debug the program moving forward.

However, the future of this testing method in terms of the ability of all school districts to employ it was still in doubt, he said. Explaining the problem, White said some school districts simply didn’t have the funds to implement the program and had to use “paper” versus online systems to conduct the testing.

And there are concerns throughout school districts and teacher associations nationwide as to the validity of the Common Core program. White said some opposition seemed to originate from those who felt the program had been developed from the “top down” versus from educators. He assured the committee members that teachers, and specifically those from Massachusetts, had been essential in the development of the program. He said schools had been given 15 percent involvement in the shaping of programs to suit their districts to the Common Core requirements.

Still, White said there are petitions “floating around” in opposition to Common Core. He gave a brief history of how Common Core came into existence, noting that it did start with business leaders expressing concerns that graduates seemed to lack basic reading and writing skills. Not all states have embraced the Common Core philosophy, White shared, noting that Texas had opted-out completely.

As for Massachusetts, White told the committee that the Board of Education was continuing to evaluate PARCC and would be making a decision in the coming months as to whether it would continue to use PARCC or adopt another exam. He also said the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents was looking for improvements in testing programs that complimented local assessments, measured students growth and readiness for college and careers, and more funding overall.

White said parents would have the PARCC testing results sometime in December.

In other business, PTO Co-Chairman Dana Martin presented the committee with a fund-raising plan aimed at increasing the organization’s coffers. She explained that helping to pay for some large projects last year had depleted funds. The new fundraiser could generate as much as $10,000, Martin said. The hope was the fundraiser would stem the need to cut back on money given to the school for musical programs and equipment. The committee approved the plan.

Regarding budgets, White said he wanted to meet sooner rather than later with subcommittees so that needs could be determined.

“We need to know what the needs are at the local level,” said White. “Everything from salaries to materials, then build off of that.”

White also said that a parents’ night was planned for October 21 at the library to discuss special needs programs and that playgroups for toddlers had begun at Old Hammondtown School.

The next meeting of the Marion School Committee is scheduled for November 12 at 6:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Marilou Newell

The Marion Board of Health is hoping to recover the almost $5,000 in damages caused by the failure of a vaccine refrigerator that resulted in the loss of at least 18 different vaccine doses.

Marion Health Director Karen Walega in a September 15 memorandum to Town Administrator Paul Dawson listed the different vaccines lost and the exact cost to replace them, and in a memorandum to the Board of Health dated October 8, Walega listed the additional expenses incurred in the replacement of the broken refrigerator.

The incident, which occurred on August 17, involved the failure of the special vaccine refrigerator temperature control mechanism. Once the malfunction was discovered, the vaccines inside the refrigerator were transported to the police station for storage in a different refrigerator until the town was notified by the state that the vaccines could not be used.

Lost were ten doses of Prevnar 13 (pneumonia) at a cost of $1,795, two vials of Tuberculin (used to test for Tuberculosis) at a cost of $130, six doses of Zoster vax (shingles) costing $1,140, and an undisclosed amount of Adacol (Tdap) at a cost of about $150, for a total loss of about $3,200.

The new refrigerator compliant with CDC regulations costs $1,500 with wiring costing another $240.

“We are still waiting on the insurance,” said Walega on October 13 during a meeting of the Board of Health. “I don’t understand why they (the town’s insurance company) haven’t gotten in touch with Paul [Dawson].”

Walega said there are enough supplies for the two subsequent flu clinics scheduled for October 26 and November 9 from 2:00 to 6:30 pm at the Marion Town House. However, the majority of the vaccines lost have not yet been replaced.

“We don’t have that kind of money to replace it and we need it replaced,” said Walega.

Walega’s memo to the Board of Health questioned if the board would like to seek a reserve fund transfer at a future town meeting, but the board chose to hold off until Dawson hears back from the insurance company.

Also during the meeting, the board briefly discussed a letter Walega sent to Robert Thompson of Rochester regarding the proposed e-cigarette retail store he would like to open in Marion. Walega attached a copy of the town’s current tobacco and nicotine product regulations in her letter to Thompson, reminding him that he will need to contact the Health Office once a location is selected.

Thompson was also reminded that the Board of Health is in the process of amending its tobacco and nicotine regulations to increase the minimum age for tobacco and nicotine products sales to age 21, as well as some changes to the sale of specific tobacco items, such as single cigars and “blunts.”

An attorney for the board has drafted part of the amended bylaw regarding the age minimum, but work is still being done on the remaining language. No date has yet been set for a public hearing on the new tobacco and nicotine regulations.

The next meeting of the Marion Board of Health is scheduled for October 27 at 4:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry