The Marion Board of Selectmen met June 2 to discuss various topics including the appointment of a new assistant harbormaster, the search for a new fire chief, and updates on the bike path.

The board heard from Harbormaster Michael Cormier on the topic of appointing Peter Bourgault as assistant harbormaster and assistant shellfish officer. Bourgault served with the U.S. Coast Guard for 20 years and is now retired.

“Peter’s background and training is perfect for our unit,” said Cormier. “He’ll be a tremendous asset to my department.”

Following a brief discussion and some light joking, the board voted unanimously to appoint Bourgault to the positions of assistant harbormaster and assistant shellfish officer.

The board heard from Town Administrator Paul Dawson on the status of two projects underway for the Town of Marion. The first is the development of the new bike path, a multi-town, multi-state project that would stretch 70 miles and connect Providence, R.I. to Provincetown.

Last week, Dawson met with members of the Marion Pathway Committee, officials from the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD), and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. In the meeting, it was announced that funding has been put into place in the federal fiscal year 2019 budget for the construction of the Marion bike path.

“They have placed funding in the amount of approximately $3.4 million to cover the construction costs of the bike path from the Mattapoisett town line, down over the railroad bed, through and over to Front Street and across through to Washburn park,” Dawson said. “It was really good news all around.”

The funds will be available for FY19, which begins on October 1, 2018.

“While that may seem far off, it really isn’t that far away,” Dawson said.

Additionally, Dawson updated the board on the search for a new fire chief.

“We have completed the preliminary process of the fire chief search,” he said. “We will have a series of interviews for the full Board of Selectmen to have.”

The first interviews will take place at 5:30 pm on Thursday, June 4. The second series of interviews will take place at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, June 9. The interviews are all open to the public and will take place at the Town House conference room located at 2 Spring Street in Marion.

“I’m very pleased to say it was a good process to go through,” Dawson said. “We are in an extremely fortunate position to have a number of really well qualified and very talented people in the pool. The board will not be disappointed.”

Current Fire Chief Thomas Joyce is set to retire on June 30 after six years of service to the town.

Other business at the meeting included appointment requests for two individuals seeking to be placed on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Discussion of the first potential appointee, Kathleen Mahoney, was tabled until the current members of the ZBA can interview her.

The other candidate, Joanna Wheeler, had already met with the ZBA and received a recommendation. The selectmen voted unanimously to appoint her to the ZBA.

The next scheduled meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is June 4 at 5:30 pm at the Marion Town House to conduct fire chief hiring interviews.

By Andrew Roiter

Rochester Memorial School held its first of two days piloting a school breakfast program on May 21, and on June 2 RMS Principal Derek Medeiros told the Rochester School Committee what he heard in response from the students.

“The feedback I received from the students was pretty exciting,” said Medeiros. “The children were just really excited. It was awesome.”

One of the fifth grade students told Medeiros the school should’ve been doing the breakfast program all along so he could have enjoyed it for longer, said Medeiros. Medeiros had been working towards establishing a school breakfast program at RMS for some time.

“We do have some kinks to work out,” Medeiros said. “We did see some bumps in the road that we’re going to try to improve…”

The second trial run for the breakfast will be June 18 when sixth graders will experience breakfast at RMS for the first time. They were on a field trip on May 21, so they missed the first breakfast trial run.

Medeiros said that even if surveys of the students and parents churn out data not favorable to a full-time breakfast program, just changing the way kids enter the school in the morning like they did for the breakfast was a positive enough experience for possible changes in the morning routine. Students usually remain on their busses for longer periods of time before entering the school, but on May 21 students were taken immediately inside.

“It was nice to get the kids right off the bus … regardless of if we have breakfast or not,” said Medeiros. “I just saw a different tempo and beat from our students.”

After the June 18 breakfast trial, Medeiros will gather data from surveys to determine the viability of a breakfast program next year and will make a decision during the summer.

In other matters, the Rochester School Committee and central school administration are preparing to attend the June 8 Annual Town Meeting in Rochester in support of the fiscal year 2016 RMS school budget.

The Town, after working closely with the committee and administration over the past few months, has offered the district a little bit more wiggle room in its budget, particularly when it came to special education spending. The initial revised FY16 budget totaled $5,780,984, and the budget to appear on the warrant will be $5,798,410. The FY16 budget is up $126,067 from last year.

The next meeting of the Rochester School Committee is scheduled for September 3 at 6:30 pm at Rochester Memorial School.

By Jean Perry