There is disagreement between elected officials in the Tri-Towns as to the efficiency with which the Old Rochester Regional School District has explained its request for a $12,000,000 debt exclusion for the purpose of capital expenditures on school buildings over the next two decades.

            The warrant article common to Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester annual town meetings (all to be held on Monday, May 13) has been presented in three major projects to upgrade 99 HVAC units, replace 60 exterior doors on the junior and senior high school buildings and install a new public-address system that would allow unified communications.

            Article 17, one of 46 on the Marion Annual Town Meeting warrant, was discussed during an April 25 meeting of the Marion Select Board to review the warrant for the May 13 Annual Town Meeting.

            The loan proposed by ORR would also fund upgrades to the school buildings’ hot water systems, upgrade paving and curbs, improve the gymnasium and restrooms and provide LED lighting to the high school athletic fields.

            “ORR did a great job presenting, we should have that available to the public,” suggested Marion Select Board member Randy Parker, crediting ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson during the warrant review held at the Music Hall.

            Town Administrator Geoff Gorman agreed with Parker and indicated he would also seek to post information on the new Department of Public Works facility and the proposed patrol-boat replacement at marionma.gov.

            Resident Steve Nojeim addressed the meeting, seeking clarification on the ramifications of the Rochester Select Board’s April 22 decision not to recommend the article.

            “It is problematic … all three towns have to agree,” said Gorman, noting that since the article is asking voters to approve a debt exclusion, a yes verdict will only make it a ballot question at the Town Elections on Friday, May 17.

            Last week, the Rochester Select Board acknowledged the buildings’ needs but stopped short of recommending the article while requesting greater detail in the expense information provided.

            The Marion Select Board and Finance Committee both recommend a FY25 operating budget of $28,837,711, which represents a 4.72% increase over the FY24 budget of $27,536,903. After transfers from existing funds, the actual amount voters will be asked to appropriate is $27,124,757.

            But there remains fundamental disagreement between the Select Board and Finance Committee over how to fund the harbormaster’s proposed, $800,000 patrol-boat replacement.

            Articles 16 and 16A will give Marion voters the option of buying a new patrol boat outright, splitting the purchase between two $400,000 appropriations from both the Waterways Account and free cash, or funding the purchase entirely on debt, the principal and interest to be paid out of the Waterways Account (which derives its revenue from harbor-related fees).

            While some citizens attending the April 25 warrant review consider the avoidance of a loan to be prudent, they also expressed dismay as to the lack of a Finance Committee representative to explain the committee’s position recommending a loan.

            In recent weeks, Finance Committee Chairman Shay Assad sought to add the debt-option article (16A) to the warrant after insisting that a $400,000 appropriation from free cash would break a promise he says the town made to taxpayers that they would not be asked to pay for the boat.

            In his comments to the April 25 warrant-review meeting, Gorman explained that he and Finance Director Heather O’Brien had been tasked with finding the most fiscally sound method of financing the patrol boat, producing Article 16 (the split).

            Gorman further argued that since statewide police reform, the work of the Harbormaster Department significantly exceeds provisions of service to harbor ratepayers and now extends to the general public as an arm of the town’s Police Department. Thusly, he inferred, it has become appropriate for taxpayers to share in a burden, the services of which are no longer exclusive to boaters.

            “They are really police officers on the water, same training, same accountability,” said Gorman. “(The harbormaster) doesn’t provide safety just for people who pay mooring fees. I respect the difference of opinion from the Finance Committee; that’s where we stand.”

            None of the stakeholders have argued that the 27-foot Boston Whaler purchased in 2006 and upfitted as a patrol boat is not well beyond its 15-year lifecycle, only how to fund its replacement. The request is for a 33-foot boat with built-in, firefighting capabilities.

            Article 16, which will ask voters to authorize a split in the boat’s funding between free cash and the Waterways Account, has been recommended by the Select Board but not the Finance Committee, the latter of which authorizes Article 16A buying the boat 100% on debt to be exclusively funded out of the Waterways Account.

            Citing the $800,000 expense, resident Bob Partridge suggested that the town’s Marine Resources Commission and the harbormaster research available boats from federal government or the Coast Guard. Gorman explained that being a government-bid boat, the town is without such an option but that the town will continue to work diligently to find grant funding.

            Parker expressed optimism regarding grant funding. “We feel good about it,” he said. Gorman added that Harbormaster Adam Murphy has a “spectacular relationship” with the state Seaport Economic Council (which largely funded the new Maritime Center under construction at Island Wharf).

            Article 31 is another bone of contention within the town, as voters will be asked to authorize deletion of Chapter 120 of the Marion Code, the Stretch Energy Code.

            According to Energy Management Committee member Bill Saltonstall, cancelation of the town’s stretch code would disqualify Marion from receiving Green Communities grant funding. Saltonstall told the April 25 warrant-review meeting that the town has already received $540,000 in related grant funding, and he questioned how the Finance Committee could possibly determine that such a decision would have no financial impact on the town.

            EMC Chairman Christian Ingerslev stated that while the Stretch Code is not a prerequisite to a Green Communities designation by the state, becoming more energy efficient is. He also noted that an important change in the Stretch Code is a refocus away from reducing energy in buildings onto fossil fuels.

            Regional Green Communities representative Lisa Sullivan will address the Select Board during its May 7 meeting. If Marion leaves Green Communities, it would become only the second municipality ever to do so, joining Rochester.

            As of April 24, 295 of the state’s 351 municipalities hold a Green Communities designation.

            Article 46 of the Marion warrant is a Citizen’s Petition requesting the town repair and keep clean its storm-drain system, pumping catch basins when full to prevent flooding on private properties. The article also requests the town investigate the source of excess water flooding the Ichabod Lane neighborhood.

            The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, at 6:00 pm at the Town House Annex building.

Marion Select Board

By Mick Colageo

The Rochester Finance Committee has doubled down on the Select Board’s rejection of the Old Rochester School District’s $12,000,000 debt-exclusion request that will appear on the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting to be held on Monday, May 13, at Rochester Memorial School.

            In the previous hour before the Finance Committee’s public meeting on Monday night at Town Hall, the Select Board had just signed the warrant at the Senior Center nearby and handed it over to Town Moderator David Arancio, who also serves on the town’s Finance Committee.

            So when Arancio joined fellow Finance Committee members Peter Armanetti, Jim Austin and Chairman Kris Stoltenberg at Town Hall for their 7:00 pm meeting, the four poured over the 14 articles of the 21-article draft warrant relevant to the committee.

            None of the members were comfortable recommending Article 14, which states: “To see if the Town will vote to approve the $12,000,000 debt authorized by the Old Rochester Regional School District to pay costs of making various capital improvements and repairs to the District’s Junior/Senior High School, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto, and further, to see if the Town will vote to make any such approval contingent upon passage of a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion pursuant to (General Law Chapter) 59, (Section) 21C, or to take any other action relative thereto.”

            Finance Director (and newly appointed Interim Town Administrator) Suzanne Szyndlar described ORR’s proposal as “seed money before the circuit breaker comes in the following year.”

            Stoltenberg said that when ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber presented on ORR’s capital needs two weeks ago, the request was news to him, so he started asking questions.

            “The answers were on the vague side,” said Stoltenberg, realizing that the Select Board members shared similar reactions. “This is a huge number under any circumstance. This is an important initiative that they want. ‘Hey, we’re looking for $12,000,000 and we’re going to put this on an override.’ That’s a big deal. There are no hard numbers in there.”

            Stoltenberg said taking the critical stance makes him feel badly.

            “We want to support the schools, but … if we have fiduciary responsibility to voters, then I don’t see how we can recommend this,” he said. “I’m a big supporter of the schools, and I realize if something does break down. … Plan B is, when it breaks, come to us and we’ll deal with it.”

            Arancio shared the concern that the town could be seen by its insurance carrier as negligent should its recommendation to voters be identified in the report of a future facilities failure.

            “We have a very good relationship with the School Committee. … When I started you could cut the tension with a knife because the three towns didn’t work together. If this is something they really need, … I don’t think this is going away,” said Arancio. “I believe the rollout could have been better.”

            ORR’s presentations on the request have divided the needs of the high school and junior high buildings into three major projects: upgrading 99 HVAC units, replacing 60 exterior doors and a new public-address system that would link the two schools’ communications. Other projects include bathrooms and new LED lighting at the high school athletic fields.

            Armanetti compared the request to the process the town navigated to complete upgrades to Rochester Memorial School, saying the ORR presentation “was not as robust and transparent as I would like it to be. … This is an increase of $400,000 a year coming on. … It’s not even close to the same. When we did RMS, every single cent was transparent.”

            A citizen attending the meeting whose identification was not requested by the committee said Article 14 has been written in a manner that would create a fund where there is no obligation on the part of the ORR School District to spend the money on any particular item.

            “And that would be without any further review by Rochester’s Finance Committee, (Select Board) or voters. To create that kind of a slush fund would be irresponsible,” he said. “We the citizens look to the Finance Committee more than any other (government body) … It’s a blank check. I would urge you to do what our Select Board did unanimously, which is vote to not recommend this. To pay it back would be approximately another $7,000,000 of interest so it would be $19,000,000. This group spends a lot of time thinking about how to spend 20 grand. … It’s a wish list is all it is, and it’s subject to change.”

            Szyndlar indicated that the ORR School Committee is the responsible party in carrying through the request to its intentions and that “all articles are (written) very similarly to this.”

            “I don’t think they would necessarily spend it willy-nilly,” said Stoltenberg, who outlined three scenarios for the Finance Committee’s consumption: to recommend supporting the request, to recommend against it or to offer no recommendation.

            Armanetti motioned to not recommend in its current form. Austin had entertained more neutral thoughts such as those articulated by Stoltenberg but saw no path toward a recommendation and agreed with Armanetti’s motion to not recommend the article.

            “I believe that we push things away all the time. My recommendation is to not recommend, (it’s) poorly written. Not that it doesn’t need to be done,” said Arancio. “Take the school out of it. We would never take out $12,000,000 for a road improvement.”

            The committee voted unanimously not to recommend the article.

            Articles 2-15 all received Finance Committee approval, including a $26,022,613 FY25 Operating Budget. The FY24 appropriated Operating Budget is $25,075,010.

            Stoltenberg, who is not seeking re-election to the committee, accepted his nomination to the search committee that will henceforth seek to replace Town Administrator Glenn Cannon, who will take on the same job in Carver on May 14.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Finance Committee is scheduled for the Annual Town Meeting to be held on Monday, May 13, at Rochester Memorial School.

Rochester Finance Committee

By Mick Colageo