Longtime Secretary for the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals Maria Cananzey is retiring after 23 years of service to the town. She will be retiring in five weeks, according to Town Inspector Andy Bobola, who made the announcement at the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting on Tuesday, October 23 at Town Hall.

“It’s going to be a very difficult pair of shoes to fill,” said Bobola. “She’s been an absolute asset to the town. Everything she does is first class.”

The town placed an ad to the union to see if there was any interest for Cananzey’s position, however they didn’t receive any replies. The town will now place an ad in local newspapers with the hopes of filling the position as soon as possible in order to sufficiently train the new employee.

“Maria’s job is one of the more demanding clerical assistant jobs in the building,” said Selectman Jordan Collyer.

Town Administrator Michael Gagne said the candidates applying for Cananzey’s job will be tested to see their proficiency in a variety of computer programs such as Microsoft Office, Excel and Word.

In other news, Highway Surveyor Barry Denham expressed the need for another employee in his department. Currently, he has four full-time staff members, and according to him, that is not enough help to continue the level of service they are providing to the town.

“It’s extremely difficult to cover all the bases with the help we have,” Denham said.

The Selectmen recognized the excellent work Denham has done with the Highway Department and trust his need for another employee.

“No one likes to talk about adding full-time positions because it’s a budgetary matter,” said Collyer. “One thing I can say since Barry has come on board is that he’s done a phenomenal job and the resources are managed very well. I have no problem hiring a part-time or full-time person to help Barry with what he needs.”

Collyer assured Denham that he would look at salary numbers to bring another employee on board for the Highway Department and get back to him.

Denham also told the Board that the road repairs following the summer are very minimal, and heading into the winter, the department is well prepared with both a dump truck and plow to help sand and clear the roads.

“This has been a good summer,” he said. “The roads are in very good condition and there are only a few that actually need grading.”

Library Director Susan Pizzolato expressed the desire to keep the library open additional evenings during the week in order to provide ample meeting space for groups and nonprofit organizations who need the space to convene. She proposed keeping the library open later on both Thursdays and Sundays.

“By adding just six hours a week, that gives us a lot more opportunity to hold meetings in the library,” she said. “It would be great to offer the community some additional hours in their library.”

The Board agreed it was a good idea to entertain the idea, and encouraged Pizzolato to see if her staff could accommodate the new hours.

“We use the library a lot, it’s a great resource,” said Selectman Tyler Macallister.

Harbormaster Horace Field met with the Board to discuss an alternative plan to replace the float at Barstow Wharf. The float, which was installed in 1958, needs to be replaced before next summer. In order to replace it, it would cost the town $25,000.  However, they would receive nothing in return to make back the money.

Field proposed spending $34,000 for a more expensive float that would hold between 20 – 25 dinghy spots for residents. Charging $100 per spot, the town would receive $2,500 annually, and would make back the money from the purchase in less than a ten-year period, according to Field.

“I think he makes a pretty good argument here,” said Gagne.

Field will work with the Selectmen to put the project out to bid in a couple weeks.

Gagne informed the Board that the public restrooms at Ned’s Point, the Town Beach and Shipyard Park need to be replaced because they no longer meet the state’s requirements for accessibility.

“They are woefully out of compliance,” he said.

The ramps are not high enough to give wheelchairs enough space to get into the doorway. Additionally, the doorways are not wide enough to fit a chair, the turning radius inside the restroom is too small and the partitioning of the handicap stall is not adequate for the wheelchairs.

Gagne suggested starting with the Town Beach House since that facility is in the worst shape.

Gagne also updated the Board on the repairs to Town Hall. He said that the roof of the building has been replaced, however, the gutter and the downspout system have yet to be fixed, and it is creating a severe mildew problem at the building. The gutters have rotted at their joints, and Gagne is concerned some animals have made their way into the hall’s attic space.

The town will move forward with the rest of the improvements to the hall as soon as possible.

The Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen will meet again on Tuesday, November 13 at 7:00 pm at Mattapoisett Town Hall.

By Katy Fitzpatrick

Tensions ran high at Tuesday night’s Planning Board meeting as members expressed their concern and frustration at the tabling of the discussion of an article at Monday’s special Fall Town Meeting.

Last night, four out of the five articles on the Warrant were passed by over 150 residents who attended. But the one article which did not pass, regarding the Planning Board’s amendments to the Home Business Bylaw, was not even debated due to a successful effort by members of the Zoning Board of Appeals to table discussion of the article until the next Annual Town Meeting in the spring.

According to Town Planner, John Charbonneau, Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson was about to give a brief PowerPoint presentation about the proposed changes made to the bylaw. Before Johnson could begin, ZBA Chairman Richard Cutler read a prepared statement about the article, which was immediately followed by a motion made by ZBA Member Kirby Gilmore to table the discussion entirely. The motion passed and no public discussion was held for the bylaw.

“Unfortunately, we really didn’t get too far into it and it was pretty much a staged, choreographed thing to take it off the table,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding out there and I think a lot of it is on purpose. When people choose not to understand or to accept something, they can, for lack of a better term, play dumb. I think the average person in the room at Town Meeting last night didn’t understand [that most of the law remains unchanged] and weren’t given a chance to understand it.”

In order to have a home-based business in Rochester, the current process requires applicants to get a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals. The Planning Board made some changes to the bylaw, one of which requires applicants to go through a site plan review process in order to determine whether or not the home is suitable to host a business.

As part of the proposed site plan review process, applicants would have to hire independent consultants in order to verify the information contained in their application and report those findings to the Planning Board. Some considerations in the process include the amount of parking spaces that may be required for the business, as well as ensuring that no more than 25 percent of the home is used for the business.

Despite the amendments to the bylaw, most of it remains unchanged.

“Ninety percent of the law is exactly the same as it what is already in our bylaws,” Charbonneau said. “But the Chairman of the ZBA, in his statement, gave misinformation about changes to the allowed size of farm stands and setbacks. But the zoning laws for the size of those structures remain the same.”

“We did change the definition of a farm stand, but we changed it to match the state definition,” said Johnson.

“The site plan review is meant to help take the applicant’s plans and make them work,” Charbonneau said.

“I think the changes we’re making will enhance the opportunities for people in Rochester,” said Johnson.

The Planning Board also reviewed the list of approved home-based businesses, which Charbonneau said was grossly out-of-date.

“We reviewed the use of this list, but it doesn’t account for all the changes that have occurred because of e-commuting,” he said. The Planning Board decided to eliminate use of the list entirely due, in part, to the difficulty enforcing a limit on the number of employees hired by a home-based business.

The tabling of the discussion of the bylaw amendment came as a surprise to the Planning Board, which has been working for over two years to finalize the amendments. During that time, the ZBA has been absent from the process.

“I happened to be sitting beside Richard Cutler and beside Kirby Gilmore,” said member Ben Bailey. He indicated that Gilmore was there to oppose the changes to the bylaw, said Gilmore facetiously said that “everybody would be home in time to watch the presidential debate.”

“The Planning Board has been working for more than two years on this. We’ve had multiple public hearings in various meetings about it. In those two years, nobody from the ZBA attended those meetings or offered comment,” Charbonneau said. “They have not participated in this process to date.”

“I’m not buying into the fact that there wasn’t sufficient time to make comment,” said Johnson. “There are multiple ways they could have made comment on this.”

Johnson said that he would be willing to add joint meetings between the Planning Board and ZBA to the schedule in order to promote an atmosphere more conducive to cooperation.

“We’ll outline everything on our terms. We’ll send them a certified letter with a date, and we’ll send out a notice to invite them to come. It’ll be the only thing on the agenda. If they don’t come, then we can decide to post up and go to their meeting.”

According to Bailey, members of the ZBA said at Town Meeting that they could not attend Planning Board meetings because “some of us have jobs.”

The article was originally on the Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting held this past spring, but the Planning Board voluntarily withdrew it after hearing concerns from Building Commissioner Jim Buckles and Board Member Bob Francis, who was not on the Planning Board at the time. At the time the article was added to the Fall Town Warrant, the Planning Board received no indication from the ZBA that they would push to table the discussion, nor did they receive any communication from the members of the Zoning Board of Appeals voicing any concern or dissatisfaction with the contents of the bylaw amendments.

Bailey continued to say that he would like to take action against the members of the ZBA for their actions at the Town Meeting.

“I would like to go to the Selectmen and ask them to unappoint everyone who was engaged in this ambush. Perhaps they could find a ZBA that is more amenable to working with the other boards of the Town.”

Bailey plans on attending the next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen as a private citizen in order to voice his opinion on the situation.

“The things that were said by Mr. Cutler are direct insults at all of us and they should [know] that the Board itself acted in an imperious and insulting way. As a citizen, I would point that out because it’s demoralizing and the more things like that are done, the less likely people will want to volunteer to serve on boards. We will drive away the very people who could help us run this town well,” Bailey said.

“I think the insult goes to all of us and I think this whole board should show up,” said Vice-Chairman Gary Florindo.

The Planning Board may file each amendment to the bylaw as separate Warrant articles for the Annual Town Meeting in the spring.

In other business, the Planning Board voted in favor of a plan to create frontage in order to split a lot on Hiller Road.

The next meeting of the Rochester Planning Board will be on Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall.

By Eric Tripoli

Members of the Marion Planning Board (PB) met with the Marion Energy Management Committee (EMC) on October 22 at Music Hall in Marion — leading to dissenting opinions on a proposed zoning bylaw for solar panels.

EMC Chairman David Pierce said it was the Joint Committee’s responsibility to provide direction to the Marion Selectmen on how to proceed, but there was generally no consensus between the EMC and PB on the subject.

EMC Member Jennifer Francis stated that the EMC is trying to make any bylaw for solar panels as friendly to Marion residents as possible but were being met with resistance from the PB.

PB Member Ted North said a solar panel bylaw would essentially become a commercial project for land developers to make money off solar panels, which would defeat the intent of zoning.

“Why do you want to treat these things different than any other commercial project?” he asked. “If you open the property for these projects, you are going to attract investors and tax speculators looking for cheap land leases to put these properties on. The solar developers have no allegiance to Marion. These things are tax shelters, nothing more and nothing less.”

But Francis said most Marion residents “could care less” if developers make money if it benefits them by allowing them to purchase solar energy.

“There are people who may want opportunities to participate in a community project so they can put a solar panel on their roof,” Francis said.

She also noted that farmers profit and can receive zoning bylaws.

North and fellow PB Member Sherman Briggs noted that most of Marion is residential, which poses additional concerns.

“If you have a five-acre lot and you put solar panels on three acres of it, that is a huge hit to the neighborhood,” North said.

Despite the dissenting opinions, the Joint Committee agreed to bring the subject matter forward to the spring town meeting; the issue will be discussed further at the Joint Committee’s next meeting.

PB and EMC members also quickly agreed to present a warrant article at the spring town meeting to move forward with a rezoning bylaw for a transfer station site.

“If you look at the plan, it’s Lot 9 on Map 24. If you look at the zoning map, part of the lot is already in a limited industrial area. The suggestion is that Lot 9 become totally an industrial area as opposed to a partial industry area,” said EMC Secretary Norm Hills.

The Joint Committee also discussed whether to designate Marion as a Green Community.

EMC Member Bill Saltonstall said EMC will be attending a Marion Selectmen meeting in the next month and will try to address the various requirements for becoming a Green Community on their merits.

“I think we need to pick away at these things. I don’t know how much support we have among residents and I don’t want to ram it down people’s throats,” he said.

EMC and PB members agreed that residents need a lot more education on what it would mean to be designated as a Green Community, and this would need to be explained to residents when they propose specific projects.

“It sounds like we are moving towards [the Green Community designation],” Pierce said. “As new ideas come forward, we will need to be as clear as we can about what this all means. It’s going to be a step-by-step process as we go.”

The next PB and EMC Joint Meeting is not set, as it has to be rescheduled due to conflicts with other town meetings and Thanksgiving.

By Scott Giordano