A new Fireworks Committee will be forming in Marion in order to bring back the popular annual display next summer. Selectman Jody Dickerson recommended the idea at the Board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, August 21 at the Marion Police Department.

“The job cannot be handled by one person,” said Dickerson. “The fireworks are a major element of our town’s events.”

This summer the fireworks were canceled due to a lack of funding. The fireworks were originally supposed to be coordinated by the Recreation Department; however, there was no one to spearhead the project. Dickerson nominated himself to head the committee, but insisted on having a group of dedicated and capable volunteers to help raise funds. Dickerson also suggested starting the fundraising for the fireworks as soon as possible to make sure the proper amount of money is secured.

“It is my hope that the fireworks get the attention and management it deserves,” said Dickerson.

In other news, the Selectmen met with John Ludes, a member of the Sippican Historical Society, in order to discuss a possible solution to the funding of the line painting in the Marion General Store’s parking lot. According to Ludes, the parking lot is technically private; however, there are plenty of vehicles parked in the lot on a daily basis that are visiting the Marion Congregational Church and other public buildings in the area.

Since the lot is private, Ludes and the other stores that own the lot are responsible for funding the maintenance of the lot themselves. They pay for repaving, snow plowing and gardening. Ludes said the lines should be repainted every five years and that they currently need to be repainted. Ludes asked for help from the Selectmen to pay for the repainting.

“I feel from a safety standpoint, it would be very beneficial for someone from the town to draw some lines,” said Ludes. “We are part of the town and we’re just asking for a little help.”

The Selectmen agreed to allow Ludes to draft a proposal to explore the cost of the project.

“I would be interested in entertaining the idea,” said Chairman Stephen Cushing.

Town Administrator Paul Dawson proposed a new Energy Management Service company for the town that could help cut down electricity costs up to 35 percent for the town annually. Source One Energy Solutions is a company that researches electricity rates to help towns find the best value. According to Dawson, the three-year contract would cost $3,500 and the payment plan would be built into the town’s utility bills. The Board voted unanimously to allow Dawson to begin negotiations with the company.

Dawson also had an update on the Sprague Cove situation, where the Conservation Commission had hired an outside party to clean the area of evasive plant species without the proper permission. According to Dawson, he has met with the Conservation Commission to develop a scope of work that is necessary for the project. They are still working on finishing the rest of the paperwork so the town can pay the company.

“Things are going well,” said Dawson. “I’m very satisfied with the progress we’ve made.”

The Board also voted unanimously to pay $1,500 for an engineer to come in and assess the damages to the Marion Natural History Museum following the roof collapse a few weeks ago.  According to Dawson, insurance will cover the damages since they are estimated to be under $25,000; however, Selectman Jon Henry suggested bringing in an engineer to check out the structure of the building.

“We want to make sure something like this never happened again,” said Henry.

The Board selected Monday, November 26 to be the date of the Fall Special Town Meeting. The Selectmen’s next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 4 at 7:00 pm in the Marion Police Department.

By Katy Fitzpatrick

The Rochester Conservation Commission met on the evening of Tuesday, August 16 for their regularly scheduled meeting. The first hearing of the night was in regard to a Notice of Intent filed by Timothy Perry for property located at 99 Wolf Island. Perry seeks approval to construct an enclosed three-season room over an existing deck area. According to the proposal, several sonotubes will be required for support and erosion control measures will be implemented.

“We will be digging the sonotubes by hand so there’s no machinery and no disturbance,” Perry said. “The erosion control would only go on the side of the first wetland. I’d assume we would wrap it around the deck.”

Laurell Farinon, Rochester’s conservation agent, said that the plan was brought before the Commission due to past additions to the property that were constructed without permits.

“This project can easily be done without any agitation of the wetland area,” Farinon said.  She added that she was not sure that erosion control would be necessary.

The Commission voted to approve the plans as presented.

A hearing for Robert Ferreira of Infinity Landscape Construction Co. was scheduled, but nobody involved with the project was able to come to the meeting and the Commission granted a request for a continuance to the meeting on September 4.

The Commission then held a meeting regarding a Request of Determination of Applicability filed by the City of New Bedford Water Department for property located on North Avenue on the Freetown town line. The city is proposing to install approximately 15,000 solar panels configured in strings to be located on an approximate 30-acre site, according to the filing.

Sam Moffett of TRC Environmental was present on behalf of the City of New Bedford and its partner, Con Ed, and Real Goods Solar, the company who would construct the solar panel array.

The array would serve to provide electricity for the municipal water systems of New Bedford and is designed to be able to provide enough electricity for the future projected growth of the energy needs of the water department. The city would not sell any of the electricity generated by the array.

“We’ve advanced the design significantly since last time the folks in the neighborhood saw it,” Moffett said. “We have gone out of our way to design the project in a way that stays entirely outside of resources areas and buffer zones. We felt that was a very important thing for us to do, to stay completely out of areas that were sensitive.”

He explained the property near Little Quitticas Pond is owned by New Bedford. The total scope of the site is now 28.5 acres due to the redesign.

“One of the characteristics of this site is that there are quite a few red pine trees that are diseased and are in need of removal,” he said, referring to it as the Dead Pine Site.

The project would generate about four megawatts using ground-mounted panels. There would be some regarding to smooth out the terrain and provide better drainage contours.

“All precipitation that falls on the site will stay on the site,” he said. He added that the whole site will be planted with grass.

“That’s intentional for several reasons. One is to hold the soil and another is to help retain the precipitation,” said Moffett.

They have included a sandy firebreak around the entire perimeter to keep fires from spreading to or from the site.

There are also two resources areas on the site, with a wetlands area in the northern section and a certified vernal pool in the southeast quadrant.

“We’ve maintained more than 200-foot separation from that so there’s no risk of interacting with that resource area,” Moffett said.

“Obvious concerns of this Commission with a project of this scope is storm water run-off,” said Farinon. “We’re also going to be looking very closely at the vernal pool.”

They scheduled a site visit for 6:00 pm on Tuesday, August 28.

The Commission then voted to continue the hearing until their next meeting on Tuesday, September 4.

Moffett, meanwhile, will make another presentation on the project to the Rochester Planning Board on Tuesday, August 28 at 7:00 pm.

In other business, the Commission discussed a request for Certificate of Compliance filed by Brenda Wolk for work done at 95 Mendell Road, including the re-grading of a foot area and the construction of a 10-foot by 20-foot horse barn and corral. In addition, the paved driveway was extended and a shed was moved farther away from the house.

Farinon concurred that the work performed was in compliance and the Commission voted unanimously to approve the certificate.

The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission will be on Tuesday, September 4 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall.

By Eric Tripoli

The Marion Planning Board briefly discussed the Master Plan, or Town Visioning, at their meeting on Monday night, August 20. Chairman Jay Ryder commented about responses to emails that he sent to towns in Massachusetts that either have gone through the process of doing a Master Plan or are in the process of working on a vision for their town.

“I received return emails from two towns in Massachusetts that are similar in size to Marion and was impressed with what I read,” said Ryder. The towns were Tewksbury and New Scotland Hamlet.

“Anything we can do to benefit from towns similar in size who have gone through this process already … and not reinvent the wheel … that’s what we want to tap into,” said Ryder.

In other business, Ryder told the Board that he received an email from Marion Town Counsel Jon Witten regarding the solar bylaw wording, as per the Board’s request. “I’ve sent copies to all board members and ask you to review the wording and come to the next meeting with any questions, suggestions or comments,” said Ryder.

Ryder suggested that the Board work together to come up with something “concrete” that could be brought before town residents at the fall town meeting.

The Board continued the public hearing for a definitive subdivision plan for River Road by Investors Fund Trust c/o Morse Engineering Company, Inc. at the applicant’s request.

The next meeting of the Marion Planning Board will be on Tuesday, September 4 at  5:00 pm (due to the Monday, Labor Day Holiday).

By Joan Hartnett-Barry

During their regular meeting on August 20, Planning Board member Jon Mathieu expressed his frustration at the Town Counsel for not responding to the Board’s repeated inquiries regarding the Jane Lane cell phone tower project, proposed by Industrial Wireless.  Mathieu said that the Counsel has not answered their questions pertaining to the Planning Board’s ability to grant the tower company a special permit for construction.

Rather than being a body elected from the residents of Mattapoisett, the Town Counsel is Boston law firm Kopelman and Paige. According to their website, they perform those same legal services to over one third of the towns of Massachusetts.

Mathieu said according to the bylaw, the Planning Board is the special permit granting body of Mattapoisett, but Industrial Wireless has been arguing that because the proposed location of the tower is outside of the designated corridor, the decision should come from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

“They are less than forthcoming with answers for us. We usually have to bring it up at two or three meetings. It’s very disturbing that we can’t make decisions because we don’t have answers from Town Counsel,” Mathieu said. “They may actually have to get a variance in order to build the tower outside of the zone. In which case, they need to go the Zoning Board of Appeals.”

“Our job is to plan this town,” Mathieu said.

The rest of the Board agreed that the lack of communication was hindering their efforts to make a decision whether or not to grant a permit for the tower.

The Planning Board then unanimously passed a motion to retain outside legal counsel in order to address their questions.

There were no public hearings on the agenda for the meeting, but the Planning Board met informally with Attorney Daniel Perry, on behalf of the Village of Mattapoisett, regarding $50,000 that is being retained by the town for maintenance. He said the Village is looking for some financial relief, as they need to begin some repairs on the infrastructure of the complex.  Perry said the Village pays about $8,000 a year for routine facility maintenance.

“If the Board is inclined to grant some relief, we’d have to amend the special permit to permit it to be released,” Perry said. He added that he came to the Board to investigate whether or not they would need to be part of the process.

“That retained money wasn’t for a maintenance issue, it was for an emergency repair fund,” said Ron Merlo of the Planning Board. “It’s for something catastrophic, like if the hundred year storm comes along,” he said.

Merlo also said he believed that any extra money for regular repair work should come from the condominium association.

Planning Board Chairman Thomas Tucker said that if there was enough interest accrued on the money, they may be able issue funds from the interest. He said the developer was responsible for putting up $30,000 at the outset but due to a legal loophole, the money was not deposited until after the complex was complete. The full amount of $50,000 has only been retained for the last three or four years.

“Nobody was watching what they were doing. They’ve been playing catch-up ever since,” Tucker said.

As a result, there is only about $1,100 of interest accrued on the sum.

“If he had been putting the money in from the beginning, there’d be a lot more,” Tucker said.

Perry said he would speak with the Conservation Commission in order to get their view and would investigate other means by which the Village would be able to appropriate extra money for maintenance.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board will be on Monday, September 17 at 7:00 pm.

By Eric Tripoli