With the assistance of two consultants, the Marion Historic District Study Committee created a working list of over 250 Marion properties covering three and potentially five historic districts.

            So reported Will Tifft to the Marion Select Board during its January 3 public meeting at the Town House.

            One of several residents appointed to the committee by the Select Board, Tifft said the committee has conducted surveys on the Wharf village (including Cottage, Water and parts of Pleasant Streets based on an 1855 surveyed map.) An informational presentation displaying the suggested district with a 40-page preliminary proposal for the consumption of area citizens packed out the Music Hall.

            Tifft explained to the Select Board on January 3 that the request to study the prospects for such a district came with the promises not to spend any town money and to conduct the study “in a reasonable amount of time.

            “Our feeling was that we could get this done in time for the next Town Meeting,” he said, qualifying that with the suspicion that it might take longer and should not be a hurried process.

            The year-old effort, Tifft said, was to produce a decision that would benefit residents inside and outside the district.

            As Town Administrator Geoff Gorman explained, the committee is working with a consultant and with Marion’s legal advisors to create an historic district, using adequate exemptions to ensure that members in the town’s proposed district are made comfortable with the action.

            Tifft said the committee is considering two options: creating a district using MGL 40A as a zoning bylaw and using the Zoning Board of Appeals or using MGL 40C (the chapter used to create the study group) as a general bylaw and using a yet-to-be-formed Historic Commission.

            The primary difference between these two options is that MGL 40C and a historic commission has a much more restrictive exemption list, and there’s no legal support for local changes.

            Delays in correspondence at the state level are leveraging a decision that some would rather be made slowly anyway.

            As the committee has sought guidance from the attorney general regarding the legalities involved, the delay makes it clear to Tifft that it would be impossible to meet the state’s 60-day review schedule and the town’s review in time to make the annual Town Meeting.

            Tifft said he was representing the committee’s request to take more time with an eye on a special fall Town Meeting. Tifft told the Select Board that all committee members are willing to continue volunteering their time in order to further educate the public about the district.

            Select Board member Randy Parker asked Tifft to explain what “Historic District Light” means. Further, board member Norm Hills asked Tifft if the committee can provide any documentation explaining the difference between the two approaches.

            Tifft offered a verbal explanation, saying that an “historic district light” offers property owners many more exemptions so that they can do things on their own property that would otherwise not be allowed under a more traditional, stricter historic district.

            He said one of the more common comments is the concern that people don’t want to be told what color they can paint their front door. “Light” would allow homeowners more flexibility even as it concerns design features.

            Parker applauded the committee for its thorough process and issued a motion that the committee be granted an extended time to continue to pursue the facts that would enable a more complete presentation to the board.

            Tifft suggested that much of the committee’s ability to follow suit depends on the state government.

            Select Board Chairman Toby Burr said something of this importance should be decided by voters at a spring (Annual) Town Meeting. “If we don’t make this spring town meeting, we should go to next spring town meeting,” he said.

            The board agreed to extend the commissioning of the committee to spring 2025.

            Gorman told the board he would provide the members information on the case of Hancock Village LLC versus the Town of Brookline.

            In other action, the Select Board voted to approve the Annual Report to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC.) It voted to approve a one-day liquor license for ICJ Corporation for an event to be held Thursday, January 18, at the Music Hall from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, along with a Water/Sewer commitment for $1,425.67 (quarterly billing December 14, 2023.)

            The board met on January 4 solely to approve a one-day liquor license for a private event held Friday at the Music Hall and took part in Tuesday’s tour of the Mattapoisett Fire Station and the Tri-Town Select Board meeting that followed.

            The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17, at 6:00 pm at the Town House Annex Building accessible off Main Street.

Marion Select Board

By Mick Colageo

            The Town of Rochester would like to replace its aged main fire station on Pine Street with something like what the Town of Mattapoisett built along Route 6 before the COVID-19 pandemic, but post-COVID construction costs and supply-chain issues are straining the building industry at large.

            Nonetheless, Rochester officials were quite interested in checking out Mattapoisett’s new public-safety facility during Tuesday’s Tri-Town Select Board meeting.

            Mattapoisett Fire Chief Andy Murray, who would conduct a group tour and take questions, estimated the hard construction cost of the 16,500 square-foot structure at $7,400,000.

            “Other than that, we were able to stay under budget,” said Murray, who leaned heavily on the expertise of Mike Hickey, a retired engineer and former call firefighter for a decade. Hickey chaired Mattapoisett’s building committee.

            “Through the whole process, we had to scale back and change. We started the project as much larger. …,” explained Murray.

            As built, the Mattapoisett station completed in 2021 has nine garage doors with 4.5 bays. The two-floor facility has four full-time employees on site and can sleep many more. Equipment includes giant touch screens on the walls of the meeting and conference rooms and a grant-funded fitness room.

            Asked by Rochester Select Board member Adam Murphy if there were issues that came up for Mattapoisett that Rochester officials could proactively address, and Murray recommended a soil test.

            “We ran into unsuitable soils,” he said, noting that the resultant dig went down to the groundwater table.

            Rochester Town Administrator Glenn Cannon asked about contingencies. Murray said the town set aside over $500,000.

            The rest of the Tri-Town Select Board agenda consisted of some substantial discussions about issues especially affecting one of the three communities but of interest to all three.

            Marion Town Administrator Geoff Gorman asked the stakeholders as to any interest in discussing a potential municipal agreement with the towns’ departments of Public Works to share services and especially heavy equipment.

            With each town’s DPW projecting out 10-year capital plans, the opportunity to join forces was considered mutually attractive.

            Mattapoisett Select Board member Jordan Collyer asked if such a cooperative would complicate insurance coverage. Gorman indicated belief that need not be a sticking point.

            Rochester Select Board member Brad Morse said, “It’s up to our Highway (Department) guy (Jeff Eldridge.) Are we in favor of it? Absolutely.”

            Murphy suggested sharing equipment is better for the equipment itself and noted that the Tri-Towns’ Fire and Police departments share mutual aid.

            Town officials will discuss the matter among themselves.

            Rochester Select Board Chairman Paul Ciaburri indicated that the town would like to leave its regional dispatch based in Duxbury, and he asked if there is any mutual interest in a Tri-Town dispatch.

            “Unless we find another regional center to go to, our hands are tied,” said Murphy, noting that Rochester is currently under contract and pays for dispatch service. “We’re looking for something closer.”

            Rochester is in the first year of a two-year contract with the Duxbury-based dispatch (18 months remaining.) Murphy said the State 911 office wants regionalization in order to minimize feedback.

            Rochester has another complication, as its Police Department recently went to a digital system but the Fire Department has not.

            Expanding the concept to address road repair, Marion Select Board Chairman Toby Burr considers it worthwhile for the Tri-Towns to join together when it can on bid processes for repairs to various roads. A coordinated effort would minimize redundancies and save each town money.

            Mattapoisett Select Board Chairman Jodi Bauer said she would love to see a solar array in the Old Rochester Regional High School parking lot. In discussing Rochester’s complications in trying to reach agreement with the contractor in the case of the solar canopy planned for the elementary school, Macallister indicated he can help. Murphy plans to contact Macallister to consult on the matter.

            Cannon suggested a regional approach to the broadband grant program. He said that the Southeastern Massachusetts Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) is involved with the Municipal Digital Equity Grant Program that provides towns with a signal-gap analysis. “A regional application usually carries more weight with the state,” he said.

            The membership agreed that it has been over two years since the Tri-Town Select Board has met. It was agreed that the boards will reconvene in the middle of June and that Marion will host the meeting.

            The Rochester Select Board voted to enter an executive session, while Mattapoisett members took a short break in advance of their own public meeting.

            The next meeting of the Tri-Town Select Board was not scheduled upon adjournment but is anticipated in June.

Tri-Town Select Board

By Mick Colageo

Having had time to digest Albin Johnson’s objections to Marion’s septic bylaw requiring an upgrade to denitrification technology in any new construction, Marion Board of Health Chairman Dr. Ed Hoffer had his say when the board met on December 28 at the Town House.

            “There is no justification for us narrowing or making our regulations any less rigorous than they are,” said Hoffer, referencing reports that show approximately 750 homeowners connected to the town’s sewer system and approximately 1,200 residences with septic systems.

            Hoffer said he had spent “quite a bit of time on this.”

            Starting with the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan that Weston & Sampson engineer Kent Nichols provided the town over a series of meetings, culminating in a public hearing last year at the Music Hall, Hoffer took stance opposite to Johnson’s.

            “(Weston & Sampson) do advocate increasing the sewerage, but it would be cost-prohibitive to go to the whole town. … As highlighted by one of our board of (Water/Sewer commissioners), ‘six of the 11 needs areas be considered for sewer extension, the remaining candidates for advanced, on-site treatment’ … what we are already doing,” said Hoffer.

            Having distributed packets to the board with information from Weston & Sampson’s study, Hoffer called Nichols’ report “a generally accepted engineering project” and cited major septic as 85% the cause of Nitrogen in Marion’s harbor.

            Hoffer addressed Johnson’s question as to why things didn’t get better with the sewer extension when, Hoffer contended, that it did improve. He cited information in the Weston & Sampson report that stated that the amount of Nitrogen entering the harbor decreased after the sewer extension project of 2006 and 2007.

            Hoffer told the board that he looked at several different areas where Nitrogen comes from, and while a Wareham study said Nitrogen was found on farms and golf courses, it also identified wastewater as the primary source.

            “To me there’s no question that septic systems are the culprit,” said Hoffer. “We are not going to be able to just pretend that (the new bylaw) doesn’t work. The state is breathing down our necks, and if anything … we’re going to have to get a little more rigorous in the years to come – but not until pushed.”

            Hoffer contended that homeowners with septic systems “have a bargain.” He stated that a connection to the town sewer system costs over $11,000 for a three-bedroom house. Hoffer said his house, which serves two people, costs $1,750 per year in sewer fees, and he considers his usage “minimal” because the water being used outside the house is coming entirely from wells.

            “So people who can pay electric bills and monitoring are getting off a lot easier than people on sewer,” he said. “I rest my case. I’m open to rebuttals, but I think that there’s no question that Nitrogen’s a problem, Nitrogen is mostly from septic systems, and sooner or later we’re going to be pushed into everybody who isn’t on town sewer is going to have to upgrade.”

            Johnson believes that the bylaw hinged its report on a faulty narrative regarding Nitrogen around the town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant at Benson Brook.

            “I’ll have to go over this, but my only response at this point in time is the same as the answer Karen Walega gave,” said Johnson, recommending the town put off denitrification upgrades until the state makes them mandatory. “One of the reasons I got into this before was watching these groups do their studies. None of these studies are groundwater studies, they’re all … non-point-source, pollution resource studies. All the groundwater studies that we’ve had done, especially around the sewer-treatment plant, didn’t come up with anything.”

            Hoffer referenced a discussion with Christine Leblanc from East Coast Engineering and noted it would cost the board, including travel, over $500 to host Leblanc for discussion at a Board of Health meeting. Hoffer reported from his exchange with Leblance that the four test wells around the station have “absolutely nothing” to do with the septic situation in Marion.

            Johnson held to his opinion.

            “We’re at the tail end of the water table, and it’s coming from Rochester, Lakeville, what have you,” said Johnson, who argued that one of the reasons the state did not attempt to enforce denitrification septic upgrades as it has on Cape Cod is because “they’re pushing a product that sounds good at the top, but they haven’t provided any backfill as far as maintenance and upkeep and monitoring for this.”

            Johnson compared the situation to electric vehicles. “They’re going to take out all the (gas-powered) cars and make you buy an electric car, and you’ve got no place to fill it up,” he said. “The government giveth and the government taketh away.”

            Seeing the opposing arguments exhausted, Dr. John Howard spoke.

            “It’s two against one. You’re in the minority; you’re in a loyal minority,” he told Johnson.

            Howard said he had his Title 5 system pumped out at the cost of $300 and concluded, “I’m running a sewer-treatment plant at a low cost, let’s put it that way.”

            Johnson and Hoffer agreed to continue the situation, but the board emerged from the meat of the discussion with two members in favor of keeping the denitrification bylaw authored by former board member Dot Brown in place.

            Brown issued her resignation last year after Hoffer and Howard voted to grant a homeowner a variance from the bylaw based on its upland location.

            Johnson is a founding member of the board.

            The next meeting of the Marion Board of Health is scheduled for Thursday, January 11, at 4:30 pm in the conference room at the Town House annex building accessible from Main Street.

Marion Board of Health

By Mick Colageo