Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday approved the next step for a plan that will place a 15-acre, self-storage facility at Kings Highway and Route 28. The panel approved an Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation that reflagged the parcel’s 2,700 linear feet of bordering vegetated wetlands.

            The Concom approved the site’s first wetlands delineation in 2015, the petitioner’s engineer Robert Rogers explained at a previous meeting. Then a commercial development plan that did not survive long was approved in 2017. Now, eight years later, the flags marking the wetlands are hard to find and just plain missing.

            Rogers reported Tuesday that the delineation flags have been successfully rehung, and Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly endorsed the work. “It looked good to me,” she said. Rogers said next he will want to seek approval of a new Notice of Intent on the project itself. The commission promptly approved the delineation unanimously.

            Next, the commission asked for more information before it can approve a Notice of Intent for a plan to expand the backyard and level the area with additional fill at 31 Hiller Road, for a yard that will extend no closer than 25 feet to the wetlands.

            Homeowner Nathaniel Reece told the board he simply wishes to extend his backyard and flatten it “closer to level” for more space that his family and pets can play on. Already, he has placed a silt fence and boulders where he wants his work to start, he said. He explained he is a mechanical engineer by trade, and his starting point for his wetlands distance measurements are old wetlands flags on the property.

            The commission responded that it needs a precise delineation of where the wetlands begin and that Reece should hire an engineer for the job. Commission member Ben Bailey cautioned Reece that it will take at least two commission meetings before the actual approval can be given.

            The commission then had a similar request of Walter Farias regarding his property at 532 Snipatuit Road, where an Enforcement Order was recently issued to stop work after the property was the site of a fire near a houseboat on the pond.

            Faria and his consulting engineer Rick Charon explained to the board their specific plan to carefully clean up the area. The commission said what needs to be done first is to file the Notice of Intent paperwork to include a wetlands delineation.

            Charon said the houseboat has a fiberglass hull and a wooden frame and is sinking into the pond. The plan is to surround it with a vinyl containment boom and silt controls and be ready for anything beyond that with oil-absorption pillows. A small excavator will then clean out the hull, cut the hull up and haul it away, then take out the remainder of the dock and clean the burnt debris from the hangar building.

            Bailey asked why a wetlands delineation has not been done. “It depends on how fast you want us to move on this cleanup,” Charon said.

            “We just want to make sure you do the work correctly,” member Mike Gifford said.

The board instructed Charon to file a Notice of Intent, including a wetlands delineation before any work begins.

            Next, the board learned the Mattapoisett Select Board cannot help the town with the much-debated, 241-acre regional Conservation Restriction that includes 13 acres at Red Brick Farm East but gives Rochester no rights to the water there. The agreement gives Mattapoisett the water rights to the Rochester parcel, including possibly digging up to four new wells under a co-ownership agreement with the Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Authority.

            Kelly on Tuesday read aloud a recent letter from the Mattapoisett Select Board in which the panel said the issue is outside its jurisdiction.

            Moments later, Kelly had better news, that Rochester Town Administrator Glenn Cannon recently told her he is working to schedule a meeting of Mattapoisett Water Authority and Rochester officials for the November 6 Select Board meeting to discuss the issue. This led Conservation Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior to move that the commission post notice of a public meeting that night to join that discussion.

            The commission decided at its meeting two weeks ago to take its appeal to keep the town’s rights to that water local directly to the Select Board, and the Planning Board agreed to join this strategy last week. When they first heard of the CR plan months ago, commission members complained that Rochester has lost the right to use its own water resources too many times over the decades.

            The commission eventually prodded the Mattapoisett Water Authority to agree in writing it would “make every effort” to transfer the conservation land in Rochester to the town for $1. But Town Counsel recently told the commission that the promise of making “every effort” is not a legally enforceable one.

            The Conservation Commission scheduled its next meeting for Tuesday, November 7, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Conservation Commission

By Michael J. DeCicco

            The Mattapoisett Fall Special Town Meeting will take place on Monday, November 6, at 6:30 pm at Old Rochester Regional High School Auditorium. At that time, voters will be asked to transfer and spend revenue included in 11 warrant articles.

            On Monday, the Mattapoisett Select Board unanimously moved each article for voters’ consideration. Before the meeting began, member Tyler Macallister quipped that the warrant didn’t spark any surprises. The only article the board believed would be problematic for voters is Article 11, Fairhaven Sewer Treatment Plant Upgrades, weighing in at $8,000,000, Mattapoisett’s 16% share of a total project estimated at $70,000,000.

            “Sewer rates will increase,” stated Town Administrator Mike Lorenco, who confirmed when asked that Mattapoisett sewer fees will pay for the town’s portion over time. Lorenco noted that Water and Sewer Superintendent Henri Renauld is seeking to find ways to level off increases in sewer rates rather than asking the users to pony up large sums. “But there will be increases,” he concluded.

            Article 7 will address the need for additional financing over and above the Coastal Zone Management grant of $585,000 to cover any easement or confirmatory taking fees associated with the rehabilitation of Old Slough Road.

            Long discussed as an important, albeit necessary evacuation route off Angelica Point in the event of a flood emergency, Old Slough Road, it is believed, was once used as a logging road and later a bootleggers’ route to open water.

            The road appears on local mapping dated 1810 but has basically been abandoned for decades, informally absorbed into private backyards. New mapping completed late 2022 performed by Ken Motta of Field Engineering, the town’s consulting engineer, displays a roadway capable of offering an escape route should flood waters cut off existing, paved roadways. Approximately 140 structures could be serviced with Old Slough Road’s reopening.

            Working in partnership with the Mattapoisett Land Trust, which has considerable open space holdings in the neighborhood and along Old Slough Road, the town received a CZM grant in the amount of $585,000. An additional $235,000 will be needed as the town’s portion for engineering fees. “The construction estimates came in higher than expected,” Lorenco told the Wanderer, at $646,000. “There were permitting costs, engineering and survey expenses not part of the estimate.”

            Lorenco also stated that the town is satisfied with the current mapping of Old Slough Road, and that wetlands were an issue when planning rehabilitation of the ancient way.

            At the beginning of Monday’s Select Board meeting, Lorenco confirmed that the state audit certified Free Cash at $3,005,426, “…a healthy number…” and that several stabilization and other funds will benefit from a transfer of free-cash funds. But Lorenco also pointed out that if Town Meeting moves all the articles, there will remain, “approximately $1,000,000 going into the Spring Town Meeting.”

            Article 1 will transfer $575,000 to the Debt Stabilization Fund, and Article 2 $335,000 to the Mattapoisett Capital Stabilization Fund, both from free cash.

            Article 3 will appropriate $330,000 for Public Works projects such as roadways and sidewalks.

            Article 4 would appropriate $37,000 for a sewer connection to land along Industrial Drive, formerly a town dump site. Select Board member Jodi Bauer questioned the wisdom of spending taxpayer money on property that cannot be developed due to the subterrain dump site. Macillister and Lorenco advised her that the property could be developed by bringing in fresh fill material and no breaching of the former dump location. The article was moved for inclusion. Free cash would be tapped for this article.

            Also coming from free cash, $350,000 via Article 5, to be used for the Highway Building renovations.

            Amendments to the FY24 Annual Budget are included in Article 6. Those are $24,394 (part-time personnel, treasurer/collector), $100,000 (local schools) and $10,000 for the Transfer Station.

            Article 8, Confirmatory Takings Tinkham Forest $1,000, will come from free cash, and Article 9 will allow the town to establish a Stabilization Fund and to appropriate funds from the opioid settlement. Article 10 will move the proceeds from the sale of the former Water Department Building on Church Street ($353,590) from free cash to the Water Department Reserve Fund.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board was not announced before adjournment.

Mattapoisett Select Board

By Marilou Newell