The dissolution of the Country Fair has left a void in the community life of Rochester residents and town employees. One of those town employees, Executive Assistant Amanda Baptiste, did some recent fact-finding and on Tuesday night brought a proposal to the Rochester Select Board.

            She wants to form a Town Event Committee.

            Baptiste has been in touch with Town Planner Nancy Durfee regarding Rochester’s Master Plan and determined that without the fair, Rochester needs a new town event. So she requested an advisory committee that would consist of herself, Durfee, Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge, Facilities Manager Andrew Daniel and two at-large members. (Those interested in joining an Events Committee are asked to reach out to Baptiste at Town Hall by calling 508-763-3871.)

            Her concept is a core group to explore feasibility options before opening the floodgates to many volunteers.

            The idea struck a positive cord with the Select Board, but member Brad Morse responded carefully, telling Baptiste to be weary of creating a similar scenario as what happened with the Country Fair.

            “It can’t be the town. For instance … tax dollars shouldn’t be used, nor should employees be spending a lot of their time outside the normal scope of their work,” he said.

            Select Board member Adam Murphy noted that Rochester does not have a recreation department. “I understand using town employees and resources … since we don’t have a recreation department to host, I don’t have an issue to explore a small event …,” he said.

            Morse reinforced his cautionary tale that town employees avoid weeks on end working on an event.

            “This is the kind of core group that worked on Memorial Day and the tree-lighting event,” said Baptiste, who also discussed the matter with Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar “to see what we could do to accept donations so it wouldn’t be town funds.”

            Resident Mary McCann said that while the town would like to run an event as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the town has the authority to run an event.

            “We do, but we have to be fiscally responsible to all residents,” said Morse.

            Town Administrator Glenn Cannon alluded to confusion among residents over donations that they thought were going to the Country Fair when they were actually going to the Town of Rochester. He said forming a nonprofit would make a new event a cleaner operation.

            Morse recommended the board wait until two at-large members have been identified, at which point the board should revisit the matter with an approval in mind.

            “It’s nice to see the employees of the town trying to put something together – thank you,” said Murphy, addressing Baptiste.

            In his Town Administrator’s Report, Cannon told the board that tax bills have gone out and are due on November 30, which is earlier this year. He said Rochester ranks 22nd among the top towns in the commonwealth, and the board members publicly thanked the Assessors Department.

            Rochester has been certified for $1,400,000 in free cash, down from $1,800,000 last year. Cannon said $500,000 goes into the operating budget, $15,000 to the retirement fund, $300,000 to the capital improvement fund and $200,000 to the public-safety and highway stabilization funds.

            Cannon came away from a meeting with Murphy and representatives on Cape Cod with information that state revenues are down and “indicators that the budget is going to be a little tight this year.”

            He said Rochester relies heavily on its arrangement with SEMASS.

            Cannon reported having sent memos to department heads seeking their capital-improvement requests. He said the town has used $22,000 in an 80/20 match to purchase a $111,000 van.

            He also noted a citizen’s complaint about the volume accessing public meetings at home via Zoom. Cannon said he would reach out to ORCTV.

            Murphy reported on the first meeting of the Public Safety Building Committee and said he wants to clear the air on the financial estimates that have been thrown around.

            Recently dissolved after meeting several times during 2023, the Feasibility Study Committee necessarily discussed scenarios for the upgrade to fire and police facilities with hard and soft- cost estimates.

            Murphy indicated that money will not be discussed by the Public Safety Building Committee until it has run its own course in getting the most affordable solutions for the town.

            The plan will include: the development of a new fire station on existing town-owned property; improvements to the existing police station by first incorporating in-house construction methods using the Capital Improvement Fund as reviewed by the Capital Planning Committee and construction of a fire substation at the intersection of Ryder Road and High Street.

            Reading from a prepared statement, Murphy said, “The (Public Safety Building Committee) acknowledges the obligation we have to our residents to be fiscally responsible throughout this process; therefore, the committee is taking proactive steps to explore multiple avenues to help mitigate rising costs.”

            One strategy Murphy identified is completion of preliminary site work in-house and reviewing options associated with prefabricated, metal building construction.

            “The committee is committed to presenting a pragmatic, streamlined yet achievable project for the voters at Town Meeting and the ballot. The pandemic has led to an unprecedented surge in construction-related costs. Despite these adversities, we are resolved in our pursuit of a solution that will serve our community safety needs, while being mindful of the economic constraints faced by our citizens.”

            Murphy said the committee will hold a field trip on Thursday, October 26, to look at the fire and police stations, identify immediate needs and strategically pick what’s going to take precedence.

            “We want to make it clear that we’re not going to throw out any numbers, we’re going to do our homework and report to the community,” he said.

            In other business, the Select Board approved the 10th annual Frosty Runner Road Race at Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School on Saturday, January 27, 2024. The event will include 10-mile and 3.1-mile (5k) races beginning at 10:00 am. The rain date is February 3, 2024.

            In two votes due to different lengths of the terms, Mary McCann, Erin Lewis and Elizabeth McGrath Garvey were appointed to the town’s Cultural Council, McCann and Lewis to an April 30, 2024, expiration, and McGrath Garvey to an April 30, 2025 expiration.

            McCann and Mark Wellington were appointed to the town’s newly formed By-Law Review Committee.

            Select Board Chairman Paul Ciaburri thanked the new members “for stepping up.”

            The board voted to appoint Murphy to the negotiating team with the Rochester Memorial School Teacher’s Union and Support Staff Union contract negotiations. “Happy to do it,” said Murphy. Morse had represented the board for the last six contracts.

            A Finance Director contract amendment on the meeting agenda was tabled.

            The board adjourned public session and entered executive session to discuss three issues: Ben Bailey’s Open Meeting Law complaint against the Select Board; strategy with respect to the police union, the Rochester-Middleborough Water Agreement and Harvey Waste & Recycling Services; and to consider a lease agreement for solar panels at Rochester Memorial School. Executive session also vetted minutes of executive sessions going back to January 2018.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, November 6, at 6:00 pm at the Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Select Board

By Mick Colageo

During the October 24 meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board, the members met with Jamie Pisano of the engineering firm VHB, which has been charged with creating village-street, roadway-improvement plans for approximately two years.

            In September, when VHB’s representatives came before the board, they brought the troubling news that some 36 trees would need to be felled in order to achieve a 25% design model acceptable to the state Department of Transportation. Pisano and his team left that meeting with a goal that had often been asked for: to find a way to save as many trees as possible.

            On this night, Pisano presented three design options he believed would satisfy the state but which quickly left the public and the board disappointed. What ensued was more like a brainstorming session, as each person in the room was given an opportunity to express an opinion to the board. But the session did not produce the solid decision-making needed to keep the project on track to funding.

            Town Administrator Mike Lorenco cautioned that during a discussion he had with the DOT’s team handling the project, it was made clear that the clock was running out for Mattapoisett to get its 25% design submitted.

            Select Board member Jordan Collyer offered that possibly sections of the project could be funded by the town, such as the roadway along Munroe Preserve, a Mattapoisett Land Trust property. He said, by doing it themselves, the proposal to remove a grove of trees to make way for a sidewalk would be unnecessary. Pisano was asked to discuss an option like this with DOT.

            After further discussion, the board determined that on Tuesday, November 14, it would hold a working session to delve into this matter one more time. Between now and then, Pisano will reach out to Eversource to explore the possibility of replacing old utility poles with taller, newer ones that might help to spare threatened trees. Pisano will also submit another plan updated with information from his Eversource discussion.

            The village street improvement project has a projected $8,000,000 price tag. Funding is planned in part to come from the Massachusetts TIP program. Before moving on to other agenda items, Collyer asked the public to submit detailed letters with ideas and opinions to the board for its consideration on November 14.

            Earlier in the meeting, the board met with Eversource, which is planning a two-phase, gas-line upgrade project, the first to begin as early as November along Mattapoisett Neck Road and Fairhaven Road. When asked, the Eversource representative said that service to users will not be interrupted and that all customers will receive new gas lines to homes and business structures.

            The Mattapoisett Land Trust gifted the town with $20,000 to be used for new sidewalks and a parking area on the west side of Mattapoisett Neck Road. Present to offer the gift was MLT president Mike Huguenin. Reading from a letter to the board he said, “The funds to be transferred were raised by MLT from private donors in 2016 to 2018 as part of efforts to acquire the Hammond Quarry.” He said that because that property was subsequently acquired by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. “The funds were set aside to support improvements for quarry visitors …” The board was unanimous in its gratitude as the members accepted the gift.

            The board approved the transfer of an all-alcohol license held by the Village Package Store to new owner Jason Silva, doing business as J&S Wine and Spirits. They also approved new management for the Stowaway.

            Lorenco reminded the public that real estate taxes are due on Wednesday, November 1, and that Town Meeting is taking place on Monday, November 6, at 6:30 pm in the Old Rochester Regional High School auditorium.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett Select Board

By Marilou Newell

            The pivotal appropriation of $1,202,688 was approved by an overwhelming majority at Marion’s Special Fall Town Meeting held Monday night at Sippican Elementary School, green-lighting construction of a new Maritime Center that will upgrade and centralize Harbormaster Department operations at Island Wharf.

            Added to $1,603,000 in previously awarded grant funding from the state’s Seaport Economic Council and $700,000 via a prior Town Meeting appropriation, Monday night’s action brings the funding total to $3,505,688, the estimated construction and equipping cost of the new harbormaster headquarters.

            Despite the selling point that the funding source for the authorized borrowing will be the town’s Waterways Account, which is funded by harbor-related fees, some taxpayers raised questions about the funding.

            First to the microphone was Dr. Ed Hoffer, who noted that Article S1 of the Town Meeting Warrant acknowledged that the Town of Marion will be generally obligated. He questioned cost overruns common to large projects.

            Planning Board member Eileen Marum, who has spoken in public meetings in favor of having the harbormaster work out of a trailer that could be removed at the threat of a storm, cited concerns for the safety of the department’s staff and suggested that no design at the required 23.5 feet of elevation can withstand storms anticipated amidst climate change.

            Jon Henry argued against Marum’s point, tracing the underpinnings of the current, 40-year-old office to the federal Works Progress Administration construction of 90 years ago. He said that if the existing building hasn’t blown away by now, there is no reason to worry about a state-of-the-art construction at the site.

            Henry’s comments drew applause.

            “We have the money,” he said, reminding the town he served four terms as a Select Board member (Henry now serves on the Planning Board.) “I don’t think we have to worry about some slight of hand. It’s time to do our part.”

            Noting that the project is more expensive than his 12-room, Hiller Street house with a view of Island Wharf, Gordon Goodwin, who served 13 years on the Marine Resources Commission, said the elevator in the plan is certain to rust and suggested Marion find better ways to spend the money.

            William Washburn then confirmed with Town Administrator Geoff Gorman that further delay, including redesign, would result in forfeiture of SEC grant funding. Washburn admitted that he had been skeptical about the project but said Marion will need it later and if the town doesn’t act now, the same opportunities will not be there to revisit the matter.

            “I’m out there every day,” said resident Doug Thackeray of the harbor. “If you want the best help, you give them the best equipment.” Citing irresponsible behavior in the crowded harbor, Jeff Dickerson also spoke in favor of supporting the harbor police, drawing applause.

            Approaching 30 years on the MRC, Chairman Vin Malkoski told attendees that while the Maritime Center is a larger project, the town used the same funding method to perform other key upgrades in town, including Old Landing.

            Attendees seeking revisions were reminded that the project went before voters at a prior Town Meeting and was sent back for revisions; the result is a footprint shrunken down to approximately 1,700 square feet, along with the elimination of an ADA-compliant ramp in favor of what Facilities Manager and in-house project manager Shaun Cormier described as “a lift” rather than an elevator.

            Gorman explained that the device is needed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the meeting room in the new office is required for public access in accordance with the stipulations of the SEC (state) grant.

            “We knew the opposition was going to be there with certain people. They’ve been vocal in the public about the project. Not that their concerns aren’t validated, I just think the lack of education and them coming to look for the answers, I wish they would have come down to us, and we could have walked them through it,” said Harbormaster Adam Murphy. “I think the townspeople showed up tonight. You saw several people leave after the very first article. That spoke to the community and to the support that we do have.

            “For that, we’re excited. It’s been a three-year project, and I’m just glad that we’ve come to the final stages, and we were able to push it through.”

            By Tuesday morning, the town was to inform the low bidder for construction of the project (Marion-based South Coast Improvement Company) of the vote supporting the funding, after which Cormier, Murphy and Chief of Police Richard Nighelli would schedule a preconstruction meeting with the builder. Construction is anticipated to take from nine months to one year.

            Since Isaac Perry’s early-summer departure to become Mattapoisett’s harbormaster, Murphy and Nighelli have worked together to promote the project to residents.

            “Not that there’s no validity in what the harbormaster says, but when you get the backing of the police chief and the support of the police chief, you get a little bit more push. People trust the police chief, his credibility and understand from a public-safety aspect the importance of it,” said Murphy.

            Upon the vote, approximately 25% of voters left the meeting.

            Of the warrant’s 11 other articles, 10 carried, but two articles brought critical reactions from members of the Planning Board.

            Article 9, which would have tweaked the existing bylaw for beaches and public property to require dog owners to “have a means” to clean up after their pets, was postponed indefinitely. Since the last Select Board meeting, Chairman Toby Burr apparently swayed at least one of the other two members toward his view that a dog-bag bylaw won’t have any more teeth than the present bylaw simply requiring that owners clean up after their dogs.

            Planning Board member Andrew Daniel took the occasion to bring to Town Meeting floor his concerns about bylaw process, specifically the dissolution of the Bylaw Codification Committee from its prior position as a subcommittee reporting to the Planning Board and recreation as a subcommittee reporting to the Select Board.

            “It seems like kind of a shady deal,” said Daniel, alluding to the coincidental power shift on the Planning Board that came with the 2023 Town Election.

            Article 8 requires that a citizens’ petition must be submitted 60 days before Town Meeting, but the Select Board would have the right to waive the requirement.

            The article carried but not before Tucker Burr, chairman of the Planning Board (and son of Select Board Chairman Toby Burr), publicly took issue with what he considers a “two-tiered system” that allows the Select Board to add articles after the warrant is closed to the public.

            “It’s our meeting,” he said, suggesting that the Select Board should have no Town Meeting rights unavailable to every Marion voter.

            Gorman explained that the law was not being altered, only that language was being added so citizens understand the existing policy.

            Article 2 transferred $75,000 from the group insurance account, $10,000 from Water Department retained earnings and $15,000 from Sewer Department retained earnings to support the Collective Bargaining Agreement and a 3% cost-of-living adjustment in pay for nonunion employees.

            Article 3 transferred the $30,864.97 that Marion has received to date in the opioid manufacturers’ class-action lawsuit to create an Opioid Remediation Fund to be used by Finance Committee, Police Department and the Board of Health. As part of a statewide distribution to municipalities, Marion receives between $3,000 and $5,000 per month.

            Article 4 appropriated $56,907 for Fire Stations 1 and 2 communication systems. Article 5 appropriated $12,000 for new audio/visual equipment for the Town House. As requested by the town clerk, Article 6 approved new requirements for swearing in that match Massachusetts general laws. Article 7, a repeat from 2022, combined wiring, gas and electric into one article in the Marion bylaw. Articles 10-12 corrected clerical mistakes in existing regulations.

            Attending her final Town Meeting, retiring Finance Director Judy Mooney was recognized by Gorman with a bouquet of flowers and received a standing ovation for her 20 years of service to Marion. Attending her first Town Meeting in the role of new finance director was Heather O’Brien.

            The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, November 7, at 6:00 pm at the Police Station.

Marion Special Town Meeting

By Mick Colageo