It’s been a mighty long time since a new wooden boat was launched from the historic wharves located in Mattapoisett’s harbor, but the long wait is over. On Friday, June 16, the Acorn to Arabella boat will arrive in Mattapoisett. Food trucks are planned to set up around 3:00 pm.

            Saturday will find the crew and associated volunteers busy with the 10:00 am launch time and ceremonial speeches before the christening. If all goes to plan, the boat will be launched by 10:30 am. At 11:30 am, live music will entertain the public, but tours of the vessel will be for major donors and patrons only on Saturday. Food trucks will be open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

            Sunday will find the food trucks open by 10:00 am, and public tours will begin with music at 11:30 am. Tours will end at 4:00 pm. There will be a fee to board the ship.

            The board also discussed a number of major projects still in the cue.

            Town Administrator Mike Lorenco updated a fairly long list that included a meeting planned for June 27 with PARE, the engineering firm working on Phase 2a of the Mattapoisett multiuse pathway aka, the bike path. Lorenco also said that test borings will begin on Long Wharf on July 22, a procedure to determine the current condition of the wharf’s underpinnings.

            Lorenco said that the 25% engineered drawings for Main Street repairs is now in the hands of MassDOT for comment. He said comments most likely won’t be received for several months. Other roadway-related projects noted included the reconstruction of Pearl Street, along with another meeting in the coming months with MassDOT; this time the topic will be the Route 6 corridor and ideas for improvements.

            Regarding grants, Lorenco said that those will be sought for building reconstruction at the Holy Ghost Grounds in the range of $500,000 and that parking pay stations may also be founded with grant monies in the future.

            An ATV vehicle considered by both the Fire and Police departments as worthy life-safety equipment is another item the town is seeking a grant to fund. Filings have been made, Lorenco stated.

            Rounding out the projects list, Lorenco added that dredging between wharves was still pending, as a viable solution for disposing of the spoils had not been found to date. This may become another grant request.

            Earlier in the meeting, the board approved the sale of several surplus mowers and other obsolete equipment and made numerous appointments for a wide ranging variety of positions, everything from the antiquated sounding “measurer of wood and bark” to “fence viewers.” There were, however, many more positions the general public could grasp such as committee appointments for cemeteries to weights and measures.

            While going through the pages of appointments, the board took the time to do a bit of committee housekeeping by dissolving the Flood Plain Advisory Board, the Bike and Pedestrian committee, and the Recreation Committee.

            Before adjournment, the board asked the public to consider becoming a member of the town’s Scholarship Committee. The town has money waiting to be distributed to applicants through a process that allows taxpayers to donate money through a form attached to real estate invoices. Interested parties should contact the Select Board office.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, June 27, time to be announced.

Mattapoisett Select Board

By Marilou Newell

The Marion Conservation Commission voted during its May 24 public meeting to issue 122 Register Road LLC an Order of Conditions for a proposed boat-lift system and access walkway.

            During the public hearing, project representative Dave Davignon of Schneider, Davignon & Leone, Inc. explained that the activity is to be done by a crane set on a barge and occur on land under ocean and land containing shellfish, requiring Chapter 91 Waterways licensing and the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, which issued the original permit.

            Davignon said he was still waiting on comment from the Harbormaster but had received comment from the state Department of Marine Fisheries and from Natural Heritage that he said suggested no impact by the project. He noted likewise regarding the Department of Environmental Protection.

            Commissioner Shaun Walsh sought explanation as to the steel structure slightly off the existing grade. Davignon clarified that the structure will be rigged to rise up with the boat. He said the commissioners could view an example of the same on Water Street.

            Mark Manganello of LEC Environmental was engaged by the property owner, and Davignon said Manganello expects to visit the site in mid-June, considered an optimum time to evaluate the saltmarsh area and determine what it needs in the way of mitigation efforts.

            Chairman Jeff Doubrava and Walsh considered the Division of Marine Fisheries comments to be “boiler plate” in nature.

            Noting that the original application generated much in a way of public comment, Doubrava sought public comment and got none. With that, the commission voted to close the public hearing.

            The Sippican Lands Trust received a Negative Determination of Applicability for approximately 100 feet of split-rail fence with 10 to 12 posts to be installed on a crushed-stone path that leads down to the wood boardwalk.

            Responding to comments that wheelchair users could lose control on the boardwalk, Cathy Stone of the SLT explained the project. Stone asks if the SLT could add a trench, citing the gully caused by heavy rains. “We’re having to fix it a lot and don’t want it to disappear, have a huge river going down there,” said Stone.

            Member Emil Assing suggested a design and proposal in writing in order to add a trench to the project. Doubrava agreed with Assing, qualifying it doesn’t have to come from an engineer. Conservation Agent Doug Guey-Lee said a trench could be contextualized in the application under management plans.

            Fernandes Pacheco was issued a Negative Determination of Applicability to replace eight to 12 trees and bring an area back to acceptable visual condition at 1 Sparrow Lane. The conditions were blamed on what Doubrava characterized as “a hack job” by a utility company.

            “Very bad, beyond any kind of possibility of our imagination that it would come out like this, but it was just horrific, actually,” said Pacheco.

            Commissioners Assing, Walsh and Matt Schultz visited the site. Walsh said every tree growing out there was cut down, and he would file the same application with the commission.

            Pacheco said that the pulling of stumps will require the addition of topsoil, but there is no intention to change the grade of the area. He wants to extend his fence one more panel (adding one post.)

            In his Conservation Agent’s Report, Guey-Lee updated the commission on three matters, neighbor’s inquiry as to a shed’s placement at 27 Fieldstone relative to the commission’s negative determination of applicability, the need for at least an RDA filing to replace a missing step to a concrete staircase at 90 Point Road, and what the Harbormaster reported as evidence that tree limbs have been thrown down into the water from 196 Point Road that are causing a potential navigational hazard.

            The commission issued a three-year extension of a permit for Barrett and Virginia Levenson regarding their ongoing work at 174 Cross Neck Road.

            The commission also voted to approve the issuance of certificates of compliance to Charles Coolidge for work performed on three lots, 604, 604B and 604C Point Road.

            Doubrava presided over the meeting remotely via Zoom because he had COVID-19 the prior week and, while allowed by protocol to go out in public while wearing a facemask, he did not think he could lead the meeting while wearing a mask.

            The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for Wednesday, June 14, at 7:00 pm.

Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday effectively slammed the brakes on a proposal to place a multitown conservation restriction on 241 acres of aquifer land from Acushnet to Mattapoisett that includes 13 acres at Red Brick Farms on the east side of Long Plain Road and the north side of Wolf Island Road.

            The deal breaker was Buzzards Bay Coalition spokesperson Allen Decker’s explanation that the regional CR agreement will give Mattapoisett the water rights to the Rochester parcel under a coownership agreement with the Mattapoisett River Valley Water District. The regional CR, in fact, already has language that Mattapoisett alone will have the right to install up to four new wells on the property, he said.

            Commission members complained that Rochester has lost the right to use its own water resources too many times over the decades, such as a century ago to the New Bedford Water Department. They were united in their refusal to sign the Red Brick Farms CR without more information, especially as to whether the CR can be rewritten to give Rochester rights to some of that water.

            “Any chance this can be rewritten to get us a well?” commission member Ben Bailey asked.

            “I don’t think we can rewrite the restriction at this point,” Decker responded.

            Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior told Decker the panel will not be able to sign the CR without more information from other boards as to its rights in this instance and more information from Decker himself.

            Decker agreed to attend the commission’s next meeting on June 20 and asked for direction on what the commission needs from him. “If this derails a $6,000,000 conservation project, that will be a problem,” he said. “What can I do to get this group what it needs?”

            “You can explore a way to include Rochester getting some of this water going to Mattapoisett,” Bailey said bluntly. “There is a disappointment across this town that Rochester has no right to its water, and that will continue to be the case.”

            Prior to this issue, the commission approved a plan to construct a 119×50-foot steel farm building within 70 feet of a shoreline at 570 New Bedford Road. In response to a Request for Determination of Applicability, the board decided the project does not need wetland-regulations restrictions.

            The commission also approved a plan to construct a new residence at 485 Neck Road with work to include grading for a portion of the patio and landscaping within a wetlands buffer zone with a standard Order of Conditions.

            Gerrior announced that William Clapp has resigned from the Conservation Commission. Gerrior said Clapp has moved from the area, and the board is now actively seeking new commission members.

            He also announced that the owner of 89 Box Turtle Drive was unable to appear or send his attorney to the June 6 meeting but has promised to appear at the board’s next meeting. The board voted against resuming fining him until after that meeting.

            In the year-long dispute over the clearing of land there too close to wetlands without a permit at 89 Box Turtle Drive, the board had approved giving owner Doug Rose until June 6 to provide an acceptable restoration plan without being fined for his noncompliance.

            The Conservation Commission set its next meeting for Tuesday, June 20, starting at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

By Michael J. DeCicco