Rochester Historical Society

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There’s a lot going on this month. First, thanks to all those who donated to, shopped at and helped out at our yard sale. It was a big success. We should be able to pay for two tanks of oil this winter.

            The meeting on the 16th is a potluck dinner and will start at 6:00 not 7. I don’t need to know what you’re bringing (it will be interesting to see what everyone brings), but if you could call or email and let me know how many will be attending, we’ll know how many places to set. Call: 617 750 2818 or email: eshbach2@aol.com. Dinner will be downstairs so come in on the cemetery side of the building.

            August 26 will be our Minifair with a Historic Flair. It will run from 10:00-3:00. There will be a bake sale, activities for young and old, Rochester clothing, books, maps, hats, etc. for sale. You will be able to bring in your town scavenger hunt to redeem your prize. There is a correction for the scavenger hunt- the house number for question 9 is 389. More info on activities coming soon.

From the Files of the Rochester Historical Society

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Years ago, when the First Congregational Church held its annual Labor Day Flea Market, an older gentleman who was perusing the items for sale at the Rochester Historical Society tent said to me, “You know, Rochester is still a nice town to live in, but it’s grown so. It used to be at an event like this I would know everyone, and today, I haven’t recognized a soul”.

            Anna White expressed a similar sentiment at one of the Waterman School reunions. She was remembering that growing up in town, everyone not only pretty much knew everyone, but they also knew what was going on in each other’s lives. This was in part, because most people belonged to the same town organizations, like 4-H, the Women’s Club, the Grange, the Boy Scouts or the Men’s Brotherhood, among others.

            However, another reason for this communal knowledge were the articles written by Georgia Chamberlain who among many other of her activities was the Standard Times Rochester correspondent for many years. This job made her the eyes and ears of Rochester. Her stories covered family milestones, the successes of Rochester students, the activities of the various social organizations, as well as items about interesting residents.

            One such story was about Mrs. Philip Jordanais of Mendall Rd. and her hobby. Mrs. Jordanais’s hobby was canaries. She started off with a pair of birds and after educating herself through reading and observation, she successfully bred the pair. At the time of the article, she had an orchestra of nine singing canaries. She said that “four are good singers, one exceptionally fine and one can dance.” It would seem that all nine created a joyful noise and looking at the picture, you can tell that her hobby brought her great enjoyment.

            It was through articles like this that Rochester residents kept up with the activities and interests of friends and neighbors. The stories Mrs. Chamberlain contributed to the newspaper provided townspeople with a social network long before Facebook and Twitter.

By Connie Eshbach

Health Collaborative Has Tri-Towns

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Rochester’s Board of Health on August 2 signed on to a Southcoast Public Health Collaborative Inter-Municipal Agreement that will allow Rochester to share healthcare resources with five other area towns: Westport, Mattapoisett, Marion, Lakeville and Freetown.

            The vote to join, however, came after board members asked critical questions about what autonomy the town might lose by becoming part of the pact.

            Board of Health Chairperson Sarah Tisdale Eby asked the first question: When will the collaborative’s grant funding run out? Board member Glenn Lawrence said the town entered into a similar cooperative agreement years ago, and in that case, promises didn’t come through. “I’m just very nervous about a ‘collaborative’ like this,” he said, asking for assurance that wouldn’t be the case this time.

            Matt Armendo, director of Public Health for the Town of Westport, assured the board that no control will be lost because the collaborative will remain locally controlled. Westport will be the lead community, not any state entity. “You are autonomous,” he emphasized. “You may withdraw at any time.”

            Armendo said the pact and its grant funding will last until at least 2033. The initial grant last year was $300,000, he said, and another $300,000 was received this year. A total of $132,000 will be added to that amount for 2024. A Shared Services coordinator, an administrative position, has already been hired. Shared inspectors will also be hired. The grant will fund salaries and other expenses. Each town will send a primary representative and an alternate to the collaborative board that will have public, posted meetings.

            Armendo said before the final approval vote that there will be no cost to the town to withdraw, except not being able to share its grant resources anymore.

            “The positive is we will get backup with our workload, our heavy workload,” Rochester Health Director Karen Walega said. “Knowing that I will have backup resources is worth its weight in gold.”

            In a recent meeting in which the Select Board agreed to the pact, Walega said her department would be able to hire a food inspector to replace one who is retiring.

            Next, the Board of Health met with state Tobacco and Marijuana Program Director Megan DaCosta to tweak the preferred version of state regulations regarding retail tobacco sales that the town will adopt.

            Highlights include deleting the regulations regarding blunt wrap cigarette wrappers as a way to discourage their sale in Rochester. DaCosta and the board also agreed that there shall be no more than seven tobacco-product sales permits in town at one time. New permits shall not be allowed within 500 feet of an existing tobacco retailer, nor within 500 feet of an elementary or secondary school. Cigar bars, flavored tobacco and electronic, nicotine-delivery-system products will be prohibited. A tobacco-sales permit shall be suspended for seven days upon a second violation of regulations; 30-day suspension for a third violation.

            DaCosta said she will have a final draft of the regulations in time for the board’s September 6 meeting.

            The Rochester Board of Health scheduled its next two meetings for Wednesday, September 6, and Wednesday, October 4, at 4:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Board of Health

By Michael J. DeCicco

Survey Favors Historic District

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            Approximately 90% of survey respondents would like the Town of Marion to preserve its historic character, the Historic District Study Committee concluded at its August 4 public meeting.

            While the committee will host a public meeting on September 12 to further discuss what a bylaw and related regulations would entail, members said the responses were not as positive in connection to some of the detailed questions regarding demolition or other proposed regulations.

             The committee hopes to further gauge public opinion at the September 12 meeting, and Chairman Will Tifft plans on meeting with members of the Select Board to discuss the findings.

            “It will be an opportunity to engage public input with the results,” according to member Eric Dray. Although only 80 people responded to the mailed survey, that volume represents a high number for a public survey of that kind, according to Dray.

            “No survey (in town government) has gotten this response rate,” Tifft said.

            In addition to the September 12 meeting, the study committee also plans on an ambitious schedule that could lead to a bylaw and official historic district by next spring’s Town Meeting. Members said that the Warrant for the annual Town Meeting closes by March 1.

            The committee would plan on involving the Planning Board and then conducting some public hearings by March 1.

            The real challenge is getting more people involved and learning about the proposal before Town Meeting, study committee members say, noting that sometimes people do not learn about a new bylaw proposal and a proposed change until Town Meeting.

            Members hope to avoid that trend and that whatever change is proposed represents the interests of many people who want to preserve historic structures and areas in town.

Marion Historic District Study Committee

By Jeffrey D. Wagner

Tri-Town Against Racism

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TTAR announces book selection for the September Community Read celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at the Elizabeth Taber Library in Marion on Saturday, September 23, at 10 am.

            The book Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo tells the story of one Dominican-American family told through the voices of its women as they await a gathering that will forever change their lives. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo’s inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an unforgettable portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.

            Tri-Town Against Racism is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to defending against racism within the community by providing education, promoting positive communication and listening to the voices of those affected.

            For more information or to RSVP, please visit www.tritownagainstracism.org. Refreshments will be served.

Academic Achievements

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Approximately 5,500 students received bachelor’s degrees in over 100 majors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Undergraduate Commencement on May 26, 2023 at the McGuirk Alumni Stadium including:

            From Marion: Paul Johnson Albani, Mikayla Chandler, Nicole Wu Sha Fantoni, William Riley Garcia and Daniel Yunhui Hartley.

            From Mattapoisett: Michael Thomas Barry, Danya Hildreth Bichsel, Adam Joseph Breault, Sophia Kelley Clingman, Sam Hartley-Matteson, Abigail Sarah Horan, Victoria Lynne Kvilhaug, Morgan Luisa Mendonca, Samantha Nicolosi, Carly Angel O’Connell and Gregory J Schneider.

            From Rochester: Noah Fernandes, Adrian William Gleasure, Genevieve Maria Grignetti, Kristina Onute Hopkins, Amelia Ann Isabelle, Noah Massaad, Ryan Steven Vieira and Raymond Walter Williams.

            Curry College congratulates Ariane Dias of Rochester, Sarah Murdoch of Marion, Matthew Simmons of Rochester and Maxwell Stewart of Marion, who were named to the Spring 2023 Dean’s List.

John Nicolaci Memorial Float Fly

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The John Nicolaci Memorial Float Fly will take place on Mary’s Pond, Rochester, Massachusetts, on August 19, from 10:00 am to early afternoon. The event, for radio-controlled model seaplanes and flying boats, is hosted by the Bristol County Radio Control Club. Spectators are welcome. Pilots must be AMA members. This is an AMA-sanctioned event. Entrance is opposite 507 Mary’s Pond Road in Rochester. There will be scale models of WWII warplanes, bush planes on floats and sport models of many shapes and sizes. For more information, contact Nancy Dupont, nanw395@comcast.net.

Worlds within a Single Stroke

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Bernie Klim has been surprising art lovers for decades, and yet his work remains fresh as if created yesterday or just a moment ago. Klim’s exhibit now on view at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library took this visitor to the edge of abstract expression and then slowly, like a gentle rain, soaked my view in color. The exhibit is titled Nature’s Cakewalk.

            Klim studied at the Massachusetts College of Art, earning a BFA and later a master’s in education at Cambridge College. He pursued a teaching career and continued painting as time allowed, accepting commissions. Of his art production, Klim said that painting was always there and that the commissions just kept on coming.

            Asked to describe his style of painting, Klim said, “It’s expressive, reactionary, impromptu, a quick process like alla prima.” (Alla prima in this case means painting single applications of paint versus layering the paint to create depth and light.)

            Klim spoke tenderly about his subject matters, which include local nature scenes and architecture. The brushstrokes while conveying a fluid sense of the immediacy of a moment are also comfortable to the eye and exciting to the mind.

            “I want to engage people, give them an emotional experience,” he said, noting that while the finished works are recognizable as trees and plants or buildings, the movement found therein is evident, “not a straightforward approach.”

            Klim said he works primarily with acrylic on canvas, and each brush stroke is a “springboard” to finding the composition.

            All visual artists speak to the matter of light, finding the light, capturing the light and expressing the light – because light brings the color to life. That is true of Klim’s works in massive doses. Clicking through his online catalog, one finds a world of color in a collection titled Seacoast Inspirations.

            Also on view at the library is a small collection of ink drawings. These pieces truly convey the rapidity with which Klim moves across a virgin field, laying down shadows and lines of cityscapes or still-life works that depart from the traditional to the imaginative to the fantastical.

            Klim’s life and his artistic endeavors have taken him from a struggling painter to a highly sought after designer of interior works of art on commission. Like the brushstrokes of his paintings, he floated on that experience, thinking, “…where can it go from here?”

            Today Klim finds inspiration in local landscapes, places he has enjoyed since childhood and structures that invite him to trust his process and simply go with the flow. A former adult student of Klim’s said that he encouraged his students to simply try to make a brushstroke and find out what can happen when one simply lets go. Klim is still letting go, and we are all better for it.

            As a supplement to the exhibit, visit Klim’s website at bernieklim.com.

Mattapoisett Free Public Library

By Marilou Newell

Abutter Stressed by Cannabis Store Hours

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Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday reviewed updated plans for the Special Permit and Site Plan Review application for a commercial building at 621 County Road that will include Megan’s Organic Market, a recreational-marijuana retail store and fielded concerns raised by the business’s nearest abutter.

            Louise Hebert of 617 County Road asked when will the lit signage go on and be turned off and what will be the hours of operation.

            The petitioner’s attorney, Jonathan Silverman, answered that all the parking-lot lighting will be cast downward and will turn off an hour after closing time to allow employees to safely leave work. The proposed hours of operation, he said, are from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.

            Hebert grimaced in response.  She noted that means the lights next door to her home will be lit until 11:00 pm, and she gets up at 4:00 am for work.

            Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson offered the consolation that the panel reserves the right to revisit anything that becomes a nuisance issue that arises at a business it permits.

            Silverman noted cannabis-retail shops are heavily regulated, more so than other similar retail businesses, and therefore they create less nuisance problems because of their mandated restriction such as against on-site loitering.

            “It is inevitable that this is happening,” Hebert admitted. “I just want you to be a good neighbor.”

            Planning Board member Lee Carr asked if the store name could be changed to make Megan’s Organic Market less misleading. People could visit the store assuming it’s a place where they can buy tomatoes, he said.

            Other board members added their own recommendations that a reference to cannabis sales be added to signage. Silverman said other communities have been against seeing “cannabis” on store signs but that his client would “love” to comply by adding the reference to signage in Rochester.

            The public hearing began with Phil Cordeiro of Allen and Major Associates, Inc., updating the board on the project’s design plan.

            Megan’s Organic Market will be within a 7,500 square-foot building. Its part of the lot will offer 42 parking spaces. For the two abutting residents to the south, there will be a vegetated border that includes leaving in existing trees. North-side abutters will get a 20-foot vegetated buffer and fence.

            Water will be provided through the extension of a Town of Wareham municipal water line. Fire suppression will be augmented by a dedicated fire hydrant on site.

            Johnson said the board wants to see the security plan for the facility before voting on the draft decision. Silverman said this plan has been forwarded to Rochester Police and Fire departments, and he did not send it to the Planning Board because then the details of its security arrangements would become public records for any potential thief to see. Johnson agreed to ask the Fire and Police chiefs for a look at their copies of it.

            The panel continued the public hearing until September 12 after approving the project’s two waiver requests: a reduced distance from the stormwater-treatment center of only 157.2 feet and a reduced distance between stormwater system and the sewerage system of 132 feet.

            Elsewhere on its August 8 agenda, the board approved a Certificate of Compliance for the solar project at 0 Walnut Plain Road and Old Middleboro Road after Johnson reported that all disturbed areas appear to be vegetated and stabilized.

            The board then approved a one-year extension of the Special Permit and Groundwater Protection District SP for the large-scale photovoltaic installation solar project at 0 Snipatuit Road.

            Following this vote, the board accepted a request to continue until September 12 its public hearing into the Site Plan Review application for a tree and perennials nursery at 157 Vaughan Hill Road filed by Jennifer and Chuck Anderson.

            The Rochester Planning Board’s next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 12, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Planning Board

By Michael J. DeCicco

Robert J. “Bob” Larsen

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Robert J. “Bob” Larsen, 80, of Mattapoisett died Tuesday, August 8, 2023 unexpectedly at home. He was the husband of Carol (Sephton) Larsen.

            Born in Penn Yan, NY, son of the late James and Martha (Fullagar) Larsen, he lived in New York until joining the United States Army after college. He later lived in Maryland until moving to back Massachusetts where he resided for many years.

            Bob was a member of St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Marion, where he served as Junior Warden.

            He was formerly employed at various high tech companies including Raytheon, Compugraphic, and Sycamore Networks.

            Bob loved to sail and enjoyed competitive sailboat racing. He also loved to spend time with his cats and his family, especially his grandchildren.  Bob was a handyman and in retirement enjoyed helping do work for others.

            He is survived by his wife, Carol; his daughter, Kristen Vesey and her husband Joseph of Connecticut; three step-children; five grandchildren; and three step-grandchildren.

            His Funeral Service will be held Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 10:30 am at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, 124 Front St., Marion. A private burial service will be held at Shawsheen Cemetery in Bedford, MA. For online guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.