Rochester’s Board of Health met on January 10 to approve an FY25 budget of $109,760 that is a 7.8% increase over FY24.

            Rochester Health Director Karen A. Walega, however, emphasized that more needs to be done to boost employee hours to complete the tasks of a full-time board now under the constraints of a part-time work schedule. She said the new budget features a 2% cost-of-living increase for Public Health Nurse Connie Dolan to $33,516, but what Dolan and other Board of Health staff need is more work hours to do their jobs, she said.

            “I’m hoping in the future to add more hours for her (Dolan) to 25 per week,” Walega said.

            Dolan, she explained, is currently at 15 hours per week. “And that’s not enough,” she said. “We have to look into ways to get more hours for the people who work for the Board of Health.”

            Dolan, Walega noted, does not even have her own work desk out of town hall. She works entirely out of her home. Dolan said she was fine working that way for now, but this admission came after she and Walega reminisced that she has had desks at Town Hall that she has slowly been downsized out of since 2019. She said lately she’s shared an office at the Council on Aging Senior Center with the SHINE director. But right now neither of them has that office, as it is being used for income tax counseling.

            Following this discussion, Dolan’s report to the board featured updates on COVID rates and a pilot program utilizing opioid court-case settlement funds. Dolan said last week alone there were five COVID cases in Rochester. Her office has been distributing COVID test kits around town, including at the Senior Center. “It’s the season for it,” she said. “A lot of bugs going around.”

            Dolan also announced that a Narcan education pilot program is scheduled for the Senior Center on February 7. The town’s share of funding from a federal court settlement against manufacturers, distributors and retailers for their actions that contributed to the current opioid epidemic is being utilized for this effort to teach the public CPR and Narcan treatment for overdoses. In February, a select group of participants will be so trained at the COA. If this first such training is successful, the program may become available to the public on a regular basis, Dolan said.

            In other action, Walega reported that a complaint regarding 515 Rounseville Road pertaining to a mobile home causing unsanitary conditions is being referred to the state Attorney General’s office for further investigation.

            The Rochester Board of Health did not schedule a future meeting date at adjournment.

Rochester Board of Health

By Michael J. DeCicco

The Buzzards Bay Coalition, along with their engineer and contractor working on The Bogs restoration project off Acushnet Road, came before the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission on January 16. The meeting was to discuss recent flooding of the site now fully under construction, which led to the transmission of soils beyond the scope of work, namely the woods surrounding the site and the Mattapoisett River.

            During the nearly two-hour discussion, the commission heard from the on-site management team of the contractor Luciano of Taunton, the engineer Stephen Leeco of GZA, and Sara da Silva Quintal, restoration ecologist for the Buzzards Bay Coalition, owners of the property.

            Commission Chairman Mike King stated that he had been notified by a concerned abutter that something was wrong at the former commercial cranberry-bog site. What he found was the remains of flooding from recent storm events where water had breached manmade canals, pushing soils into jurisdictional, wooded areas beyond boundaries noted in the Order of Conditions issued by the commission. Soils were also present in water samples provided by the town’s agent, Brandon Faneuf, flood waters he said had reached the Mattapoisett River.

            During the meeting, each involved party was given time to explain their part in the project, offering reasons why the storm waters overtopped the canals and later sharing their part towards assuring it wouldn’t happen again.

            Luciano staff members spoke to the actual on-site, earth movement and why they had believed erosion controls in place were sufficient. Faneuf submitted photographs and a video of the site, which clearly demonstrated erosion controls failed. It was noted by the contractor that the rate of storm water flow was simply much greater than the rate of water emptying into storage quadrants; King felt such a possibility should have been anticipated.

            King was candid, saying that because the partners involved were the BBC, USDA and Massachusetts Department of Ecological Restoration, the commission, “…didn’t ask enough questions,” before conditioning the project. Now he and all the members of the commission wanted more details and a restoration plan for the flooding.

            Immediate plans, include having pumps available during future weather events to divert water away from possible flooding locations. GZA is to prepare restoration plans, and Luciano staff will monitor the weather and be prepared to react as needed.

            Quintal said several times that this bog restoration project, which has been in various stages of acquisition and restoration since 2011, was designed to keep soils on site. Faneuf explained the danger to wildlife when sediments cloud the water, making it clear such issues held dire consequences for fish and other forms of wildlife.

            But a far greater threat became a topic when commissioner David Nicolosi asked if the BBC tested the soils of the former bogs for chemicals used historically by the cranberry industry. “No testing was done,” Quintal replied, while stating again, “…the sediment wasn’t to leave the site.”

            Nicolosi said not testing for chemicals was a gross oversight and that the BBC, “…owed it to the citizens of Mattapoisett.” Nicolosi expressed concern over freshwater wells along with the town’s water supply.

            The commission issued a cease-and-desist Enforcement Order. Plans were made for the commissioners to visit the site in staggered rotation on January 17 and that the matter will return as an agenda item on February 6.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for Tuesday, February 6, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett Conservation Commission

By Marilou Newell

Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday agreed to keep pursuing the town’s rights to the water on Red Brick Farm East land that is part of a 241-acre Conservation Restriction giving Rochester no rights to the groundwater that the property might produce.

            Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior told the board Tuesday that he expected the issue to be on the agenda of the recent Tri-Town Select Board held January 9 in Mattapoisett, but the item was not discussed, he said, and he doesn’t want to let the issue continue unresolved.

            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 regional Conservation Restriction agreement that nonetheless became reality proposed giving 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. However, the Rochester Conservation Commission was able to prod the authority to agree in writing it would “make every effort” to transfer the conservation land in Rochester to the town for $1.

            That promise has yet to see reality. Gerrior said he would like to see the issue become an agenda item at the next Tri-Town Select Board meeting, which he said will be held the first or second week in June.

            This prodded board member Carl MacDermott to note, “If we wait till May, we’ll only kick this problem further down the road.”

            The ConCom, as a result, approved sending a letter to the Select Board requesting its assistance with addressing the issue with the Mattapoisett Water Authority sooner than that.

            Board member Ben Bailey said he wanted to know, “Will the Selectmen work with us? Can we pursue this on our own? Ask them what they intend to do and that we want to address this soon.” Gerrior agreed to draft and send the letter.

            In other action, the commission agreed to the Notice of Intent for BWC Snows Pond LLC’s plan to build a 2.39 megawatt, solar-energy array on 12.55 acres of a 31.23-acre parcel at 0 Cushman Road to include work within the 100-foot buffer zone. The commission will now draft the plan’s Order of Conditions that it will vote on at its next meeting on February 6.

            The commission approved a request for a three-year extension of the Order of Conditions for a housing development planned for 22 Cranberry Highway. Its original OOC, which was issued in January of 2021, will now expire on January 16, 2026.

            The commission continued its hearing into the Notice of Intent to build a 15-acre, self-storage facility at 25 Cranberry Highway and 0 Kings Highway, upon the petitioner’s request, until February 20.

            The board approved a request for a Certificate of Compliance for 433 Neck Road filed by Matthew Magalhaes, certifying that work on the single-family home there has been satisfactorily completed.

            The board also voted to issue a Certificate of Compliance for a portable dock on the pond at 536 Snipatuit Road filed by commission member Matthew Bache.

            The Rochester Conservation Commission will meet next on Tuesday, February 6, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Conservation Commission

By Michael J. DeCicco