Cushing Cemetery is holding its biannual meeting at the town library at 11 on October 28. All members of the board are asked to attend. This meeting is open to the public so if you are interested in our Cemetery, please join us. We are always looking for volunteers and new members.
The pivotal appropriation of $1,202,688 was approved by an overwhelming margin at Marion’s Special Fall Town Meeting held Monday night at Sippican Elementary School, green-lighting construction of a new Maritime Center for Harbormaster Department operations at Island Wharf.
The appropriation will come from the town’s Waterways Account, which is funded by harbor-related fees that were substantially raised in 2023. Added to $1,603,000 in grant funding from the state’s Seaport Economic Council and a prior Town Meeting appropriation of $700,000, the October 23 action brings the funding total to $3,505,688, the estimated construction cost.
The next step is to inform the low bidder for construction of the project of the vote supporting the funding, after which Murphy, Chief of Police Richard Nighelli and project manager Shaun Cormier (the town’s facilities manager) will schedule a preconstruction meeting with the builder.
Ten of the other 11 articles on the warrant carried, the one exception being Article 9, which was postponed indefinitely after the Select Board reconsidered its plan to recommend, considering an article requiring dog owners to carry equipment for clean-up to be impractical.
An hour before Tuesday night’s Select Board meeting, the Town of Marion held an information session on the Maritime Center that will ask voters to appropriate $1,202,688 at the Monday, October 23, Special Town Meeting at Sippican Elementary School.
Current funding for a new harbormaster headquarters is $1,603,000 via grant funding from the state’s Seaport Economic Council and $700,000 from prior Town Meeting appropriation. Total estimated cost of construction is $3,505,688.
The gap figure on the Town Meeting warrant has increased in only a few weeks from a $922,000 estimate, and an informational pamphlet distributed to attendees warns that further delay in construction will result in cost increase and potential forfeiture of awarded grant funding.
The appropriation is to come from the Waterways Account, which is funded by harbor-related fees, not property taxes.
The current facility measures 225 square feet, but Marion officials and the Harbormaster Department insist it is no match for an operation of three full-time officers, administrative assistance and part-time help to manage 2,300 active moorings.
The old building is not ADA compliant, and currently operations are split between the office at Island Wharf and the Town House.
Asked by a resident unconvinced that the equipment was fairly described as “life-saving” how many lives have been lost due to the current conditions of equipment storage, Marion Harbormaster Adam Murphy was less than thrilled to suck the air out of what was likely meant as a rhetorical question.
“I personally lost one life, an eight-year-old boy named Connor,” said Murphy. “Sorry, I’m a little caught off guard by your question.”
Alluding to the complications of procuring a simple dive mask and some fins in an emergency situation, Murphy said, “time matters, preparation matters, having equipment available to us. …”
Murphy said that while Marion is a relatively small town, its harbor ranks second in the state for volume to Nantucket. He cited the yacht clubs, Tabor Academy and the need to staff all harbor events.
“A lot of medical issues that happen out there,” he said, noting that both marinas see several hundred boats come in and go out every weekend and that the Beverly Yacht Club calendar is full of events.
Vin Malkoski, the chairman of the town’s Marine Resources Commission, said, “It is critical to note that with the facilities we have, because we have really good people who train really hard … that we avoid … (catastrophes.) The facility we have now is not going to support that mission.”
Wharf and the Town House. He says critical and operational storage space was lost when the town sold its Atlantis Drive building. Marion saved substantial money building its own floats in-house, something it can no longer do.
Administrator Geoff Gorman said that the $900-per-square-foot construction price will increase by at least 25% if the town waits until May to vote to fund the remaining construction cost.
Others in attendance supported the new construction, especially those in the boating industry.
By Mick Colageo
There is a Special Town Meeting scheduled for Mattapoisett voters on Monday, November 6. It will be held starting at 6:30 pm in the Auditorium at Old Rochester Regional High School. The deadline for new voters to register in order to be able participate in this meeting is Friday, October 27. Voters who are already registered in Mattapoisett do not need to reregister. The Town Clerk’s Office will be open until 5 pm on that day only. Please call the Town Clerk’s Office at 508-758-4100 x 2 or email townclerk@mattapoisett.net with any questions.
The Mattapoisett Historical Commission is pleased to announce that Ms. Lynn Smiledge has been selected to complete Phase One of the Mattapoisett community-wide survey. Ms. Smiledge is a preservation consultant who has extensive education and experience in preservation history and planning. She has a strong base of knowledge in the history, architecture and culture of southeastern Massachusetts, as informed by her work in Marion, Middleborough, Fairhaven, Fall River and various communities on Cape Cod.
The goal of this survey is to update and expand documentation of the historic and cultural resources of the Town of Mattapoisett. The last survey was completed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. It is outdated and incomplete. The information can serve as a basis for determining if a property is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, which is a formal recognition of the significance of a property in the nation’s history, culture, architecture, or archeology. The results of this survey will benefit individual property owners who are interested in the history of their homes, as well as providing a tool for local boards to insure that historic resources are preserved. The information does not impose any constraints on individual property owners.
Phase One of the survey, which is a multiyear effort, is expected to be completed in June, 2024. It is being funded by matching grants from the Mattapoisett Community Preservation Committee and the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
The response of Old Hammondtown Elementary School students in neighboring Mattapoisett to an opportunity to participate in television production with Old Rochester Community Television caught ORCTV Executive Director Robert Chiarito off guard.
“Every single fifth grader tried to sign up,” Chiarito told the Marion Select Board during Tuesday night’s public meeting at the Police Station.
In attendance via appointment to present an Annual Report, Chiarito and Phil Sanborn, Marion’s liaison to and representative on ORCTV’s Board of Directors, brought the Select Board up to date on multiple matters of interest, including the spiking interest in student participation.
Chiarito said the junior reporter program has been so popular that students have been divided into two groups. He hopes that when they reach high school, they will still be interested. Students put together a half-hour news program about what’s going on at the school, including plays and concerts. They write, produce, direct, film the shows themselves. Chiarito said some of the work is done in the studio and some in the field.
“This year there’s more than twice as many kids as spots,” he said.
Along with the usual bookkeeping such as a third-party review (a draft of which Chiarito said he would have by November 6 to present to a Tri-Town Select Board meeting) and an audit, ORCTV is hoping to build a radio station. They have identified an in-school site, renovated and painted it. Now they’re only waiting on technology. The internet-based radio station will allow listeners to stream government meetings.
There is also a plan in the works to outfit a new press box at the high school. Chiarito said that ORCTV has donated money to the project and has been waiting six to seven years for it to become a reality. Chiarito said mounting such a structure atop existing bleachers is a complicated task.
A prefabricated construction such as a shipping container could be mounted, and Chiarito indicated that ORCTV wants to make it handicap accessible. There is no construction timeline because all the labor involved is volunteer based. ORCTV is not doing the building, just the wiring and installation of broadcasting equipment.
In his Town Administrator’s Report, Gorman said that procurement and project budgeting is completed for the new Harbormaster Building construction. Alluding to the informational meeting held on the subject an hour before the Select Board met in the same room, Gorman credited Marleigh Hemphill, the daughter of Executive Assistant Donna Hemphill, for a fine job putting together the pamphlet distributed to attendees. Gorman was told to anticipate a nine-month construction timeline.
As for the proposed Department of Public Works operations center at Benson Brook, a November 7 meeting has been scheduled to discuss procurement and a construction timeline.
Marion’s Swap Shed, aka the Boutique at Benson Brook, now has rules and regulations, after Donna Hemphill met with Randy Parker and other stakeholders. The plan is to open the Swap Shed from April to October on Wednesdays from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. The shed will be open to Marion and Rochester residents and will be staffed by volunteers. The town will hold the right to refuse any item.
The Marion Police Department has received a $46,000 grant to fund body cameras and received a letter from state officials congratulating the town for being selected. Body cameras were part of union contract negotiations. Gorman expects Marion will have them by July 2025.
Marion has received Best Practices grant funding of $35,000 to update the town website, achieve ADA compliance (January implementation), and another $15,000 to improve human-resources policies and procedures. Consultants have reached out, according to Gorman. The strategy is to create a template for an employee portal in a SharePoint site so that employees can access information.
The town is applying for an IT Best Practices grant to pay an Upper Cape Tech student whose full week of work has inventoried the Town House computers, an estimated eight or nine of which can no longer support software upgrades.
Marion has also applied for grant funding for a digitization effort at a maximum $200,000 that would cover 75% of costs; Gorman is waiting on a response.
The Marion Fire Department will host an Open House on Friday, October 20, at 6:00 pm at Fire Station No. 1.
The Special Town Meeting will be held on Monday, October 23, at 6:45 pm at Sippican Elementary School.
A Pumpkin Palooza will be held on Saturday, October 28, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at Cushing Community Center. Participants in pumpkin carving must preregister by Tuesday, October 24.
Marion will hold a Veterans Day ceremony on Saturday, November 11, at 11:00 am, followed by an 11:30 am lunch for veterans and their families at the Cushing Community Center.
Heather O’Brien started on Monday as the town’s new finance director. O’Brien, the unanimous choice of the Select Board members among three finalists for the job, visited for two or three hours three times to work with Judy Mooney prior to her official start date.
The abiding complications felt by the Marion Energy Management Committee in its quest to orchestrate some energy-saving solar installations in town landed in the lap of the Select Board, as it discussed a letter received from the EMC.
Most of the focus was on the longstanding effort to get a ground-mounted solar project at Benson Brook, an item now being stalled after Eversource recently declared the need to take a step back from all new projects while it reassesses all aspects of its operation.
Gorman participated in a virtual meeting with PowerOptions’ consultant and remains optimistic that the town will find a few solar projects it can complete. Per Select Board member Randy Parker’s request, he intends to set up a roundtable meeting.
“What our little committee is concerned about is Marion should do their part to try and reduce fossil fuels. Unless we do something, nothing’s going to happen,” said Ingerslev, who believes Eversource’s main concern is handling power already created. “Eversource has to have the infrastructure to take that power out.”
The new DPW building is being designed and positioned for roof solar.
In other action items, the Select Board granted a one-day Special Liquor License to ICJ Corporation for the Travers wedding scheduled for Saturday, October 21, from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Music Hall.
The board agreed upon 2024 meeting dates and approved the closure of Holmes Street for the annual Marion Cub Scout Pack 32 Soapbox Derby on Saturday, November 18, from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm (rain date Sunday, November 19.)
A sewer connection was approved at 3 Taunton Avenue, but a sewer abatement request at 5 Moorings Road was tabled after discussion.
The request to appoint Denise Schwartz as registrar was withdrawn.
Two people were voted onto the EMC as full, voting members for three-year terms, longtime associate member Jennifer Francis and newcomer Kimberly Holbrook. The decision brought the EMC to a maximum seven members with no alternates.
The board approved Water/Sewer commitments of $155 (sewer reconnection September 27) and $10,950 (new water and sewer service for 64 Lewis Street October 11.)
The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Monday night’s Special Town Meeting to be held at 6:45 pm inside Sippican Elementary School’s multipurpose room.
Marion Select Board
By Mick Colageo
For some 38 years during the summer, give or take a few days here and there, I had breakfast with the same group of men. The local coffee shop was our meeting place. It was my morning routine.
Our group included an advertising specialties salesman who spent his days selling any product that he could print your name on, but his primary goal each day was to play golf. There was a former butcher who lost his job when the local market closed. He became an insurance salesman … still a butcher in some people’s minds. Another owned a carpet-cleaning business that he bought when his former job, hanging wallpaper, disappeared when wallpaper went out of favor. There was a retired art director and me, an itinerant artist and teacher. As with all groups of this type, we would solve the world’s problems by 9:00 am and be off to our regular activities. That was our routine.
Blanche, the waitress, was a cantankerous woman who would have our coffee or muffin waiting when we arrived, knowing what we wanted because none of us varied from our morning routine. If we did, she would scold you up one side and down the other. You had wasted her time and messed up her morning routine.
After retirement and returning home to our village, I anticipated a new routine of crawling out of bed and walking across the street to the local coffee shop, affectionally known as the “Wind Tunnel,” to continue solving the world’s problems with a new group of friends. Alas, the Wind Tunnel closed the very week I retired. They must have heard I was coming.
My summer morning routine would be restored with a short drive to the town wharf for coffee at the seasonal food emporium, appropriately nicknamed “the slip.” A new batch of ever-changing, coffee-sipping companions emerged.
One day there might be a retired plumber or an engineer. Another day a former federal agent, a marathon winner, a retired flagpole installer, a skydiver, a world traveler and occasionally, someone of the female persuasion would show up … and me. An eclectic group indeed. My new routine was established … until fall.
Fall brings cooler temperatures, falling leaves and the removal of our favorite coffee spot, literally driven away for winter storage like all the boats in the harbor. This year this change has generated much discussion as to where our little group will gather for our daily java fix. In years past, we didn’t see anyone during the long winter. Time to change that.
The routine of meeting in the morning is not unprecedented. When my father ran the village barber shop, a band of locals … a laborer, a fisherman, a doctor, a fireman, a politician, and others would gather in his shop to resolve local disputes and kibitz. They called themselves the Professional Loafers Club, the PLC. It was their routine. Today it is well known that the Republicans routinely meet at the local bakery and the Democrats too. There is the ladies’ group who have their own reserved table and still others who meet at the nearby diner.
Our group doesn’t have a name, but the consensus was that we needed to gather in the winter, at least from time to time, lest we forget each other’s name come spring. So, meet we do. The plumber is there and the world traveler, the flagpole installer and the skydiver who has yet to retire even at his advanced age, a representative of the fair sex … and me.
The routine lives on.
Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.
Thoughts on …
By Dick Morgado
While our Townwide Scavenger Hunt was greeted with enthusiasm, no one came forward to claim a prize. I thought I would let everyone know the locations of the places on the hunt.
#1 was the location of the Roller Rink that was once part of an entertainment area across the street from Mary’s Pond. Today, the building is part of the Decas cranberry buildings beside and slightly to the back of the big white house.
#2 The airport was on Rte. 105 on the right as you drive to Marion at what is now Doggett Brook farm.
#3 was a little tougher. Peak Rock is on the right hand side as you drive north on 105. It is past Cornerstone Farm in Acushnet and not far from the Acushnet/ Rochester line.
#4 The Town Pound, the only one remaining in Rochester, is on the left side of Snipatuit Rd. heading to North Ave.
#5 The newest war memorial is in front of town hall and honors the men of Old Rochester who fought in the Revolutionary War. It is on the back side of the Civil war Memorial.
#6 Bettancourt’s Store was across from the Hartley Sawmill and was replaced by Lloyd’s Market at the corner of Hartley and Cushman Rds.
#7 The Rochester Grange is next to the entrance to Snow’s Pond Rd.
#8 The stone arch bridge was probably the toughest to find. It is pictured here. This was easier for anyone who has been in the boat race. Before the bridge on Rounseville Rd., there is a path on the left side. If you walk down that path through the woods to the river and stop and look back, you get a good view of the bridge.
#9 was the easiest as we gave you the house number. 289 North Ave. is the house across from the end of Snipatuit Rd. as it meets North Ave. The house is on the cover of the Rochester book that we sell at the museum.
Lastly, #10 was East Over Farm on Mary’s Pond Rd.
By Connie Eshbach
The Mattapoisett Police Annual Halloween Parade on October 31. The parade will start at 6:00 pm behind Center School on Church Street. Judging and candy will begin at 6:45 pm in the rear of Center School, open to Mattapoisett residents only.
The Mattapoisett Planning Board’s October 17 meeting was about 17 minutes long, a far cry from previous meetings lasting hours and chalk-a-block full of technical details. But the town’s business, whether massive or small, is noteworthy.
Coming before the board on Tuesday night was developer Scott Snow to finalize a surety agreement for the Eldridge Estates subdivision off Prospect Road. Snow sought and received a waiver to change the planned underground electrical service to overhead wiring. Snow also received confirmation of an updated surety agreement from lot holding to cash totaling $48,000.
Caroline Booth of the engineering firm Beals and Thomas, Inc., came before the board remotely for their client, Randall Lane Solar, which requested an extension for an approved solar site. A reason was not given during the meeting, but in a follow-up, Booth said a letter outlining the need for the extension has been submitted to the board on behalf of the client.
In a follow-up with Town Administrator Mike Lorenco, he said that the request was due to Eversource’s need to study the grid and interconnection considerations. “These large solar projects take time and have to go before the Department of Public Works, a time-consuming process,” said Lorenco. The Randall Lane Solar project received a two-year extension.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is tentatively scheduled for Monday, November 20, at 7:00 pm.
Mattapoisett Planning Board
By Marilou Newell