Editor’s Note: As we have done beginning in 2020, The Wanderer has invited candidates in contested races to submit up to 350 words about their candidacy for public office. This week we have the candidates for both the Marion and Mattapoisett Select Boards and the Marion Planning Board. On May 19, we will publish statements of candidates for Rochester School Committee and Select Board. Below are statements from Marion Select Board candidates Carleton “Toby” Burr and Dr. Ed Hoffer. The Town of Marion will hold its Election on Friday, May 13, at the Cushing Community Center.

Toby Burr – Marion Select Board

            Marion is a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family. I want to keep it that way. I have been on the Marine Resource Commission for over 30 years; was one of the founders of the Marion Business Community Association; and am a past president and current board member of the Massachusetts Marine Trade Association, an organization of over 200 marine businesses that promotes vocational education and works with state legislators. I graduated from Middlebury College and have an MBA from the University of Virginia. I was president of Burr Brothers Boats until 2017. My son, Tucker Burr, now runs the company. I’m running because the Town is in financial trouble. Our roads, our buildings, and our water and sewer lines need work, while our property taxes are high and our sewer and water rate is about the highest in the state. Many people in town are feeling financially stressed. We are in a bind, and I want to help. The best way to ease the tax burden is to add small business. Small business offers goods and services, pays taxes, water and sewer bills, and demands very little public services. I am very interested in the departure of Lockheed Martin. The use of this land is critical to our town’s future. I would like to see it replaced with an industrial park. It looks like we are on a course for 341 units of senior housing. Senior housing is needed, but Lockheed Martin is the only land in town zoned for light industry. I think townspeople should have a chance to weigh in before plans are drafted. I offer a willingness to listen, an ambition to learn, and a commitment to transparency. If elected, I will do my very best to advise the taxpayer about choices and consequences. I will share what I know, because I believe we are stronger together. Speaking and being heard is vital to a small, friendly, affordable community. Great ideas matter, and they can come from anywhere, anytime, from anyone. I will listen, and you will be heard.

Dr. Edward Hoffer – Marion Select Board

            I am running for the open seat on Marion’s Select Board at the urging of many friends and town volunteers. Since giving up my daily commute to Boston, I have been able to get deeply involved in town affairs and am ready to put in the time needed to serve the town on the Board. I have been widely active and gained perspective on how the town works, serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals for the past three years, the Board of Health and the Friends of the Council on Aging. I chaired the Board of Health for two years, leading the town safely through the worst of the pandemic. I served on the town’s Emergency Management Committee and developed a good relationship with the town administrator and the chiefs of Police and Fire. I have also held leadership positions on many state and national organizations, including five years as treasurer of a national non-profit that increased my comfort with budgeting and audit. Working with the Age-Friendly Marion Committee, I gained a deep understanding of one of the key issues facing Marion: how to allow our seniors, many life-long Marion residents, to stay here when they no longer want a larger home. I would work with developers and the Planning Board to encourage the building of the smaller homes and condominiums that this group wants. We are an aging town and must prepare for this. I would also work with the COA and volunteers to help seniors who want to remain in their homes to make the modifications that make this easier and safer. It is critical to get more of the talents of our residents used. Too many groups consist of the same people staying forever; turnover is healthy and must be encouraged. Our crushing water/sewer bills need to come down, and this can best be done by getting more residents on town sewer, to spread the fixed costs over a broader base. Many of the town’s needs can be assisted by grant funding, and we should investigate hiring a grant writer on at least a part-time basis.

            Carleton “Toby” Burr Jr. and Dr. Ed Hoffer did not have a lot to argue about when they met on May 6 at the Music Hall to participate in a candidates’ event organized by The Wanderer, but their conversation with Marion voters did bring out a distinct difference between them.

            Both are recently retired, Burr a longtime businessman in Marion with significant experience on the applicant’s side of the permitting table and a physician experienced in the running of the Board of Health and associated projects. Burr is recently retired from Burr Brothers Boats, Inc., and his son (and Planning Board candidate) Tucker Burr now runs that business.

            So while both are looking for votes in the race for John Waterman’s Select Board seat and both share Waterman’s urgency to generate ratepayers to share some of the financial burden that Marion faces as it plans major infrastructural upgrades, they bring different perspectives.

            Burr used his opening statement in part to address the departure of Lockheed Martin, noting that the 400 jobs on the site drew little in the way of attention or tax-supported services. “And it brought a lot of wonderful families to our town. It did not create a lot of traffic on Route 6, and it was easy to take it all for granted, but we will feel its loss,” he said. “What happens to that land is very crucial to our future. I would like to see it replaced with an industrial park.”

            While the town has hired a consultant to draw up a large residential plan for the purposes of helping Lockheed Martin move the property in accordance with purposes town officials find desirable, Burr envisions the Mattapoisett Industrial Park that was successfully built out over time. He thinks it’s premature to commit to a residence concept at the site.

            “We need to talk about it. It is the one area in town that is zoned industrial,” he said. “I will share what I know because I believe we our stronger together. Great ideas matter, and they can come at any time from anyone. I will listen, and you will be heard.”

            In opening, Hoffer summarized his work on the Board of Health spearheading Marion’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the testing and vaccination clinics that have been held under his watch, along with his work on the Emergency Management Committee. He also recently served on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

            Citing high taxes and high water and sewer bills, Hoffer made a plea for citizens to participate in town affairs. Hinged upon that was his enthusiastic recommendation of the zoning change that will allow Matt Zuker to seek permitting for The Cottages project off Route 6 near the Wareham town line.

            Hoffer thinks the town should hire a part-time grants writer to maximize opportunities to gain financial assistance.

            Burr believes the site-plan-and-review bylaw discourages small business in Marion. “In the cases of large businesses, it is certainly necessary as is; in the cases of very small businesses, it has really … limited and discourages people from even starting small businesses here in Marion. If it could be put into an expedited process that wasn’t so burdensome, we might have a larger business tax base,” he said.

            Both candidates have been impressed with new Tabor Head of School Tony Jaccaci and share an optimism about the town’s relationship with the local prep school.

            When the floor was opened to voters, resident Judy Taylor asked the candidates how they differ. Burr, a member of the Marine Resources Commission, pointed to his perspective of an applicant, while Hoffer pointed to his broad experience with the Council on Aging, the Friends thereof and the Zoning Board of Appeals.

            Steve Kokkins asked about people having an easier way of finding out what is going to happen at public meetings.

            Burr said the town website could be improved, and more effort could be put into public-meeting agendas to include the consequences of what will be discussed. “That would be very difficult, but I think it’s worth the effort,” he said.

            Hoffer said the town website “is sadly lacking” in terms of Zoom meeting access. He suggested one click to get into a meeting and anything less is “embarrassing.”

            At the onset of the pandemic, internet security was a concern for the town officials.

            Resident Michael Sudofsky asked about the recent Board of Health meeting that was canceled amidst concerns over a potential violation of state Open Meeting Law. The subject at hand was the vetting of new dumpster regulations that would be quickly aborted amidst passionate protest from business owners attending the subsequent meeting.

            “They got an earful from the small businesses, and they didn’t have a great deal of response,” said Burr, who was displeased with the governance of the meeting. “This struck us – and me – as being inappropriate. The purpose of a public hearing … you do not have a public hearing and tell people to be quiet and sit down. And that’s what happened so that was getting off on the wrong foot.”

            Being on the spot, Hoffer recounted how he stepped into a volatile situation. “The chair who succeeded me on the Board of Health (Dot Brown) I think may have been not running the meeting as I would have requested. I would suggest that my style of working came through, and I suggested that the business owners who had a complaint meet unofficially with me off site so I could get their input,” he said. “I showed up with a piece of white paper and said that was where I was starting.

            “I listened to them and decided that this was in fact a problem that was primarily at two residential communities in town, not the business community, and suggested that this be refocused to deal with the real problem that existed and not overly broadened, and that is where things stand.”

            Nancy McFadden asked the candidates to comment on the harbormaster’s facility.

            “It is certainly needed compared to what they are working in now,” said Burr, who said the state and federal governments have leveraged much of the costs. “If the state grants don’t come through, the building will not be built. It’s really that simple.”

            Hoffer was enthusiastic, declaring the new Department of Public Works operations building a “need” but the proposed Marine Center a “want.” But he did say, so long as the burden does not fall on the taxpayers, then he supports the project.

            As was the case in the Select Board contest, so it is with the Planning Board that the future of the Lockheed Martin property is being carefully considered by candidates and voters.

            Three of the four Planning Board candidates chasing two open seats were on hand last Friday, Tucker Burr, Andrew Daniel and W. Dale Jones. Barrett Levenson was unavailable for the time slot. The four are vying to replace two Planning Board members not running for reelection, Joe Rocha and former Chairman Will Saltonstall.

            Daniel, who served on the Planning Board but lost his seat in last year’s election, emphasized his commitment to look after all Marion residents and not just a particular demographic.

            Jones, a self-described private-sector person, said he has worked with volunteers. He said the good thing about Planning Board is its recommendations still come before Town Meeting to be vetted by the citizens. He strongly supported an all-hands-on-deck effort to replace Lockheed Martin with a likeminded business.

            Burr told his story of growing up in Marion and despite his job working in the family boatyard along with experience as a mechanic and in sales, keyed on the economic challenge of making ends meet in Marion. He now serves on the ZBA. He talked of his mathematics studies and his ongoing appetite to learn the town’s rules and regulations.

            Asked how to make the Planning Board more business-friendly, Daniel said he went out of his way to meet privately with applicants for permits to discuss their projects and help close the gap between their projects and Planning Board approval.

            Jones talked about his service to the state on the Designer Selection Board. “That was a wonderful experience, and my background in engineering would help to do this sort of thing. We’ve got to find a way to bring business into town.”

            Burr put his attention on which projects merit site-plan review, calling it “something that should be looked at. … Running a business, I know how tough it is.”

            Resident Alan Minard alluded to a conversation with a business owner who wouldn’t consider Marion “because the Planning Board there is too hard to work with.” Acknowledging it as a perception, Minard asked the candidates how to deal with the perception.

            “The more we can do to elect people who are clearly and ostensibly from the outside, businesspeople, the better that perception’s going to be,” said Burr.

            “We change the perception by being better at it,” said Daniel. “Just because you have power and authority to make things more difficult for these applicants doesn’t mean you have to.”

            The Marion election is scheduled for Friday, May 13, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, at the Cushing Community Center.

By Mick Colageo