Upon discussion of the minutes of a recent public meeting that included the Heron Cove public hearing, Marion Zoning Board of Appeals member Dana Nilson asked a question as to whether developer Ken Steen’s ultimatum regarding water-metering methodology was based on dwelling units or buildings. “I’m looking for clarification on what they’re looking for so we don’t go the same road as we did with Marion Village Estates,” said Nilson.

            The minutes were tabled for the board’s next meeting, but the conversation that wrapped up the ZBA’s February 10 meeting overshadowed two public hearings that reached favorable conclusion.

            ZBA Chairperson Cynthia Callow and board member Tucker Burr discussed a January 27 conference that they recently attended, in which Mark Bobrowski, the attorney representing Steen in the latter’s role as developer of Marion Village Estates and Town Counsel Jon Witten met to discuss disagreement over whether changing the water-metering practices at the affordable-housing development constitutes a “substantial change” as opposed to an unsubstantial change.

            The ramifications of “substantial change” necessarily include a public hearing. On December 23, Witten advised the ZBA to consider a change from three meters to measure water consumption in 60 residential units (one meter for each 20-unit building) to 60 meters (one for each unit) as a “substantial” change because it would drastically decrease the revenue generated to the town.

            Thusly, Steen’s request to proceed without a public hearing was rejected. Prior to that decision, Bobrowski had already notified the board that a “substantial” judgment on the part of the ZBA would result in his immediate appeal to the state housing court.

            The Bobrowski-Witten conference was a prescribed next step toward resolution. Bobrowski had contended during the prior public meeting that Steen was originally supposed to pay for water on the town’s lowest rate tier, but he argued that since the project was completed, the town “moved the goalposts” by changing the tier system and by determining the tier for Village Estates based on the consumption recorded by each meter rather than each residential unit.

            As a result, Bobrowski said Steen pays Marion the highest water rate possible, something he insists never would have happened had the water been metered to individual units.

            Bobrowski and Witten met before Lisa Whelan of the state Office of Community Development. According to Callow, Whelan heard the arguments and suggested mediation. Witten, said Callow, told her the town never says “no” to mediation. “Bobrowski, I think, is trying to keep us out of the equation, and I don’t like when people try to keep me out of an equation that I think I should be in,” said Callow.

            The conference concluded, said Callow, with instructions for both sides to submit a summary of decision by February 28. Callow reported that Witten advised her that the process will take a long time and most likely will be remanded back to the ZBA.

            Burr said that the contentious situation about water metering at Marion Village Estates is distracting to the same issue as it applies to Heron Cove. He questioned how the ZBA can confidently go about its business knowing there is an ongoing effort by the same developer to exclude the ZBA from vetting the same request at another development.

            Callow asked Burr and Danielle Engwert to vote in the public hearings heard by the ZBA on February 10 in order to ensure a five-member quorum.

            In Case 798, Terrence and Kym Lee were voted a Special Permit under Section 230-6.1C of the Zoning bylaw to allow their construction of an addition to the existing nonconforming residence at the corner of Holmes and Front streets.

            Represented by Will Saltonstall (Saltonstall Architects,) the Lee’s, 43 Holmes Street, applied for the Special Permit to add onto the main structure of the house an addition measuring 41.8 feet long (the length of the house) and 10 feet wide. The addition will be one story with a shed roof off the back of the Cape-style house.

            As Saltonstall displayed via computer screen sharing, the east side of the house is 13 feet from the lot line and therefore noncompliant to the side setback. The addition proposed would extend what looks like approximately 24 feet of the nonconformity by another 10 feet. The addition will be set back 6 inches from flush to the side of the house because the house is not exactly parallel to the lot line, but it will at its outermost point come to within 13.1 feet of the lot line.

            Saltonstall said he had not seen any pushback from abutters.

            Kym Lee told the board that she reached out to abutters and 9 of the 11 she had email addressed for “were okay” with the plans. She noted that ZBA member Will Tifft is one of the abutters. She said Tifft wrote back “in the affirmative” but noted he would have to recuse himself from participation in the case. Lee said she did not hear back from everyone but received no negative responses.

            Terence Lee said he would soon by turning 59 and that the couple wants to create space for first-floor living. He said the second floor would be left to “the kids and grandkids.” At the same time, the applicants told Callow that there are no plans to add residents to the home.

            ZBA member Margie Baldwin supported the project, noting that there is significant distance between the addition and the closest abutter. Terence Lee said that a fence erected by the former owner of the bordering property obscures the view.

            In Case 801, the ZBA voted applicant MRF Nominee Trust on behalf of Patrick Fischoeder and Allison O’Neil, 498B Point Road, a Special Permit under Sections 230-6.1A and 230-6.1C of the Zoning bylaw to allow their construction of a single-family dwelling to replace two existing, non-conforming dwelling, resulting in a decrease of the non-conformity but increase the building area and volume as allowed under Section 230-7.1, Section 230-7.2 and Section 230-7.3.

            Acknowledging Callow’s recap that a Special Permit had been issued at this address but that the applicants came back before the ZBA because they wish to change the plan, representative Dave Davignon of Schneider, Davignon and Leone Inc. explained that the September 24, 2020 approval was scrapped and that the applicants have gone back to the drawing board.

            According to Davignon, the main house caught fire on January 16, 2019, and six months later, both the main house and the secondary house (farther from the shore) were demolished. Those two structures housed a combined six bedrooms, and the original Special Permit approved a plan for a single, five-bedroom house in their place.

            Under Board of Health, Conservation Commission and ZBA approval, the previously planned structure would have sat 19.5 feet off the northern property line and 16 feet off the southern property line. The new application, which sits on the same general space in the lot, proposes a house of a different shape with more depth on the north side and less on the south side. The setbacks are nearly identical at 19 (north) and 17.3 (south) feet.

            Davignon said the Conservation Commission recognized less work inside its jurisdiction with the new application and filed the plan without hearing it again.

            Abutter Jane Deland, 498 Point Road, supported the project.

            Nilson motioned to accept, and a unanimous vote awarded the Special Permit and carried the project forward.

            The next meeting of the Marion ZBA is scheduled for Thursday, February 24, at 6:30 pm.

Marion Zoning Board of Appeals

By Mick Colageo

The February 8 meeting of the Rochester Planning Board was a good one for members of the Renewable Energy Development Partners team, who have been meeting with Rochester boards for many months. But all that hard work and cooperation to the process is just about to pay off, bringing the 109 Neck Road solar project that much closer to a start date. The project has been described as unique in that a number of the panels will be mounted across irrigation canals and in other areas, crops may be planted under the panels.

            Coming before the board was Renewable Energy’s Hank Ouimet, as well as Sarah Stearns of Beals and Thomas, Inc. The meeting was held primarily to update the board on progress made in addressing comments from peer-review consultant Ken Motta of Field Engineering. Stearns also said that in his latest communication, Motta has offered some language for the board to consider when drafting its decision.

            Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson pointed out that waivers requested by the applicant were incomplete and needed future review because “the language is too vague to be enforceable.”

            The board also approved a list of bonds for the project: $133,000 for decommissioning, $15,000 for the next five years for screening near wetlands, $2,000 called a timber assessment and $35,000 for the next two years for landscaping. The hearing was continued to Tuesday, February 22, at 7:00 pm.

            An informal discussion was held with Brian Wallace of JC Engineering regarding plans for a playground associated with Countryside Child Care. Wallace described the location of the playground, drainage features and safeguards for pedestrians and motorists.

            Regarding the relocation of storage containers he owns, Matt Gurney asked the engineer and the board to consider placing them closer to the blacktop versus Wallace’s suggestion of farther away into an area that is currently wet. Johnson and Wallace agreed to work with Gurney to find an amenable solution.

            Town Planner Nancy Durfee reported that an update of the board’s bylaws and regulations was nearly ready for a public hearing once the board agrees with the changes.

            Durfee also advised the board that an existing Open Space plan would be completed and readied for their approval. Once finalized, Durfee said it would go to the state for final approval. Such acceptance, she noted, clears the way for the town to apply for grants. She said that up-to-date land mapping needs to be included in the plan.

            Durfee also said that she was in the process of writing a grant application that would defray expenses associated with drafting a new Master Plan.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Planning Board is scheduled for Tuesday, February 22, at 7:00 pm.

Rochester Planning Board

By Marilou Newell

            In thanking Paul Naiman and the Capital Improvements Planning Committee, Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail told the February 15 meeting of the Marion Select Board that Naiman’s letter to the board will be a supplement to the warrant for the Spring Town Meeting.

            In a 6:30 pm appointment, Naiman appeared on behalf of the CIPC to discuss its process in prioritizing FY23 capital project and creating a 10-year outlook.

            The CIPC, Naiman explained, still has a couple of its founding members. Select Board Chairman Norm Hills is a founding member, and the newest member is Bill Marvel from Finance Committee. The committee’s purpose is to assist town department heads on developing capital plans to present at the Spring Town Meeting.

            By definition, a capital project in Marion has at least a five-year lifespan and costs at least $10,000.

            In order to facilitate the Select Board’s, town administrator’s and voters’ actions, the CIPC meets with department heads and asks them to prioritize their own capital projects and to answer how each project will be financed and its benefit to the town.

            “Once we have all of the projects (there are over 30 for FY23,) they are scored on seven criteria,” explained Naiman.

            Projects funded by fees and enterprise funds garner the highest number of points, and those financed by debt garner the lowest number of points. Other factors that hold serious sway in CIPC project rankings include state or federal requirements (compliance) and decrees; projects lacking any regulatory requirements get no points, but public safety or health-related projects get points.

            A project will garner points if it upgrades an existing item and makes it more efficient such as replacing a snowplow. If a purchase is new, Naiman and his committee ask, “What’s the payback?” They also ask how a project relates to the Master Plan.

            The CIPC totals up project scores and creates a weighted average and a ranking. The goal is to achieve “an objective list, not a singular point of view,” said Naiman. “Just because a project scores high or low, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be put on the warrant.” Some of the school projects, he said, score lower on the priority list due to criteria failures, but those projects are typically funded.

            For FY23, Marion has 34 capital projects submitted for consideration totaling $8,600,000 in estimated costs, $7,200,000 of those costs related to Department of Public Works projects.

            The CIPC also puts together a compilation of a 10-year plan from each of the department heads as a planning tool. Before CIPC, said Hills, “there was nothing. Stuff would drop out of the air.”

            Sewer and water projects take up much of the 10-year outlook.

            The CIPC will meet in a few weeks for a post-mortem, discuss how the year went and how to improve, said Naiman.

            Waterman called the CIPC “a huge asset to the town. It’s methodical but also the fact they help us lay out a 10-year plan that avoids a chaotic budget process.”

            “If we didn’t have that list, it would put a tremendous amount of pressure on the boss and us to prioritize this list,” said McGrail. “From a management perspective, the final product is extremely helpful to Judy and me. We work backwards off the list.”

            In a 6:15 pm appointment, Harry Norweb and Dr. Ed Hoffer appeared before the board to discuss an action plan for the town to achieve an Age-Friendly Community (AFC) designation with AARP and the World Health Organization.

            Norweb explained that while many of the actions associated with the action plan can already be accomplished by the Council on Aging and volunteers, they cannot distribute the action plan, but the Select Board can. So the Select Board voted to submit the action plan to AARP.

            John Waterman thinks it is premature for Norweb to disband the volunteer working group because lacking a centralized leadership, he suspects the action plan would wane rather than thrive. McGrail suggested forming a workgroup under his watch.

            Hoffer suggested that the mutual interest in creating market-rate housing for the town’s senior population could bring together the action plan volunteers with the Affordable Housing Trust. McGrail noted that the AHT is scheduled to appear at the March 15 Select Board meeting to discuss the board’s scope of activities.

            Hoffer said the action plan also makes Marion eligible for modest AARP-related grants.

            Bob Grillo was introduced as the town’s new building commissioner. Grillo was the assistant building commissioner in Sandwich and a local inspector. He replaces Scott Shippey, who recently went to work for the Town of Foxborough.

            “We need to work with our contractors and homeowners, not against them,” said Grillo, who said he enjoyed success going at the job that way in Sandwich. “Hopefully we can continue on that same track.”

            In his Town Administrator’s Report, McGrail was thrilled to announce that the installation of the lagoon liner is complete, and all that remains are leak-mitigation measures. The town did not have to apply for another extension as the state said it will not hold the January 31 deadline over Marion’s head.

            Under Action Items, the board voted to support the DPW’s request to deficit spend on snow and ice removal. The town has already exceeded its allocated $50,000.

            The rescheduled, public dangerous-dog hearing has been moved forward from April 19 to March 15 at 6:15 pm.

            The Select Board voted to approve the conditions of a sewer connection application at 390 Wareham Road with the following prescribed conditions: an engineered connection plan, two as-built drawings within three months (regular condition,) that the applicant work with other users to build an association and a bond.

            The board approved several reappointments to the Stewards of Community Open Space, and Emil Assing was appointed as a full member of the Conservation Commission. Assing will fill Cynthia Callow’s spot until its June 2022 expiration and will need reappointment at that time.

            A letter from Donna Maxim requesting the placement of a memorial bench at Silvershell Beach was passed over, as Hills and McGrail plan to draft a policy in light of many such requests.

            The next meeting of the Marion Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, March 1, at 6:00 pm.

Marion Select Board

By Mick Colageo

            Comparing district leaders to ducks appearing calm above the surface while furiously moving underneath, Old Rochester Regional School Committee member Frances Kearns recognized the effort that went into the Tiered Focus Monitoring Audit recently completed.

            In the January 26 public meeting of the committee, Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson thanked Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Jannell Pearson-Campbell and Director of Student Services Craig Davidson for their work on what he called “a cumbersome project.”

            ORR was not found to be out of compliance in any of the prescribed areas. Most of the areas were found to be in full compliance, and Nelson said that only partial implementation was evident on some of the forms.

            The second such audit in the past two years, according to Nelson, the Tiered Focus Monitoring Audit is conducted by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and looks at the implementation of English language learners, Special Education and Civil Rights regulations. DESE examines relevant documentation and student records, interviews staff members and solicits parent/guardian feedback.

            Detailing a result that scored ORR’s English language learners’ documentation against 12 criteria, Pearson-Campbell reported DESE considered ORR to have fully implemented eight of the 12 criteria and four more with partial implementation. Pearson-Campbell said the ORR Central Office is working with Early Childhood Coordinator Doreen Lopes to ensure that proper documentation is in place.

            Committee member Margaret McSweeny recognized the importance of making the school’s website accessible to all families regardless of English fluency and applauded the effort as presented by Pearson-Campbell, who would conclude by noting that ORR faces another audit.

            Director of Student Services Craig Davidson reviewed the past year, beginning with the self-assessment phase including two internal reviews before the self-assessment was submitted to the Tiered Focus Monitoring Department. DESE visited ORR for verification.

            Davidson credited administrative assistants Donna Kirk and Debra Threlfall for their preparation work. Summarizing extensive work on Special Education at ORR, Davidson said the DESE found no areas out of compliance.

            Pearson-Campbell thanked her secretary Kim Read and ORR District ELL Specialist Kathy Dranchak.

            ORR Junior High Principal Silas Coellner told the committee that the school will conduct an eight-week test run to see if one consolidated day of advisory time on a weekly basis is more efficient than spending half the time twice a week. Under the new arrangement, a weekly academic goal will be set and emailed from the student to the student, advisor and to the parent/guardian. The idea, said Coellner, is to promote family engagement with the student’s weekly academic plan.

            The junior high, said Coellner, will then plan for anti-racism and anti-bias learning in the advisory portion of the week.

            In other junior high news, Coellner reported that Tech Education teacher Brian Almeida received a grant to obtain robotic kits from Worcester Polytechnical Institute and has them now in his classes. Amanda Tomasso qualified to participate in the Southeast Districts Chorus in March.

            The committee voted unanimously to approve a new implementation of courses at the high school for the 2022-23 academic year.

            The High School Program of Studies approval vote authorized ORR High School Principal Mike Devoll to make what he called “necessary changes in studies.”

            New offerings for 2022-23 include Portuguese II and Thematic 12th Grade English courses, a graduation requirement that will change the traditional curriculum and offer seniors a variety of options including: Multicultural Literature; Monsters, Murder and Madness, Creative English and Media Literacy.

            Devoll said the rebranding of the 12th-grade, college prep English courses will focus more on 21st century literacy and skills needed for post-high school. A member of the ORR staff is seeking certification in Portuguese, he said, and given strong student response, it is likely Portuguese will eventually expand to all four grades.

            ORR School Committee Chair Heather Burke said her vote hinged on Devoll’s outlook to ultimately expand Portuguese to Grades 9-12. Burke also recommended ORR consider codifying course override procedure so parents can understand how to apply for an override.

            Advanced Placement Psychology, Honors Economics and Honors Forensics all have new prerequisites. Advanced Placement Studio Art will now be called AP Art & Design to match with the College Board. Devoll said other course descriptions are being changed to more accurately reflect what transpires in those courses.

            In his report, Devoll said that the high school has been conducting weekly personal finance sessions through Junior Achievement, maintaining the same instructor.

            Nelson told the ORR School Committee that the administration has come to an agreement with the Budget Subcommittee on priorities for the FY23 budget.

            The most-noteworthy inclusion is the possibility of the addition of a director of Guidance position. Nelson based the discussions on work done by the committee and feedback from a contracted consultancy group. He also told the committee about upgrades to the technology in the Science Department.

            State aid information was released to local school districts on January 26, and Nelson said that Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber spent his day examining the allocations. The next step, said Nelson, will be bringing the budget before the ORR School Committee.

            In her Chairperson’s Report, Burke told the committee that contract negotiations and the superintendent’s evaluation, along with policy and budget work, will intensify.

            In his report, Nelson updated the Covid status, telling the committee that the mask requirement has been extended by DESE through February 28. ORR is considering opting into the new testing (at home) program, which would discontinue contact tracing in school and put full reliance on the local boards of health. Nelson sent out a survey to parents, guardians, caretakers and faculty, and said he would decide on the direction of the testing program.

            Nelson said he was also surveying families on the feasibility of a math camp during school vacations.

            Nelson told the committee that the Regional Agreement has been approved. “I think the big piece for us is we’re getting used to the weighted vote,” said Nelson, noting that the ORR District is using its new assessment for the sake of the operating and capital budgets.

            Barber gave the committee an overview of the approximate $20,000,000 operating budget and said ORR has just under $400,000 of unencumbered funds in the budget.

            In Food Services, Barber pointed out that while lunch counts steadily rise, breakfast counts are down even lower than in 2020-21 when ORR was operating on a four-day week based on the hybrid learning model so that students were in the building two days per week instead of five. Barber asked the membership to spread the word that ORR is offering free breakfast throughout the school district.

            During the committee reports, Kearns reported on the January 25 Anti-Racism Subcommittee meeting, which she said will henceforth meet on a bimonthly basis. Kearns said that a name change was discussed and that the committee’s core values would be used to drive the subcommittee’s goals and objectives.

            Student Representative Eddie Gonet told the committee that the Student Council was preparing for Kindness Week, which would precede the February vacation. The Class Olympics, he said, is being postponed to the spring so it can be held outdoors in warm conditions. A Spirit Week was being considered, said Gonet, “because school spirit’s been very low this year, and we need to do something to drive that back up.”

            The senior class is going through with its prom plans, and Senior Superlative Night (i.e. “most likely to …” for the yearbook) will be held on March 9 at 6:30 pm in the ORR auditorium.

            The ORR School Committee will meet twice in March, on March 1 for the public hearing on the FY23 budget and on March 23 for a regular meeting. The committee entered executive session and only returned to public session to adjourn.

ORR School Committee

By Mick Colageo

            When students in Old Rochester Regional District schools return from their vacation week on Monday, February 28, they will only be required to wear a facemask in two locations: on the bus and in school offices.

            On the athletic fields, the campus at large, the parking lots and, yes, even in the classrooms, cafeteria and gymnasium, masks will no longer be required after the Joint School Committee/Superintendency Union #55 achieved agreement at the end of a three-hour, emergency public meeting on Tuesday night.

            A union-side vote saw Robin Rounseville as the sole dissenting vote against the February 28 lifting of the mandate. Nichole Daniel, April Nye, Tiffini Reedy, Karin Barrows, Anne Fernandes, Carly Lavin and Chairperson Sharon Hartley all voted in the affirmative.

            The district side provided most of the opposition, as Suzanne Tseki and Joe Pires were alone in their approval the first time the vote was taken. Michelle Smith, Jim Muse, Jason Chisholm, Margaret McSweeny, Mark Monteiro, Frances Kearns and Chairperson Heather Burke all rejected the motion as presented.

            Lengthy discussion ensued including procedural matters, but the motion never changed so it was with a renewed sense of options going forward that a second vote saw Burke and Smith hold back their approval.

            A painstaking debate and vote was not only protracted by passionate disagreement as to the timing of the state’s lifting of the mask mandate following a vacation week, but the process was wrought with confusion.

            The JSC has taken many a vote since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but none had caused so much pause as this one. Until Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson, given the floor by the respective chairpersons, urged the sides to find common ground, there was a realistic chance that the union side would rescind the preexisting masking policy as permitted by the state and that the region side would not.

            Attempts to amend the existing policy to be rescinded at a later date such as March 14, presumably for the purposes of bearing out a lack of spike in positive cases coming back from the traditional, week-long winter vacation were abandoned for the sake of progress.

            The other concern shared by several hesitant members was ensuring that a mechanism is in place should there be a spike in cases, be it immediately out of the February vacation or at any time in the future.

            As of Tuesday night, the ORR School District is without a masking policy beyond February 28.

            Nelson made sure to emphasize an ongoing diligence on his part to continue absorbing and posting data, meeting with local health officials on a regular basis and being on the ready should the trend reverse.

            While Nye, Reedy, Barrows and Pires were among those committee members arguing that the data supplied by the state all through the pandemic has been followed so why ignore it now that the data suggests it is time to stop requiring facemasks, other members such as Burke and Jim Muse insisted there is more to the decision.

            Beyond concerns over the timing juxtaposed on the heels of a school vacation week, Burke said that families that might reconsider vaccinations have no time to respond to the lifting of the mandate while Muse said the only data point offered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had been an 80-percent vaccination rate that ORR Schools do not have.

            Nelson offered the committee a breakdown of vaccination rates among staff and students in ORR Schools. When pooled together, the building vaccination rates are as follows: Center School 40 percent, Old Hammondtown 62 percent, Rochester Memorial 40 percent, Sippican 47 percent, ORR Junior High 64 percent and the high school at 75 percent.

            Covid-19 positives at district schools are at an all-time low with only four active cases, including two at the junior high and one each at RMS and the high school.

            ORR Director of Student Services Craig Davidson shared the results of a survey indicating that the overwhelming majority of the parents/guardians of students in all six district schools wished for the mandate to be lifted. Staff preferences were closer to a balance, but the majority in all six schools was in favor of lifting the mandate.

            Nearly every member of the public who sought to speak in the open-forum portion of the meeting said it is time to take the masks off. Some went beyond that, referencing expert opinions and personal observations that masking especially on small children is actually detrimental toward their health.

            Others focused on the masks themselves and insist that only the N95 mask functions as intended, and that model is largely unavailable in the schools.

            On the other side of the ledger, there were those who hoped that ORR would delay the lifting of the mandate closer to when children will be spending the majority of their playtime outdoors.

            Once the union and region sides finally agreed with the region’s vote to rescind the policy at 9:55 pm, Muse said, “The policy requires a lot of care, and I’m sure that the superintendent will continue to advise us …” He noted ongoing attention to case counts and Nelson’s Covid-19 dashboard. “If there is an uptick, we should consider calling a special meeting if necessary to propose a policy change. Hopefully we don’t have to because of the fears that I have or anyone else has wouldn’t come to fruition.”

            Before adjournment, Nelson strove to maintain the committee’s confidence in his due diligence. “To me, this was not about to mask or not to mask but being flexible for others’ decisions,” he said. “I will not hesitate to call on this school committee if I have any doubt.”

            The next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, April 28, at 6:30 pm.

Joint School Committee/Superintendency Union #55

By Mick Colageo

            The Mattapoisett Select Board met with David Riquinha, the current candidate for the position of director of Inspectional Services, on Tuesday night. Previously, several candidates were vetted with the Select Board offering the job to Acushnet Building Commissioner James Marot last November, but Marot subsequently declined. The position was reposted with two candidates coming forward. While Riquinha was the sole candidate remaining as of February 15, he was also the candidate most highly regarded by the board members.

            Riquinha currently works for the Town of Wareham and said that he has been in the construction industry since he was a high school student, including ownership of his own business at that early age. After a tour of duty in the Marines, Riquinha returned home, picking up where he left off as an independent businessman.

            In 2011, he joined the City of Brookline’s building inspection department, quickly rising through the ranks to become a commissioner in the first year, a feat he was obviously proud to share. When asked why he wanted to come to Mattapoisett, he stated, “I’m looking for a place to retire.” Riquinha said that he plans to work at least another 20 years in the field but could not see himself doing so in his current position.

            When quizzed on a wide-ranging number of points, Riquinha said that he is very familiar with the G.I.S. system used in Mattapoisett as well as various types of electronic permitting platforms and said he has created several permitting platforms himself. He was asked how he would get people on board with the use of such systems. While noting some people would resist, once acclimated to them, usually things go smoothly, he said.

            Riquinha confirmed his depth of knowledge with respect to FEMA regulations and his ability to work closely and cooperatively with other town departments.

            On the issue of human resource-related matters, Riquinha said that he always tries to work things out with an employee when things aren’t right, to get them on board with doing their job, handling their responsibilities so others would not have to carry the burden, but failing that, “I’d go through the process and write them up.”

            Public relations were also touched upon with Riquinha saying, if someone was disgruntled by a decision he made, he tried to educate them as to why it was made and generally that works to solve the impasse. “Give them everything you can … they usually understand,” he said.

            Board member Jodi Bauer asked how he felt about working with students on town projects. It was noted that Riquinha is a graduate of Greater New Bedford Vocational-Technical High School. He said, “That would be great … no better way to get into the field than getting out into it.”

            Later in the meeting, the board members unanimously agreed to have Town Administrator Mike Lorenco reach out to Riquinha with an offer. Bauer said, “He’s everything we need.” Board member Tyler Macallister said he has known the candidate for a number of years, saying, “I think he is perfect for the job.” Board Chairman Jordan Collyer said, “I did my homework – he comes highly recommended.”

            The board then spent the majority of the meeting in a working session with Fire Chief Andrew Murray and Harbormaster Jamie McIntosh, discussing FY23 operating budgets and capital plans.

            Murray explained that things were going well at the new station but that there were a few bugs being worked out. The FY23 operating budget shows an 8.39 percent overall increase from a FY22 figure of $753,015 to $816,214. Wages account for some of that increase with a full-time clerical-staff position up by $8,920 and on-call firefighters up $26,112. Lorenco explained that the clerical position had not been correctly accounted for in the past.

            Murray explained that the Fire Department had in past years only had a few on-call personnel show up but that now the average is 10 trained members of the department arriving for duty, accounting for the increase in that line item. Macallister said, “This what we wanted, to get you the help you need.” Murray said there are 35 on-call firefighters, two full-time staff firefighters and one part-time staff firefighter.

            The Fire Department’s capital expense list contains a singular line item: $50,000 for a new support vehicle. Murray restated his previously expressed rationale for a new SUV for the department as necessary not only for local matters but also for transporting trainees to the fire academy.

            Bauer wondered aloud why the Fire Department trainees are receiving transportation when other departments with staff members requiring training are using their own vehicles. Murry explained that equipment used in training is dirty and possibly contaminated. He further emphasized, “Most fire departments have three or four support vehicles. In 20 years, we’ve never asked for a support vehicle.”

            McIntosh came before the board with a capital expense plan listing $941,382 of need for the Waterfront Enterprise Fund.

            Long Wharf repair estimate stands at an initial sum of $794,947 in FY23 with additional financing through FY28 in the amount of $537,500, annually paid via debt exclusion. The Harbor Management Plan, which both McIntosh and the Marine Advisory Board believe is a necessary document in planning and grant applications for the coming decade, is listed at $30,000. And $18,456 is listed for the Patrol Boat debt service, a sum repeated annually through FY28.

            McIntosh said a plan for $70,000 worth of new docks and floats would be paid for from the Enterprise Fund and recouped over 10 years.

            Regarding seasonal wages, MacIntosh said that an additional $7,000 would be needed to secure qualified help and that boat-fuel increases warrant an increase of $4,000 in that line item. The FY23 budget is planned to increase 5.21 percent, totaling $332,958 for that period. FY22 will stand at $316,458.

            In other business, the board denied a request to accept a paper road, Naushon Street, for town services. Highway Surveyor Garrett Bauer noted that there are only two abutters to the roadway, and approval might open the way for more requests heretofore not found to be acceptable.

            The board voted to approve deficit spending for road salt if needed before the season ends. Bauer said that salt prices are now $67 per ton, an increase of 40 percent over last winter.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, March 8, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett Select Board

By Marilou Newell