The Marion Zoning Board of Appeals in the Police Station’s conference room on December 11 approved a variance for Heron Cove Estates, a proposed development that has changed from 125 proposed apartment units to 57 town houses.

            The ZBA at a joint-meeting with the Select Board on November 13 discussed whether the ZBA could even vote on a variance for a project that has drastically changed.

            Select Board members were all in agreement that the board could indeed vote on the variance and that the project would boast economic benefits to the town.

            Ken Steen of Steen Realty and Attorney Ken Debrowski outlined the economic hardships for developers, ranging from rising construction costs since the apartment project was proposed, as well as $1 million needed to build a retaining wall that abuts the nearest property on the west side of the development.

            Debrowski and Steen also mentioned that the topography of the area would also be an economic drain to the developers.

            “The land has to be filled and graded, and costs of raw materials are out of sight,” Steen said. “It has gone crazy.”

            The ZBA unanimously granted the variance and expressed no opposition.

            At the November 13 joint-meeting, Select Board Vice Chair John Hoagland said that the scaled-down version of the project will likely attract older people without families. He said the development would connect to the town’s sewer and water, helping improve that infrastructure, as well as make road improvements in that area.

            Hoagland also said that the development’s close proximity to town businesses would be a boon to the local economy.

            He and other Select Board members said the developer has also promised around $500,000 to the town in addition to tax revenue.

            The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals will be on Thursday, January 8.

Marion Zoning Board of Appeals

By Jeffrey D. Wagner

The Rochester Select Board’s biggest move Monday was to invite Old Rochester Regional School District Superintendent Michael Nelson to its January 20 meeting to learn more about ORR High School’s plan to accept Acushnet students in the 2026-27 academic year.

            Member Brad Morse began the discussion by noting he has seen too many social-media posts proclaiming what that deal between ORR and the Acushnet School Department will mean. He is especially bothered by talk of how much Acushnet will pay to send its high school students to ORR. In some media, it’s a number far less than it’ll cost ORR to accept those students, Morse noted. “My recommendation is to invite the superintendent in for our January 20 meeting,” he said.

            “We need to have a discussion in a public forum,” Chair Adam Murphy said as he agreed to extend the invitation. “We want questions answered.”

            Town Administrator Cameron Durant noted negotiations between Acushnet and ORR aren’t even happening yet. The December 9 meeting of the Acushnet School Committee agreed simply to start negotiations with both the City of New Bedford and ORR to form a new school-district partnership that would send Acushnet students to that community’s high school. As only a point to start the negotiations, Acushnet had proposed paying 70% of what the state reimburses a community for its per pupil costs and had calculated that figure as $8,200 per student, Durant said. “That’s just their starting point,” he explained.

            Murphy added that he is encouraged by the fact ORR has never said “that is the number” that will work for them. Rather, ORR has said “it’s in the ballpark” of what would work for them.

            ORR officials visited the Acushnet School Committee in August to give a presentation on why ORR should become the town’s new partner for high school students. In early November, Acushnet school officials toured ORRHS. On November 20th, the ORR School Committee authorized Nelson to negotiate a tuition-based contract should Acushnet choose ORR for its new high school partner in anticipation of Acushnet’s December 9 vote. Acushnet estimates having 120 high-school-age students in 2025-26, Nelson noted at the time, though approximately half of them attend Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School in Rochester.

            In other important business, Durant announced he is working on negotiating an inter-municipal agreement with Acushnet to share a Board of Health agent. He noted Acushnet has a similar inter-municipal pact with Mattapoisett to share a town planner.

            Durant announced that a photo contest to determine the cover photo for Rochester’s 2025 annual report has begun. Interested parties can visit the town website to submit their entry at townofrochestermass.com.

            The board announced Eversource is scheduling vegetation maintenance work at 0 High Street and 0 County Road for some time between the winter and spring of 2026.

            The board approved extending the contract to share the Lakeville Animal Shelter.

            The board accepted Anne Fernandes’ letter of resignation from the Rochester Memorial School Committee.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, December 29, at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Select Board

By Michael J. DeCicco

            In a room packed with grumbling neighbors, Rochester’s Zoning Board of Appeals on December 11 approved a Special Permit to allow firearms and tactical training range at 0 County Road.

            The 2.3 acres there is currently the site of the “Fox Den” firearms training facility owned by Steve Morrell, who is selling the property to John Vasvalekis. Morrell told the board the site’s use will not change. It will continue to be used as an outdoor firearms and tactical training facility for local, state, and federal law enforcement, military personnel, and the general public. “It will continue to serve the community and help people be more capable,” Vasvalekis added.

            The push back against this plan started when ZBA Chair Donald Spirlet read aloud the letter from the association president of nearby Connet Woods and former ZBA Chair David Arancio. The letter urged the applicant to have strong communication with abutters and neighbors and to do something about the current operation’s concentration of noisy night activities.

            From there, neighbors in attendance focused their complaints similarly on the noise that they said the current operation generates. Dennis Santora said he was not a direct abutter but an abutter of the noise. He asked if sound barriers could be added and whether there could be groundwater testing for the lead contamination that could come from spent bullet shells. A resident of 49 High Street complained there is nothing to buffer the operation’s noise because of the low-lying cranberry bogs in the area. Referring to the 8:00 am to 8:00 pm hours of operation on the original permit, he said, “there ought to be more restrictions on the times of operation and the caliber of guns they can use. There’s no down time for the residents with these hours.”

            Spirlet noted that sometimes the gunfire noise in that area comes from other residents who are not affiliated with the “Fox Den” operation, firing their own weapons as target practice. Morrell offered that he notifies the police chief of large training groups and has a website for posting his schedule.

            Ultimately, the board granted the permit with conditions that include cutting the hours of operation that were within the original permit down to 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, Monday through Saturday; Sunday hours 12:00 pm noon to 6:00 pm. The permit allows occasional night training that must end by 8:00 pm and must be approved by the police chief. The permit mandates that no caliber higher than 468 be used. Vasvalekis must post the night training schedule on his company website to keep residents better informed.

            The meeting began with the board accepting a bid from applicant Sandra Jones to withdraw without prejudice her frontage-requirement variance petition for a new two-family home at 309 Neck Road. The board continued this hearing from its November meeting after Building Commissioner Paul Boucher noted that a variance of such frontage requirements should not be allowed. Spirlet announced on December 11 that Town Counsel agreed with Boucher’s point of view. Jones said she has already filed a Special Permit petition for the plan, the preferred route to seek board approval.

            Lastly, the board approved two side-setback variances to allow a 16×22 addition to the garage at 194 Burgess Avenue.

            The next meeting of the Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2026, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals

By Michael J. DeCicco

Over many months of vigorous discussion regarding a new bylaw that may add a new type of housing unit in Mattapoisett, the Mattapoisett Planning Board is ready to debut the Cottage Bylaw.

            As previously noted by the board, the purpose of the new bylaw is to allow condensed spacing for residential construction. Board members believe this housing option will give the town more flexibility in offering housing that meets the needs of a changing population – senior citizens looking to downsize and young families seeking to live in the community but unable to bear the high cost of housing. While the new bylaw is not addressing the issue of affordability, the major stumbling block facing young families, the board believes it will help none-the-less.

            On December 5 the board meeting took up the bylaw language in a final push to get it before the public in advance of the spring town meeting.

            Presently, the bylaw allows the cottage structures to be up to 1,500 square-feet, with a main floor of 900 square feet. Other dimensional requirements are one cottage per lot, a maximum height of 25 feet, front setbacks 25 feet, side setback of 10 feet, and rear setbacks of 15 feet. Each living unit will have two parking spaces, and 200 square-feet of open space.

            The draft language also notes there will be 12-feet between units, and no detached accessory buildings except shared community structures.

            Other notable language in the proposed new bylaw states a reduction in structural size will lessen visual impact versus conventional residences, with an intent to foster the creation of intimate communities that revolve around communal spaces, creating pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.

            One drawback brought up during the meeting was the possibility of property owners charging more for buildable land given that the new bylaw would allow ten housing units per acre. They concurred that was a possibility.

            The board is planning a public meeting on February 2 to vet the new bylaw. The venue is to-be-announced.

            In other business, coming before the board on this night was Steven Cabral for property located at 182 North Street. The property owner is Dennis Mahoney and Sons, Inc. The subdivision and is for the creation of a family compound. It was learned that the entrance and exit to the property will be located at the cul-da-sac at the end of Shady Oak Drive.

            Representing the applicant of this subdivision was David Davignon of Schneider Davignon and Leone. He described the development as a family compound consisting of four, four bed single-family dwellings with septic systems, and private water supplies. Davignon clarified that entrance and exit to the subdivision will be located at the end of Shady Oak Drive and not off North Street.

            Drainage systems while described as “country drainage” will be further defined when the applicant begins full vetting presenting engineered drawings, comments from the fire department and from Natural Heritage, and the Board of Health. The application was continued.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for Monday, January 5.

Mattapoisett Planning Board

By Marilou Newell

            The Marion School Committee met on Thursday, December 11 and went over MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) scores, which have improved slightly over previous years but are still above the state average in mathematics, science and English Language Arts (ELA).

            Superintendent Michael Nelson explained that MCAS testing is at an interesting crossroad since the 2024 state ballot that removed the testing as a graduation requirement. School Committee Member Nichole Daniel noted the district’s decline and how it is concerning for both officials and parents.

            Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Sharlene Fedorowicz and Sippican Elementary Principal Lynn Dessert attributed some of the decline to new programming at both Sippican Elementary and the entire Tri-Town district, which also encompasses Mattapoisett and Rochester.

            Both said that the data helped educators analyze the strengths and weaknesses and curtail education toward strengthening the weaknesses such as small-group instruction opportunities and using scheduled flex time to target problem areas.

            Overall, students in grades 4 through 8 improved slightly in the past year in ELA but not in math. In grade 10, math scores were stagnant but showed a slight decrease in ELA. Still, the district outperformed the state in math, ELA, and science.

            Fedorowicz said that in grade 3 through 6, Marion students outperformed the state average by 2-percent in ELA; 5-percent in math; and 11-percent in science.

            Fedorowicz noted that in ELA, more students scored in the exceeded expectations category than in previous years.

            Dessert noted that students in ELA in the older elementary grades made significant strides toward analyzing texts using evidence and understanding the purpose of a text.

            However, students need more support with evidence-based writing.

            In math, by grade 6, students demonstrated strong, deeper reasoning skills but needed more hands-on activities to deepen pre-algebra skill, Dessert said. She noted that by Grade 6, students were expressing a strong grasp of Earth science, astronomy and engineering but needed to strengthen their science vocabulary and writing about the sciences.

            “Our next steps are to strengthen explicit standard-aligned instruction and increase student discourse and make sure students are talking (about academic content),” she told the School Committee.

            In other business, Nelson said he is preparing two budgets for Fiscal Year 2027 – one with level service numbers and another with additional needs beyond the level service request from town finance officials. He said budget deliberations will center around mathematics, technology and enrollment issues.

            The next meeting of the Marion School committee is scheduled for Thursday, February 26, 2026.

Marion School Committee

By Jeffrey D. Wagner