During the May 23 meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission, residents of Marina Drive were asked to attend and discuss drainage piping they plan to install.

            The residents said they have been struggling for years with drainage problems in and around Marina Drive, a private roadway. Several residents said numerous calls to Town Hall and the Highway Department had not resulted in any assistance, although the Highway Department has annually completed roadway-maintenance services. Things seemed now to have reached the tipping point, as one resident exclaimed, “We need help!”

            Present to share their concerns were Mark and Stacey Lane, William Ebert, Lyn Pelland, Liz Carvalho and Alan and Sherri Panek.

            Conservation Commission Chairman Mike King said he was sympathetic to the conditions the residents were facing and wanted to help them achieve permitted work.

            After a lengthy discussion in which the residents described Marina Drive as impassible, said that children could not ride bikes on the road due to numerous potholes and that emergency vehicles would be hard pressed to reach some homes, King offered what little assistance was available from the commission. King said he would reach out to the Plymouth County Mosquito Control services and have drainage features in the area cleaned out. The bottom line for the residents, however, would be to hire a professional engineering firm for permanent solutions.

            In other matters, David Davignon of Schneider, Davignon and Leone Inc. represented three clients having their cases heard in a consecutive manner.

            First up was a Request for Determination of Applicability filed by Mike and Jeanne Connon, 65 Mattapoisett Neck Road, for the installation of a 53-foot-long sewer pipe to an existing sewer grinder pump basin. The request received a negative determination.

            A Notice of Intent filed by Tracey White, 70 Aucoot Road, was conditioned after Davignon described the proposal for beach nourishment. Conditions also called for sieve analyst.

            Davignon’s final filing for the evening was another NOI filed by David Monteiro, 35 Mattapoisett Neck Road, for the construction of a residential peer. This reopened hearing received conditioning.

            A RDA filed by David and Kimberlee Nashold, 15 Snowfield Road, for the expansion of an existing pool deck received a negative determination, as did Michael Livingstone’s RDA at 20 Old Mattapoisett Neck Road for perpetual beach nourishment with a cap of 5 yards of sand per year.

            Jeff Himawan, 10 Point Road, received a requested Amended Order of Conditions for the construction of a new residence and driveway. Himawan’s representative, Mat Costa of Holmes and McGrath Civil Engineering, was instructed to file a new plan of record.

            A NOI filed by Rose and Mark Robert, 17 Ned’s Point Road, for the construction of a 32×30-foot pool house with a driveway and a 16×32-foot in-ground pool as represented by Peter Therrien of Field Engineering received conditioning.

            Rounding out the agenda were enforcement orders previously issued to three property owners of beach camps along Old Road. King noted no further action is needed at this time.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for Monday, June 13, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett Conservation Commission

By Marilou Newell

Editor’s Note: On Page 18 of the May 26 Wanderer “Rochester Town Meeting,” the approved FY23 operating budget was incorrectly reported. The correct number approved by voters was $24,174,626. The report also incorrectly implied FY22 and FY23 salary figures for Town Accountant Suzanne Szyndlar and Building Commissioner Carl Bizarro. The figures discussed on Town Meeting floor applied to the entire Accounting and Building department budgets. Szyndlar earned $55,202 as town administrator/accountant in FY22 and will earn $80,000 in the newly created role of Finance Director in FY23. Bizarro will earn $80,000 as a full-time Building Commissioner in FY23, an increase from $49,358 (part-time) in FY22. Below is the story with the correct information.

            Monday night’s Rochester Town Meeting saved the drama until close to the end, as it took under an hour to pass all but two of its 27 warrant articles.

            The first negative vote came with Article 24, a move to change the “Arbor Fund” bylaw that requires solar-facility developers to estimate the value of the trees they are clear cutting on their property and submit to the town a payment that will then be used for tree-regrowing purposes. Town Meeting was being asked to apply this requirement to any subdivision or a commercial/industrial that cuts trees as part of its project.

            Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson reported that at that panel’s public hearing on the article on May 10, it voted unanimously to recommend it be withdrawn. Town Meeting attendees agreed and indefinitely postponed the change.

            At the May 10 hearing, Johnson explained he considers the proposed change “too cumbersome, too onerous. We want this fund confined to solar projects. The townspeople won’t like it. I don’t like to lose the town. They’ve grown to trust us. I don’t want to lose that.”

            Article 27 failed to pass as well. It was a citizen’s petition that would have authorized the town to enter into a 99-year lease agreement with a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization to build affordable housing on 4 acres on the south side of Perry’s Lane. The lease price tag would be for $1, and the units would be limited to Rochester seniors and veterans.

            Proponent Richard Cutler said it would be a proactive move to help the citizens of Rochester who are seniors and veterans with finding affordable housing before housing quotas came down from the state. “I strongly feel is the right move for Rochester,” Cutler said. “Is it like putting the cart before the horse? Well, the cart is affordable housing for our residents that needs a little push from behind. It will send a message to officials that we should be doing something about this and now.”

            Town Counsel Blair Bailey pointed out that any non-profit, not just the local petitioners, would be able to bid for this project under state law. Perry Lane resident Michele Gagne noted the street is an unpaved road down which a school bus regularly travels. Four acres there would be a very limiting housing project for its residents, she said.

            Select Board member Woody Hartley noted this is “a long, skinny piece of property. There are other town properties for something like this.” Referring to the entire Select Board, he added, “We’re not opposed to housing for our seniors and veterans. We’re not sure this the best place for it.”

            The article failed by vote of 72 against and only 14 in favor.

            Under positive moves, the FY23 operating budget of $24,174,626 passed with little resistance.

            A Town Meeting voter questioned what she called the “dramatic” salary increases in the Accounting and Building departments. The Accounting Department budget increased from $131,622 in FY22 to $162,851 for FY23, and the Building Department budget increased from $144,168 in FY22 to $184,161 for FY23.

            Select Board Chairman Brad Morse explained that the Building-commissioner position was boosted from part-time ($49,358) in FY22 to full-time ($80,000) for FY23 because of an increasing workload and that Suzanne Szyndlar, who is earning $55,202 through FY22 as town administrator/town accountant, will earn $80,000 in FY23 in the newly created role of Finance Director. Glenn Cannon was recently appointed as Rochester’s new town administrator.

            The other major moves that the 101 residents who attended the Town Meeting approved included: $380,000 to borrow for a new ambulance; $110,000 for a feasibility study on possible public safety department improvements; $12,000 for engineering and surveying to renovate the town hall parking lot; $35,000 to site a transfer station building at the Highway barn; $41,000 for a new animal control vehicle; and $49,500 for a Highway Department dump truck and sander.

            Voters also endorsed changing the solar bylaw to state that such projects be designed to better minimize their visibility from residences and public ways.

Rochester Annual Town Meeting

By Michael J. DeCicco

The Rochester Conservation Commission Tuesday night allowed the Village at Plumb Corner senior housing development to make a slight change in its stormwater drainage design after a debate over whether the move would require a more complicated amended Notice of Intent and a new hearing cycle.

            The original plan was to clean out a drainage pipe there that empties into a vernal pool and cut the pipe back or replace it. Tuesday night, Repurpose Properties representative Brian Wallace proposed changing that plan to merely thoroughly cleaning the sediment from the pipe and placing riprap at the end of the pipe to catch the outflow.

            “We would leave the pipe as it is,” Wallace said. “Clean out the nine inches of sediment instead. More stormwater will come through the pipe. The only difference is the water will get where it’s going faster.”

            Commissioner Maggie Payne, attending the meeting on Zoom, wondered aloud if the new plan would require an amended Order of Conditions. “I’d like to see a description of what we’re agreeing to,” she said. “This pipe does put stormwater in wetlands.”

            Commissioner Ben Bailey seemed concerned as well, asking whether the same area of the development is being drained in both design models.

            Wallace said, yes, it was the same in both designs. He resisted the notion of needing an amended NOI. He emphasized that he hoped it could be considered only a minor change. He said he would be willing to submit a sketch of the new design as an approval requirement.

            The commission averted resorting to a more time-consuming approval process by endorsing the new plan as a “minor field change” with the approval dependent on Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly receiving and endorsing a sketch of the redesign.

            In other action, the commission revealed that a 6-acre parcel of land at 529 Snipatuit Road is being taken out of its 61A agricultural land designation due to a plan to build a solar farm there. The commission voted to recommend to the Select Board that the town not exercise its right to acquire the land itself.

            The Rochester Conservation Commission scheduled its next meeting for Tuesday, June 7, at 7:00 pm, at Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School.

Rochester Conservation Commission

By Michael J. DeCicco