Mattapoisett Selectman John DeCosta, speaking from prepared notes, addressed the residents of Mattapoisett before the Board of Selectmen’s April 13 meeting got underway. DeCosta told the public that he recently received a cancer diagnosis but believes he is fully capable of carrying out the duties of selectman.

            “I ask for your thoughts and prayers,” he said. Both Selectmen Paul Silva and Jordon Collyer expressed their sincere best wishes, offering prayers for DeCosta and his family.

            In other business conducted by the board on April 9, the selectmen voted to have a debt exclusion question posed to voters at the May 10 Spring Town Meeting and on the May 18 election ballot – whether or not there is a fiscal appetite to borrow $450,000. The funding, if secured, will be earmarked for roadway design projects, primarily the long-discussed Main, Water and Beacon Street span and improvements to Marion Road.

            The funding will be used to complete 75-percent design development already begun by engineering firm VHB as required by the Massachusetts Transportation Improvement Program known as T.I.P. The language in the question will also give the town leverage to use interest on the bond to pay down the borrowing. The impact on the property tax rate for the Proposition 2½ ceiling was estimated at $10 per year. Both the ballot question and the article will have to find favorable responses before further action can be taken.

            Coming before the board on April 13 was Alan Decker of the Buzzards Bay Coalition and Mike Huguenin of the Mattapoisett Land Trust with a request to approve the inclusion of 8 additional acres to an existing conserved parcel known as the Old Aucoot District. The additional acreage comes from the MLT’s acquisition of the former Santos Farms, which will become a meadow, Huguenin stated. The board unanimously approved the amendment to the conservation restriction.

            The board also unanimously approved the return of the annual Mattapoisett Boat Race sponsored by the Rochester Firefighters Association to be held on May 31. The event was truncated last spring due to the coronavirus pandemic and state restriction on gatherings. Town Administrator Mike Lorenco said that the town could limit to 150 (per the current state guideline) the number of people participating and gathering to watch the boaters come across the finish line at the herring run located on Route 6. The selectmen added that people will not be allowed to congregate after the race is completed and that no concession services will be allowed.

            Also discussed were rules for gathering at Ned’s Point, also known as Veteran’s Park. Lorenco asked the board for guidance on how to handle the increasing number of requests that Town Hall is receiving.

            After discussing the pros and cons, and desirous to try and come up with a formula that would allow gatherings while maintaining the state’s safety guidelines, the board determined that up to 50 people would be allowed to gather for weddings and picnics, pending permission. They also said that weddings would have a time limit of one hour, and picnics three hours, and that a two-hour separation between events would be in place.

            DeCosta added that use of the town’s parks including Shipyard Park and The Landing needs a complete review, including fees and updated policies.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen is scheduled for Tuesday, April 27, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen

By Marilou Newell

            It may not be a true eleventh-hour revelation, but pretty close, as the Mattapoisett Planning Board voted on April 5 to withdraw a new Solar Bylaw Article from the Annual Town Meeting Warrant after learning that legal edits are needed.

            For over a year, the board and its members, especially Janice Robbins, have been beavering away on solar bylaw drafts in preparation for a Town Meeting vote. Now, practically on the eve of having the warrant printed, the board learned that legal review would prompt a number of edits.

            Robbins, who has nearly single-handedly spearheaded the bylaw draft, said, “I thought town counsel had already seen it, but, no, they hadn’t. They made numerous edits including some that are substantive in nature.” She went on to say, “I can’t support going forward at this time; the better course is to pull it from the May Town Meeting.”

            Citing the time needed to absorb the legal edits and prepare the document for a Fall Town Meeting, Robbins said there is no point in jeopardizing the adoption of a new solar bylaw by having the Attorney General reject it on a technicality. “It’s a complicated bylaw; we need to get this right,” she said.

            The board unanimously voted to withdraw the article until fall.

            Another zoning bylaw, Flood Hazard Areas, is headed to the Annual Town Meeting in May. Acting Planning Board Administrator Mike Gagne said that adoption of the FEMA-mandated revisions had been sidelined due to COVID-19 closures, but added it is now time to seek voter approval. He said the town must accept new maps and language edits or FEMA insurance will be rescinded. “It’s so important that we do this,” Gagne said.

            Discussing the matter further, Robbins said there were actually two articles covering the topic – one for the zoning bylaw, and a second on associated definitions. The board decided to take another look at everything, repost the public hearing to include the definitions section, and return to the matter during its May 3 meeting.

            In other matters, Gagne advised the board that the lender agreement executed between the owners of Brandt Point Village and the town expired in August 2018. The beleaguered residential subdivision has seen its share of complications from several ownerships and incomplete construction for common-area features, and concerns over a shared septic system.

            In conversations with the owner’s representative, Al Loomis of McKenzie Engineering, Gagne said Loomis had responded to a punch list of comments from the town’s peer-review consultant, Field Engineering, and vice versa, but more time is needed for review. Gagne said, regarding the lapsed financial agreement, that more guidance is needed from town counsel.

            There were a number of Approval Not Required and Form A submissions on the lengthy agenda. They included an ANR for 3 Crystal Spring Road by Ryan Correira; Lots 85A and 86A located at Shagbark Circle represented by Jason Youngest of Outback Engineering for a Form A; Brandt Island Road Lots 56 and 57 represented by Douglas Schneider of Schneider, Davignon, & Leone, Inc.; and a Form A for Lots 121 and 122 in the Bay Club, also represented by Youngest. All were approved.

            A Form C application filed for property located on Park Lane was continued when Robbins returned to the unorthodox plan previous presented by the applicant’s representative, Doug Schneider. At issue is a proposal that the developers of the subdivision would reconstruct Park Lane, a public way. Robbins said she needed to consult with town counsel, having “never seen anything like this before.”

She noted that the roadway portion of the proposal would have the developers reconstructing the public roadway from dirt to pavement, as well as a realignment of the roadway in the cul-de-sac. The matter was continued until May 3.

            Also coming before the board was Robert Duffy, 4 Pine Island Road, requesting permission to repair and improve an existing rubble-stone wall feature located along a scenic byway. The request was approved after assurances that the wall would be placed on Duffy’s private property, not in the municipal easement.

            Board members also took up the issue of updating and setting a Planning Board fee schedule. Gagne said that Town Meeting would need to approve an amendment to the board’s Rules and Regulations before the board has the authority to set fees. He said that Town Meeting should approve their authority first, authority they currently do not have, then once that is in place, fees could be planned.

            Member Karen Field asked if Gagne had any details on the long-planned Tinkham Forest Trail. Gagne said that an access trail was planned, had been mapped out, and needed to be placed on local maps. A final step of having the trail recorded at the Registry of Deeds would close the loop.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for Monday, May 3, at 7:00 pm.

Mattapoisett Planning Board

By Marilou Newell

            With Marion set to host the town’s first body art and tattoo establishment, the Marion Board of Health on April 6 set its sights on May to hold a public hearing to adopt a set of body art establishment regulations.

            Marion’s regulations will be based primarily on the state’s own set of model regulations for local boards of health to use as a starting point in drafting regulations allowing for the authority to issue body art permits and conduct regular inspections.

            Board of Health Chairman Dr. Edward Hoffer said he had town counsel review the draft regulations and reported no apparent issues with the language that lays out the specifics concerning sanitation and sterilization measures and procedures, establishment recordkeeping, standards of practice, injury and complaint protocols, and permitting.

            Health Agent Anna Wimmer said the only addition she wishes to make would be to add “microblading” to the definitions section of the regulations to include as a form of body art.

            Microblading is a technique used predominantly for eyebrows involving several tiny needles that use fine strokes to apply semi-permanent ink into the skin.

            The board expects it will review a final draft at its next meeting and schedule a public hearing for May.

            On the COVID-19 front, Marion has seen an uptick in positive cases over the past several weeks, bringing the town’s total up to 401. As of press time, there were eight active cases.

            Sippican School has seven in quarantine awaiting test results with one positive case in isolation for a total of 36 confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic last year.

            Tabor Academy, just back from a two-week spring break, reported “a few positive cases,” Health Nurse Lori Desmarais said, unrelated to any on-campus transmission and with no exposure reported on the school’s campus. Regular testing at Tabor Academy is ongoing.

            Sippican Healthcare Center has gone 56 days since its last confirmed positive case. All staff and residents have received both COVID-19 vaccine doses and are considered fully vaccinated.

            Marion will be distributing its final second doses to its elderly population that received the vaccine through the town before the state switched its strategy to focus on mass vaccination sites.

            A clinic was scheduled for April 7, and one final clinic is upcoming for next week for those last second doses.

            The board held a public hearing for a septic system variance requested by Eileen and J. Thomas Bowler, 17 Moorings Road. BOH members agreed to continue the hearing after concluding that they would not favor a variance from the town’s new regulation requiring new constructions to install state-of-the-art nitrogen-reducing septic systems while the couple awaits permission to connect to the municipal sewer service.

            Engineer David Davignon explained that the variance would allow the Bowlers to keep the existing 1,500-gallon septic tank system in place while demolishing the existing five-bedroom single-family house and rebuilding a new one with the same number of bedrooms. However, Marion regulations require a 2,000-gallon septic system for a house that size, and one that is more environmentally friendly, known as an “innovative/alternative” (I/A) septic system.

            According to Davignon, the existing septic system passed a Title V inspection, but the homeowners’ long-term plan is to tie into the sewer system, forgoing the septic system altogether. He said an abutter is also involved in the project, which includes installing a grinder pump and a 2-inch forced main down a shared driveway to Converse Road, where they hope to connect.

            Davignon said the couple had filed a sewer connection permit with the Water & Sewer Commission, which consists of the Board of Selectmen, and the plan is awaiting approval. Still, although the Bowlers intend on connecting to sewer, Davignon said, just in case, he wanted the availability of the existing septic system.

            BOH member Dot Brown said she had many questions, given that she had recently spoken with Department of Public Works Superintendent David Willett, who allegedly told her that he does not foresee the Bowlers receiving approval for the sewer tie-in. According to Brown, Willett said the Bowlers would not be able to use a 2-inch pipe to connect to Converse Road. Instead, they would have to run the pipe down Conserve Road to Cove Street and tie in there, making the project more costly.

            Brown said she also serves on a citizens’ advisory group undertaking a comprehensive wastewater management plan and that the Converse Road area does not place high on the priority list at this time. Furthermore, that wastewater management plan has been delayed by about a year due to the pandemic, so the group is nowhere near the point of determining when the area would be considered for sewer upgrades.

            Brown said she was not inclined to approve a variance from the board’s new septic regulations, especially without an I/A septic system plan in place should the sewer tie-in plan fail.

            Davignon argued that the existing septic system, if granted the variance, would not ever be used throughout the demolition and construction, and so no increase in flow was imminent. He said it “troubles” him that the board would require the Bowlers to replace the passing septic system with an expensive I/A system when all they want is to connect to sewer eventually.

            However, Brown would not concur. “If you can spend that much money on the house, then you can protect the water a little bit,” said Brown.

            Hoffer agreed with Brown that the new regulations require all new construction to install the I/A design, regardless of whether the existing septic system passes or fails a Title V inspection.

            Davignon expressed frustration with the details about the 2-inch pipe not being able to hook up to Converse Road, of which he said he was unaware. Brown said the Board of Health could not solve the sewer problem for the Bowlers, but nor could it grant a variance for a septic system outside the new regulations and for an undetermined amount of time. However, without the BOH signing-off on the system, the Bowlers would not receive the building permits they need to demo and rebuild the house.

            Davignon asked if the BOH would approve the variance, but with the caveat, should the Bowlers be denied a sewer connection, then they would install an I/A septic system.

            Brown was still not comfortable with that, and neither were the other board members. Without a plan submitted for an I/A septic system, the board was not prepared to move forward.

            J. Thomas Bowler spoke via Zoom and assured the board that the older septic system would never be used regardless of the sewer outcome, and also said he hadn’t heard anything mentioned about the 2-inch pipe not being able to connect to Converse Road. He wanted to know more about that, but the board did not have the information.

            Bowler’s frustration was evident in the steady raising of his voice as he questioned the board about the information it was relying upon that evening. He questioned the “conflating a master septic/sewer plan for Marion with one homeowner’s request,” and Brown said that perception was “exactly why we’re in this position now.”

            Every homeowner over the last 50 years has asked the same question, she said.

            Bowler took “huge exception” to what he said was Brown’s assumption that he was “trying to get out of” installing the I/A septic system. He defended himself by saying that he and his wife care about the environment and water quality and never intended to circumvent regulations. He continued speaking in a loud tone for some time until Hoffer turned to Davignon and asked if he would like a continuation of the public hearing to allow for time to obtain written permission for the sewer tie-in or, in the absence of that, to put together a plan for an I/A system as a backup plan.

            Davignon accepted, and the hearing was continued until 4:10 pm on April 20.

            The next meeting of the Marion Board of Health will be on April 20 at 4:00 pm.

Marion Board of Health

By Jean Perry