Both sides of the Old Rochester/Union No. 55 Joint School Committee voted to eliminate April Vacation during Monday’s emergency meeting held via Zoom video conferencing.

            The decision moved up the last day of school from June 24 to June 18. Parents were to receive the decision on Tuesday morning, April 14.

            Whether or not students return to class on May 4, the last return-to-campus date prescribed by the state, ORR schools will still be out on Patriots Day, Monday, April 20, but will not use the following four days for vacation.

            “One of the things we’ve been talking about is the fact that we’re gaining momentum in what we’re offering kids,” said Superintendent of Schools Doug White in his April 13 report to the Joint School Committee. “Each of the four unions overwhelmingly stated that they’d like to continue education through the April vacation.”

            The decision was left up to local school districts and, as such, will pose ramifications on collective bargaining with the district’s four unions.

            Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing has been suspended for 2020, but remote-access education took on a more serious tone after Massachusetts Commissioner of K-12 Public Education Jeffrey C. Riley wrote a March 30 letter recommending that school districts across the state start-up remote-learning programs.

            Old Rochester intensified its already established online engagement with students to make accountable, expand and add structure in order to achieve curriculum-related goals for what might last the duration of the school year.

            The state recommended that students are engaged in remote learning for approximately half the length of a regular school day and that their activities be divided evenly between educator-directed and self-directed learning. Equity of access is a mandate in this open-ended format.

            While school superintendents have met weekly via remote access to discuss strategy, yielding many online platforms including a partnership that Massachusetts now has in place with WGBH Television and its affiliates, Riley stressed in his letter that remote education is not synonymous with online education.

            Teachers have been encouraged to create offline learning experiences for their students away from the classroom including nature exploration, activities to support communities, hands-on projects, and artistic creations, all the while maintaining safe practices amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The focus in the remote setting is still on the reinforcement and improvement of learned skills, but with the introduction of new material as educators determine to be appropriate.

            Assistant Superintendent Mike Nelson told the meeting that ORR has continued following the commissioner’s guidance in special education where it concerns remote-learning plans, including any out-of-district placements and has maintained contractor and vendor contracts. “I feel like we addressed all those areas,” he said.

            White told the meeting that transportation is “most concerning” at this time, as Amaral Bus Company has laid off drivers but is billing ORR the full amount for normal services. White planned to meet on April 14 with the three town managers to discuss the matter. “We’ve stopped paying at this time until we’ve negotiated,” he said.

            Budget-wise, White said that ORR continues to receive grants and circuit breakers, and all employees are being paid, putting the school district on par with other towns in Massachusetts. That includes cafeteria workers who, unlike most staff who are working remotely, report to school and provide over 850 lunches daily, a number he thinks will continue to grow “the longer we’re out.”

            White said there has been discussion about putting some town employees on furlough, “but we’re not considering that at this time.”

            Should the postponed town meetings not be held, ORR will receive 1/12 of the FY20 budget for FY21 until the budget is passed and moves forward.

            If students do not return to the classroom this spring, a main concern among administrators has been the senior class.

            ORR High School Principal Mike Devoll has been working with other Southcoast-area principals regarding graduation. One philosophy of thought is to postpone graduation until August, while other schools are toying with ideas on the traditional timeline.

            “The seniors have effectively lost their athletic season and are desperately hanging onto their end-of-season things like prom,” said Devoll.

            Region-side Chairperson Cary Humphrey asked if high schools are considering virtual events.

            Devoll said awards night has been discussed. “To be honest, the kids are not ready to embrace those things yet,” he said, noting that ORR’s National Honor Society includes two seniors. “It’s hitting us; we’re trying to figure out ways to honor everybody appropriately… I have a lot of teachers who really care about this senior class and we want to do them right.”

            “The wisdom of this crowd here will help us get through it,” said Humphrey.

            The next scheduled meeting of the Joint School Committee is June 11, but Humphrey said there will be a meeting scheduled ahead of that date to discuss the contract for Nelson, who takes over as superintendent when White’s term expires on June 30.

ORR/Union No. 55 Joint School Committee

By Mick Colageo

            Marion plans to pull out of its two-town health district with Rochester.

            In its first meeting since March 4, the Finance Committee voted unanimously on April 1 to join the unanimous recommendations of the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Health in carrying to town meeting the intent to end the arrangement with Rochester.

            “It’s not working anymore. We’re looking to get out of it and do our own thing,” said Town Administrator Jay McGrail, who will include the decision on the warrant for town meeting to withdraw from the Marion-Rochester Health District. “The District itself is a very convoluted thing to run one person… Maybe we could do shared services.”

            Marion expects positive, long-term financial implications from a new arrangement.

            “That’s something we’ve been advocating for… we’ll end up saving some money,” said FinCom Chairman Peter Winters. “The concept was for three (or) four towns to be together… I think we could do this shared employee with Rochester, but do it in a different way.”

            It will take a year for a dissolution of the two-town health district to go into effect.

            Marion’s problems are not with Health Director Karen Walega but with the bureaucratic setup and its inability to manage the situation.

            “The district pays for worker’s (compensation benefits) for one person, and we pay an accountant for one person,” explained McGrail. “When I say this it doesn’t come out right… but it’s control. One thing is there’s an employee for the Town of Marion that we can’t manage. (It’s a) tough way to work.

            “If the board’s comfortable, I’d love to be able to put this on the warrant (for town meeting).”

            A motion passed for Marion to remove itself from the two-town health district with Rochester.

            “We finished the warrant here,” said McGrail.

            In his update, McGrail told the Marion Finance Committee in its first meeting since early last month that, despite financial uncertainty at national and local levels, the town is faring well in Fiscal Year 2020.

            “We were very conservative on our revenue estimates regarding real-estate taxes, excise taxes and the like,” he said. “Being that we’re so late, currently about to enter the fourth quarter (of FY20), we’ve already collected a majority of the revenue that we need to meet our expectations for the year.”

            McGrail does not anticipate financial difficulties for Marion from now until July, but does expect a downturn in the fourth-quarter billing.

            “Even with a downturn, we’ll still be able to meet our revenue expectations for the year,” he said, crediting Assistant Town Administrator Judy Mooney’s budgeting work over the last few years.

            McGrail says Marion is in a position where even FY21 estimates, including state-aid estimates, are so conservative that it would take a very significant decrease in funding from the state and a very large decrease in what people will be paying in their taxes to be able to significantly impact the town in 2021.

            “We have no idea – it could get really bad, I don’t know – but we’re prepared to weather the storm,” McGrail told Fincom. “The conservative-budgeting approach that we’ve taken has put us in a place where we’re not susceptible to slight (economic) swings. We could be susceptible to large (swings).”

            McGrail expects that, if there is a “massive” impact on Marion’s budget, it would make that impact to FY22.

            In the meantime, the priority has been to tie up all of Marion’s financial legwork and be ready to go with a warrant for a town meeting that may be held in an improvised format, perhaps using Sippican School classrooms so that participants can view on monitors from inside the same building but keep limits inside individual rooms to the state-mandated maximum of 10, with individuals able at appropriate moments to walk to the main room for in-person participation.

            “If that’s the case and town meeting is not typical, I think what we’d be looking to do is just approve Articles 1 through 4 so that we have funding set up for FY21 starting July 1st, and then postpone town meeting to a date to be determined to deal with all of the capital articles and such,” McGrail told FinCom. “We’ll see how it goes, and you guys will be involved in that whole process.’

            Winters suggested McGrail consider Hoyt Hall (Firemen’s Center) on the Tabor Academy campus, where town meeting has been held before.

            “That’s got a lot bigger capacity so, as far as spacing people out or people sitting in household groups, that might be something you want to consider, if Tabor is obviously amenable,” said Winters.

            Residents can deliver their tax payments into two drop-off boxes outside town hall, pay online or make an appointment for special circumstances.

            Board member Margherita Baldwin asked McGrail if there was any provision in the federal CARE Act for those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic to the point of not being able to pay their taxes.

            McGrail said he was receiving new updates from town counsel. Board of Selectmen member John Waterman, who was on the call, said that the state’s disaster declaration may free up funds.

            McGrail gave an update on the increase in costs to Marion’s water and sewer budgets since FinCom’s last meeting. Sewer, projected to increase by 7.3 percent a month ago, was estimated at a slight decrease to a 7.24 percent increase, making the total amount $3.14481 million.

            “David (Willett, DPW director) was pretty confident there wasn’t a lot of fat in that or opportunities to save money,” said Winters. “Obviously, seven percent is going to be a huge hit to the rate payers. You know, I don’t think there’s really much we can do, but we can decide how we want to vote on it.”

            Ms. Baldwin’s motion to accept was seconded by member Shay Assad and passed without discussion.

            Water enterprise was projected to increase by 10.83 percent, now down to a 10.28 percent increase.

            The increases encompass the $2.8 million bond that Marion is in the process of taking out for the Mill Street project. According to McGrail, Marion has no capital projects at town meeting that require bonding. The amount the warrant will bring to town meeting is $2,183,799.

            A motion to accept was passed without discussion.

            Winters asked what happens if one of Marion’s contracted companies goes out of business.

            Methuen Construction, which is working on Marion’s lagoon project, is one of the largest companies in the state, according to McGrail, who said, “Hopefully they can weather the storm. The contract we have with them is about 4 inches thick.”

            Board of Selectmen member John Waterman was on the call and noted that Methuen Construction posted a performance bond.

            “The most interesting thing over the next few weeks for Judy and myself will be we have some borrowing out that we’re waiting to get back in, get some rates on. It’ll be interesting to see how that shakes out and what we want to do,” said McGrail. “We’re in a situation where we’re not long-term borrowing right now.”

            McGrail said that, even if Marion can hold town meeting, it won’t necessarily look to spend all of its free cash. He said the town will need to go back to the Capital Improvement Planning Committee’s plan to determine priorities.

            To address smaller projects that McGrail said tend to get lost, he set aside a Building Maintenance fund of $50,000. (In Sandwich, that amount was set at $125,000). FinCom passed the motion unanimously. The money will be allocated for carpet replacement and especially painting.

            “Painting never rises to a level of capital and, without a something like this in place, never gets done,” said McGrail, who hopes to see the Community Center get painted and carpeted with drywall repairs. “There’s a million little projects that just don’t rise to the capital (planning) threshold.”

            He told FinCom the commitment is to come back next year and explain how every cent was spent. Any leftover funds would go back into free cash.

            South Shore Generator quoted Marion at $47,000 for a new emergency generator for Perry Hill station to replace the 1994 emergency generator used to power the town during outages. Wolf Island was originally considered as well, but that will wait until next year.

            Waterman called it “mission critical” that the generators are up and running.

            The motion passed.

            Citing larger matters such as the Master Plan, McGrail told FinCom he is pulling the $40,000 article to fund the storage facility off the warrant. Marion will continue paying $4,000 per year to rent space and also use the recently sold Atlantis Drive facility.

            Winters cited a need to improve the means of ingress and egress, calling it difficult, and Waterman recommended a site plan for an overall improvement.

            McGrail said Marion needs to replace the town’s bucket truck, which is expected to cost $150,000 if new. “My hope is to buy a used truck for $70,000 or $80,000 (and send the rest of the $150,000 back to free cash),” he said.

            The 1984 frame is rotted out, unusable and out of service since July 2019, according to McGrail.

            The motion passed.

            Items 45 and 46 set up a limit for revolving funds.

            “If we bring in $300,000… town meeting does not authorize us no matter how much revenue we bring in to spend more than that amount ($150,000 for recreation and $17,500 for health),” explained McGrail.

            Winters asked if Marion will need to increase the amount for the Health Department.

            “We’re doing OK,” said McGrail, noting a wire transfer of $25,000 from the state the week before the meeting that allowed Marion to bring in five public-health nurses to do case tracing for COVID-19.

            McGrail further explained that the $17,500 revolving fund provides an immunization program in which the money comes in from Tabor and Rochester and Marion provides the immunizations.

            Motions for both amounts passed.

            The next meeting of FinCom was set for 7:00 pm Wednesday, May 6.

Marion Finance Committee

By Mick Colageo

            The meaning of “stick-to-itive-ness” was on full display when the April 6 meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board took place via Go-To-Meeting. After a bit of a slow start as each board member adjusted microphones, learned how to navigate the internet platform including muting and unmuting functions, the board opened the hearing of NextGrid, a solar development company headquartered in San Francisco. It took over three hours before the exhausted board members agreed to continue the hearing until May 4.

            Daniel Serber, NextGrid, first presented the proposed solar array project back in November in the form of a Special Permit application before the Zoning Board of Appeals. After long presentations and abutter comment, primarily voicing strong opposition to a solar project in a residential neighborhood, that application was denied. NextGrid filed an appeal with the Massachusetts Land Court.

            Jonathan Silverstein of KP Law, Mattapoisett’s legal representative, provided clarification on how the applicant, after being denied permitting by the ZBA could file an application for consideration by the Planning Board.

            It was determined by the Town of Mattapoisett that a possible solution might be reached by allowing the project to be filed with the Planning Board. The town’s legal representatives met with the applicant’s legal team, it was learned in a follow-up with Mattapoisett’s Director of Inspectional Services Andy Bobola. He said that, given the possibility of a long and expensive legal process at land court with the possibility of the decision coming down on the side of the applicant, the town wanted to be able to have some oversight of the project.

            “We can have site-plan review and input and the ability to condition the project,” Bobola told The Wanderer. He said that if the applicant won in land court, the town would have forfeited that option.

            Silverstein said that previous solar projects sought and received permitting through the granting of special permits issued by the ZBA absent site-plan review by the Planning Board. He said that the appeal by NextGrid is pending in land court. The applicant’s appeal states, in part, that because the town does not have a solar bylaw, there is no method available to grant special permits.

            “The Planning Board has more experience with engineering specifications… it was agreed between the parties that the appeal process would quit and the applicant would come before the Planning Board,” he said.

            Silverstein also explained that state statutes grant special consideration when proposed projects in residential areas fall into categories such as religious structures, schools, and solar arrays. “Zoning bylaws may not prohibit solar,” he said. But he added Mattapoisett’s bylaw don’t speak to solar at all.

            During the hours-long hearing, various technical aspects of the project were heard with opportunities for the board members to ask questions of any of the three members of the NextGrid team. Serber was joined at the virtual conference table by Chris King of the architectural firm Atlantic Design, Sandwich, and NextGrid’s attorney, Joseph Pacella.

            The topics touched on stormwater drainage, scope of clearing, concerns around heavy equipment on the dirt roadway, Bowman Road, MSDS requirements for transformers, emergency-equipment ingress and egress capabilities, fencing, screening, and set-backs. Also discussed was the applicant’s willingness to post bonds for decommissioning and maintenance. Sums were not set at this time.

            Serber stated that extra care and consideration for abutters had been taken.

            ”We have spent time getting to know the abutters,” he said. “They have been kind and invited us into their homes. We wanted to keep the project palatable to the community.” Serber said that turtles and other migrating animals would be able to traverse the property freely and that landscaping would include the use of pollinating mixtures.

            King pointed out that earlier plans had been modified to allow greater distances between private residences and the two solar-array fields, and that one of the two areas planned for development had been reduced by several acres. He also said that comments by the Mattapoisett Land Trust’s peer-review consultant, G.A.F. Engineering, would be included in future plan modifications.

            Public comment was taken in the form of written missives, but Planning Board member Nathan Ketchel said that continuances would allow for public comment in the public meeting format. King felt all public comment should be in written form versus verbal participation, saying in this way the applicant could respond in kind. King feared by allowing verbal comment at the next meeting a decision would be delayed. Ketchel disagreed, saying, “I don’t think we can put any kind of timeline on it.

            “I’m not going to come in on May 4 and say (the public) can’t comment. There was a pandemic. I didn’t write this into how this year was going to go. Under current statute, we can go 45 days beyond the emergency order of May 4.”

            Earlier in the meeting, letters submitted to the Planning Board by Aucoot Road resident Brad Hathaway and his daughter Jane Hathaway dated April 2 and April 3 included questions of the appropriateness of a solar array in a residential district, consideration of drainage and stormwater management in light of the downstream location of the project, intent of 1965 Master Plans that indicated development should be compatible with residential areas, and large investments on the part of the Mattapoisett Land Trust in partnership with donors, the municipality and other investors to conserve more than 400 areas abutting the proposed solar array property, a point that according to Hathaway, “defeated the purpose” of conservation efforts.

            Comments from the Mattapoisett Land Trust were recorded in the public hearing but not read aloud during this meeting.

            Also present at the meeting was Becky Zora, an abutter who said that due to audio difficulties she had not been able to clearly hear Silverstein and wished to fully understand how the project was being heard by the Planning Board before commenting. She was directed to the town’s website for full access.

            Other agenda items including review of a new solar bylaw and language modifications to flood-zone bylaws were suspended until further notice pending town meeting’s scheduling.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for May 4 at 7:00 pm, venue to be announced.

Mattapoisett Planning Board

By Marilou Newell