Potential Route 6 Solutions Considered

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            Jed Cornock, principal and comprehensive planner with Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD), presented the organization’s Route 6 Corridor Study Results and offered the Marion Board of Selectmen options for the town to consider during its March 3 meeting at the Town House.

            Route 6 has been discussed frequently as a sore subject in desperate need of repair.

            Cornock’s main question to the board was broken down into four options, two with four-lane scenarios and two with two lanes. 

            Route 6 is a four-lane highway through its Marion stretch, unlike part of the route that reduces to two lanes in the commercial districts of Wareham and Mattapoisett.

            Cornock identified main areas of concern including the nearby intersections of Route 6 with Spring and Front streets, the “S-curve area,” and the angular entries from Creek and Converse roads.

            Recommendations included a light signal or rotary at Spring Street, protected lanes from Front Street for left turns onto Route 105 in both directions, and geometric improvements for the turning forks at Creek and Converse. Illustrated plans showed proposals to fill in around those roads and made them into 90-degree turns to curb speed leaving Route 6, and for improving visibility turning onto Route 6.

            Two-lane scenarios would widen sidewalks and give the option of having bicycles share the sidewalk or have their own lane either on the same elevation as the sidewalk or level with the traffic lanes.

            Other improvements proposed include: retroreflective signage; LED lighting; “continental” and “ladder” style crosswalks; reconstructed drains; the removal of telephone poles to achieve ADA compliance; and (if the road is left in its current configuration) the addition of bicycle signage. “In Massachusetts, bicycles are considered to be a vehicle,” said Cornock.

            Marion resident Mike Tracy spoke in opposition to the two-lane option. “I sit in Boston traffic every day, and I feel like reducing to two lanes will cause traffic congestion. The other concern I have is, God forbid, we have a hurricane,” he said.

            Selectboard Vice Chairman John Waterman assured Tracy that nothing has been decided, but that it is time for the town to start considering different options, including varying solutions for different parts of Route 6 in Marion.

            The Board also approved Marion Board of Health’s February 18 vote to withdraw from the Tri-Town Health District effective June 2021. The town is examining options for a potential future association or to go it alone.

            “We have time to do a good job and do it right,” said Health Board member Dot Brown.

            Police Chief John B. Garcia appeared to take questions on his upcoming retirement and the process of selecting his replacement. The procedure used when Garcia was selected in 2017 will invite sergeants and lieutenants to apply with letters due on April 24, setting the table for interviews to be conducted during the May 18 week, which falls after Town Meeting.

            Town Administrator Jay McGrail recommended that Garcia sit in on the interview process.

            Garcia said, “We’re not only preparing people for the positions they’re in but for the positions above them. I might be biased, but I think it worked out pretty well (in my case).”

            The board approved adjusted hours of operation for Town Hall from May 26 through Tuesday, September 28. The “summer” hours will be Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, and from 8:00 am to noon on Fridays. The approval was given on a one-year basis for 2020.

            McGrail’s report included a board update on the town’s preparation for a potential outbreak of COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus). “We’ve been as proactive as we can,” he told the board. “I think we have a pretty good team.” A meeting was scheduled for March 4 with the command team of department leaders.

            The board indicated it will write a letter on behalf of the Kittansett Club regarding its application for an alcohol license.

            Citing some 60 articles, McGrail has scheduled a “pre-town meeting” briefing for Monday, April 27, at 6:00 pm at the Music Hall.

            There will also be a Massachusetts principals’ legislative breakfast from 8:00 to 10:00 am on Friday, March 6, in Carver.

Marion Board of Selectmen and Water/Sewer Commissioners

By Mick Colageo

Old Colony to Compete in Titan Business Challenge

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Junior Achievement of Southern Massachusetts (JA) and Title Sponsor, Bristol County Savings Bank, announces that Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School in Rochester, Massachusetts will participate in the 7th Annual Junior Achievement Titan Business Challenge to take place on the campus of UMass Dartmouth on Tuesday, March 10. The Junior Achievement Titan Business Challenge is a business strategy competition in which high school students compete against other schools in teams using an online, interactive business simulation game that provides students with essential business knowledge. The school will compete against an estimated 200 students from 13 other schools.

            “We are excited to have Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School competing in JA’s Titan Business Challenge this year,” said Jeffrey Pelletier, JA President.  “Thanks to the support of the Bank and our other community partners, more than 1,000 students over the past six years have had the opportunity to participate in this hands-on, dynamic learning experience while gaining knowledge from some of the region’s top business leaders and competing for scholarship awards that can help make a higher education possible.”

            During the event, the students will compete for scholarships while gaining insight into the world of business, at no cost to the students or their high schools. In addition to developing budgets and interpreting financial reports, students can expect to increase their knowledge of pricing, production, capital investment, R&D, marketing and charitable giving.

Alumni Hoops Classic

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The Old Rochester Regional Athletic Hall of Fame would like your support again this year at their annual “Alumni Hoops Classic“ basketball event to be held in the ORRHS gymnasium on Sunday, March 22 starting at 2:00 pm. The featured two basketball games are between the High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams vs. returning ORR alumni stalwarts. The fun begins with the girls’ game at 2:00 pm and followed by the boys’ event at 3:30 pm. 

            Now in our 10th year, the ORRHOF committee will also announce the names of the 2020 chosen candidates to be inducted into the ORR Athletic Hall of Fame this June during the June 13 and 14 HOF Induction Weekend. Our list of inductees this year features a 50-0 undefeated in singles match tennis player, a Shriner’s chosen football standout, a girls track high jump and hurdle record holder, a basketball champion point guard, a boys baseball pitcher who threw the only “perfect game” for ORR, a retired 30-year pioneer coach, and a “significant contributor” well-respected administrator who fought to keep all high school sports during trying financial times. Stay tuned for our announcement.

Sippican Historical Society

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Marion (Old Rochester) is one of the oldest towns in the United States, and the Sippican Historical Society maintains an extensive collection of documentation on its historic buildings. In 1998, the Sippican Historical Society commissioned an architectural survey of Marion’s historic homes and buildings. Over 100 were cataloged and photographed. SHS will feature one building a week so that the residents of Marion can understand more about its unique historical architecture.

            This installment features 9 Main Street. The cape at 9 Main Street was built in 1780. The narrow front yard is enclosed by a granite block border, picket fence, and shrubbery. This home was Richard Harding Davis’s workshop at one time and Admiral Byrd is known to have summered here. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stayed in this house when he visited his friend, Dr. William McDonald of 99 Water Street, who treated the president for polio.

George B. Bassett Jr

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George B. Bassett Jr, 55 of Marion passed after a brief illness on February 17, 2020 surrounded by loved ones at Morton hospital in Taunton. He was born May 16, 1964. He was the son of Janice L. (Valle) Bassett and the late George B. Bassett Sr.

            The father of Glenn and Dean Bassett. Grandfather of Jayden and Gavin. Brother of Mary (Bassett) Melanson and her husband Scott. Uncle of Kassandra Noble and her son Mason. He also leaves behind a special friend, Lori.

            He was a graduate of Old Colony regional Vocational High school and worked as a machinist at Louis M. Gerson company for more than 26 years. He enjoyed music and was always testing his family to see if they knew who sang it. He also loved Boats, Fishing and Clamming. He was a kind hearted man who will be missed by Family and Friends.

            A celebration of life will be held on March 21, 2020 11am-3pm at Fireside Grill in Middleboro.

Mattapoisett Fire Closes Route 6

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Just after 10am on Friday the Mattapoisett Fire Department responded to a house fire on Route 6 near the Mattapoisett Line. Upon arrive the first police officers reported the fire as being well involved and that all occupants of the building are safe. The fire appeared to have started near the rear of the building and extended inward. The Fairhaven and Marion Fire Departments as well as the Mattapoisett Police and Ambulance assisted Mattapoisett. Route 6 was closed down for a period of time while the fire was nocked down.

By Paul Lopes, Photos by Mick Colagio

Albert P. Costa

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Albert P. Costa (Al), 85 years, passed peacefully February 27, 2020 after a brief illness. He leaves his loving wife Pauline (Bonneau) Costa with whom he shared over 61 wonderful years of marriage. Born in New Bedford, MA he was the son of Antonio and Carolina (Avila) Costa. Al lived in Dartmouth before moving to Marion in 1992. A graduate of N.B.V.H.S., he served his country in the Armed Forces stationed at Fort Bliss, TX in their missile program. He was a member of I.B.E.W. local 223 since 1955. Al was also the owner of the former “Wave” restaurant in Marion for over 25 years. In addition to his wife he is survived by his daughter Rhonda Ackerman and husband Gary of Carver, MA, his son Mark and wife Kim of Dartmouth, MA, six grandchildren-Carolina Viveiros (Dave), Chad Ackerman (Heather), and Katherine Shipps-Kelly (David), Braeden, Owen and Lilah Costa, four great grandchildren-Jeannette, Logan and Kaden Viveiros, and Cole Ackerman, two-siblings-Antone Costa (Jean) of Naples, FLA and Carol Dagenais of Dartmouth, many nieces and nephews all of whom he dearly loved and many dear friends. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TENN, 38105 in his memory. His services were private.

Nelson Chosen as next ORR superintendent

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Old Rochester Regional Assistant Superintendent Mike Nelson was selected as the next ORR superintendent of schools in a vote taken by the combined school committees on Thursday night at Old Rochester Junior High School in Mattapoisett.

ORR’s 10-year Superintendent of Schools, Doug White, will retire from the position at the expiration of his contract on June 30.

The vote culminated a meeting lasting nearly two hours in which nine seats representing the region side and eight seats representing the union side were required to decide between the three finalists, Nelson, Westport Superintendent Dr. Gary Reese and Dartmouth Assistant Superintendent Michelle Roy.

After a spirited debate pitting Reese’s overall experience against what Nelson has shown in his six years at ORR, the committee decided the school district’s immediate future in one round of voting with Nelson garnering a 6-3 edge in votes on the region side and a 5-3 edge on the union side.
The decision was met with roars of approval from a full auditorium made up of many of Nelson’s faculty supporters.

After a short recess, Shannon Finning, chairperson of the union side, announced that pending negotiations Nelson had accepted the committee’s offer. Finning and Cary Humphrey, the chairman of the region side, will be joined with one other committee member to negotiate a contract with Nelson that will, if successful, be brought before the ORR School Committee at its next scheduled meeting on Monday, March 23, at 6:30 pm at the ORR Junior High School.

by Mick Colageo

Jones in Flight as ‘Peter Pan’

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            Emma Jones, who will play the title character Peter Pan in the Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School Drama Club’s production that begins Saturday night on the Rochester campus, has taken the act out of acting and put in into self-actualization.

            “I was not a very confident person as a kid, so when I started doing this it kind of gave me confidence in a sense, and on top of that it fueled my absolute love for Broadway and musical theater and all that. I kind of feel like it came hand in hand,” said Jones, who is playing a lead character for the first time.

            As the flying character, the 16-year-old sophomore from Rochester is not afraid to wing it.

            “It helped that I have a great co-lead (14-year-old freshman Megan Correia of Freetown plays Wendy Darling). We work really well off of each other,” said Jones, who admits to lingering opening-night jitters. “It’s still that feeling of pure anxiety beforehand. Last year we had a little bit of a fumble where I had a scene with one other person here and… he forgot his line completely so I just had to come up with something.”

            Jones performed in two shows in junior high school and one prior show at Old Colony. 

            The famous play by James Matthew Barrie (aka “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” and “Peter and Wendy”) received a new take from director Megan Pierce in her second show as director at Old Colony. Last year she directed The Jungle Book.

            Pierce’s version of Peter Pan will follows the Darling children as they travel to Neverland, and learn to fly and engage in daring sword fights.

            Jonah Duke, a 15-year-old sophomore from Mattapoisett, plays John Napoleon Darling.

            “I’ve been villians – last year, I was the main villian. Back in eighth grade it was Snow White and I was Prince Charming. It’s a bit to manage, but you get by,” said Duke, who was part of Old Colony’s robotics team (he writes computer code).

            Duke does not know what career he will pursue, but he has an impressive start on some options.

            “Some of my dreams is electrical engineer and another big thing I’ve been thinking about is history teacher. I could see myself going into either of those,” said Duke, who enjoys the personalities involved. “You’re not putting you out there. It’s more getting into a role. It’s becoming something that I am not always… It’s a challenge and it’s fun to do. It’s interesting, I love it.”

            Duke’s father John Duke, a home farmer who used to be an electrician, helped staging the sets. “I always tell everybody my dad’s a worm farmer… he composts and then distributes to other farms,” said Jonah Duke.

            In addition to a literal family presence, Jones says the sense of family in the cast and production team extends beyond the theater.

            “Most of my friends are here so it’s one of those things where we’re close here, we’re close there, it doesn’t really matter,” said Jones. “And on top of that we do stuff throughout the summer like little parties and get-togethers.”

            Jones dreams of someday playing a part in Beetlejuice.

            “Anything in musical theater I would love to do,” she said.

            Alec Taylor, a 15-year-old sophomore from Rochester, plays Michael Darling, and the cast is rounded out by Faryn Leverone as Captain Hook, with supporting actors Noah Lapointe, Annabella Adams, Antonio Aguiar, Jacob Andrews, Rylie England, Owen Flynn, Isabella Lapointe, Kara Leblanc, Steven Morrison, Haley Pierce, Lucas Preston, and Lillian Tripp.

            Anna Kippenberger is the stage manager supported by an eclectic crew comprised of Chloe Weber on costume design, Mya Teixeira on set design, Malloy Logan choreographing fight scenes, and Alaysha Mendes as cast supervisor.

            Performances will be held Saturday, March 7, at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:00) and Sunday, March 8, at 2:00 pm (doors open at 1:00). Tickets can be purchased at the door, $10 for general public and $5 for students.

Old Colony Drama Club

By Mick Colageo

Highs and Lows of Marion’s Commitment to School Budgets

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            The good news and bad news of Marion’s education budget came out during the February 26 joint session to review and discuss the draft budgets for Fiscal Year 2021 with the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee and Old Rochester Regional and Sippican School Committees at the Town House.

            Marion’s contribution of 82.5 percent for FY2021 is the most it can be.

            The good news was prefaced by Town Administrator Jay McGrail, who took the floor from Board of Selectmen Chairman Randy Parker and informed the meeting that the town managed to maintain the requested growth rate.

            “The Finance Committee came to me and said they want to see growth at 2 percent, and that’s what we tried to do here. (ORR superintendent Doug White) listened to that, that’s what I passed on to Doug, and as far as the Sippican budget and the ORR budget, he came pretty close to that,” announced McGrail.

            When delving into the Sippican School budget, White explained that Chapter 70 (money that comes from the state into the Tri-Town area to support education in the local region and at Upper Cape Tech) gleans information from FY2018 and uses 2017 for income information. 

            The state also took into consideration residents’ property valuation and income and arrived at a contribution of 17.5 percent to the town’s public education. That leaves the town holding the bag for the other 82.5 percent.

            “They’re funding us at the minimum number they possibly can,” said White of the state.

            The Student Opportunity Act designed to bring additional education money into Marion will contribute no more than $30 per student, slightly up from the $25 the town had received per student (a 1.5 percent change).

            “Education in our three communities and in Marion has been supported through the taxpayers and the citizens of the community, and they’ve provided the support and education that we’ve been able to do,” said White. “And we’re thankful for that because I think we’re supported well as we’re moving forward.”

            Board of Selectmen Vice Chairman John Waterman asked for and received confirmation that the state’s formula to calculating aid is not subject to any influence from towns.

            “We’re not getting a lot of support,” said White.

            The budget was set on Oct. 1, 2019, then enrollment increased from 432 to 444 students in anticipated enrollment for the 2020-21 school year.

            Sippican has from 18-22 students per classroom, three rooms at each grade level, a preschool with 23 students as a whole (some of those students for two days a week). White indicated that the same number of teachers will keep class sizes in the 20-22 range.

            FinCom Chairman Peter Winters was not satisfied with the presentation because the format had income offsetting expenses before FinCom was able to see the numbers.

            “The budget is offset by the circuit-breakers. There is an operating budget and a circuit-breaker budget. Those are net,” said Lincoln Lynch, who assisted White in preparing the budget for presentation.

            “They don’t accurately reflect expenses,” said Winters. “We just got this tonight. How are we supposed to review this and figure out what the cost of something actually is?”

            Judy Mooney, Assistant Town Administrator, explained that the method is necessary in the effort to arrive at a budget, and thus the presentation with offsets.

            Waterman said that budget and analysis are two different disciplines, implying that analysis cannot force its way into the budget process without becoming counterproductive.

            ORR Assistant Superintendent Mike Nelson explained circuit-breakers as “relief for students that are high needs fitting a certain fiscal (profile)”.

            “So essentially the home district owns the first $45,000 of special-education services for a special-education student, and any cost above that foundation rate of $45,000, we put in for state reimbursement and typically we are reimbursed at a rate of 75 percent. Those funds then come back into the district and then we’re able to use them either for unexpected education costs such as a move-in or for budget offset because we have to use that reimbursement within a two-year window.”

            The ORR school committee is asking for social and emotional support that goes along with its strategic plan. A couple of years ago, ORR moved from a social worker to a behaviorist. Differences between the two include a social worker works with DCF, whereas a behaviorist would not. A social worker would also support families by making connections with the community for shelter and food. Another program ORR has is transitioning sports teams’ coaches to the union contract.

Marion Board of Selectmen Joint Session with FinCom, School Committees, Water and Sewer

By Mick Colageo