No one attending the Old Rochester Regional School Committee meeting on January 17 disagreed that the athletic fields at ORR are in need of improvement, and a facilities subcommittee that night presented its revised and downsized $2 million plan to the ORR School Committee and the public. But the School Committee will hold off on taking a vote to advance that proposal forward until the weeks just before the annual town meetings of the three towns.

ORR School Committee Chairman Carey Humphrey said that subcommittee recently met with various selectmen, town administrators, and finance committee members who urged the subcommittee to consider having the School Committee save its vote to advance the proposal until the spring so it can be forwarded as a warrant article on the annual town meeting warrants.

“We listened because we want to have a collaborative work towards a solution,” said Humphrey. “We’re not here as a group or subcommittee to try to push an agenda toward the towns, the selectmen, and town administrators that would cause problems. That’s not what were here for.”

And although not all stakeholders agree on all the aspects of the matter, Humphrey said, “… but we’re here for similar reasons.

“We walked away from that meeting feeling like we have a positive path towards getting on the warrant for the town meeting.” The subcommittee’s goal, he continued, “is to get this to town meeting so that our citizens can decide if they want to approve this, and that’s kind of where we’re at today,” Humphrey said.

During a 20-minute slide presentation, Hal Rood, an advocate for the athletics complex rehab project, broke down the project that has been reduced in scope and price, from $5 million to $2 million. Rood, an original member of the 501(C)(3) group known as T.U.R.F. (Tri-Town Unified Recreational Facilities), helped organize a group of citizens interested in studying ways to improve the athletic complex at ORR that Rood said is “over-used” and “in need of help.”

Using funds raised by T.U.R.F., the group had an engineer draft a design that included repairing the running track, two artificial turf fields, including the main field, two other full-sized grass multi-purpose fields and irrigation for those and the baseball diamond, a field house with bathrooms and concession stand, partial re-fencing of the tennis courts, irrigation and care for the softball field, LED lighting, spectator seating for the track and multi-use field, and a covered press box.

The project has been scaled down to one artificial turf field at the main stadium, lighting upgrades, a new track, and also new lighting and sound equipment for the auditorium to benefit the drama club.

According to Rood, the current state of the main field at ORR leaves student athletes at a higher risk of falls and concussions because the ground is so compacted. This also causes drainage issues, a reason why the soccer team had to play many of its games away from ORR when the field was underwater, Rood said. Artificial turf instead of grass, he said, would allow the amount of usage the field currently obliges, which is far too much for natural grass.

But the $2 million project will require approval by voters at the three towns’ annual town meeting before moving forward any further.

Breaking down the cost, Rood said if the project was financed through a 15-year loan, the average single-family size home in Mattapoisett would see an annual tax increase of about $19, about $25 in Marion, and just over $34 in Rochester.

The project cost, Rood said, includes all the “soft costs” as well as a 10% design and construction contingency. Rood added that perhaps Marion and Mattapoisett Community Preservation Act funding could be used to help fund the project.

“I was elected to represent the students and their parents,” said Humphrey. “I look at this project as – we have a great school system, we have great leadership, we have great academics, we have a great athletics director, we have champion athletics teams … we have award winning performing arts students…. I believe that as a participant of this group that this is a project that’s well worth our support.”

The next meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee is scheduled for February 27 at 6:30 pm in the ORR Junior High School media room.

Old Rochester Regional School Committee

By Jean Perry

Fees for recreational boaters in Marion are going up this fiscal year in order to fund a long-range 10-13-year plan to replace the harbormaster’s main patrol boat.

Harbormaster Isaac Perry presented his proposed fee hikes to the Marion Board of Selectmen on January 22, which resulted in approval of the fees that will result in a roughly $54,000 annual increase in revenue.

A new patrol boat is priced at about $500,000-$600,000, Perry said.

Fees have not been increased since “the mid-2000s,” Perry told the board, and a portion of the increase in revenue will be set aside in the Waterways Account every year to replace the 13-year-old patrol boat that is now 13 years into its roughly 25-year life expectancy.

The boat berth fees at Island Wharf and Old Landing are going up from $150 to $200, and from $75 to $80, respectively. The fee for dinghy and kayak racks will go up from $40 to $50, and the per-foot fee will go up from $4 to $5 per foot.

Personal and commercial mooring fees are also increasing from $60 to $70, and $150 to $180, respectively.

Fiscal year 2018 revenue from waterways fees totaled about $313,000, and the increase will bring that revenue in FY19 up to $365,543.

Island Wharf is by far the biggest increase, Perry pointed out, due mainly because of the expansion the wharf has undergone and the fact that more employee work time has resulted because of the expansion.

“[Island Wharf has] tripled in size since this fee has been enacted, so we think it justifies the increase,” Perry said.

The fee amounts were adopted after Perry researched other area waterways fees in towns such as Wareham, New Bedford, Dartmouth, Mattapoisett, and towns on Cape Cod.

“We wanted to keep ours in line with what the norm is throughout the state,” said Perry.

In other matters, an appointment with Finance Committee Chairman Peter Winters will have to be rescheduled after Winters emailed Dawson that day to inform the board that he would be unable to attend the meeting that night. Runner up representative of the FinCom Alan Minard also emailed Dawson stating that he would also not be able to attend.

The topic of the meeting was so that the selectmen could discuss the Finance Committee’s decision last Tuesday to delay the approval of the board’s request for a Reserve Fund transfer in order to fund the town administrator’s 5.4 percent pay raise. During that FinCom meeting on January 15 there was some obvious contention between the committee and representatives from the Town House, Selectman John Waterman, and especially with Finance Director Judy Mooney.

Winters, Minard, and the rest of the FinCom asserted that the transfer was not necessary at the time, and went ahead and approved a Reserve Fund transfer to fund the fire chief’s pay raise of 8.8 percent. [See the article in the January 17 edition of The Wanderer titled “FinCom Chairman is a ‘(Bleep)’”.]

Also during the meeting, the members of the Town Administrator Search Committee have been chosen, with selectmen appointing at-large residents Judith Rosbe, Jim Ryba, and Elise Frangos, who will join Selectman Randy Parker and Harbormaster Isaac Perry in the five-member committee. The committee is tasked with reviewing the resumes recommended by headhunting consultant Bernard Lynch and ultimately presenting finalists to the board.

The board also voted to transfer the responsibility and authority over Sprague’s Cove from the Board of Selectmen to the Conservation Commission.

The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is scheduled for February 5 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.

Marion Board of Selectmen

By Jean Perry

Mattapoisett Town Administrator Michael Gagne explained to the Board of Selectmen on January 22 the Bike/Ped Committee’s approach to the Tier 2 Complete Streets process. The committee has scheduled two dates for public input workshops to help prioritize the projects proposed for the Complete Streets grant funding.

Mattapoisett recently was accepted as a Tier 1 Complete Streets community, which makes it eligible for a $40,000 grant for the development of the design and budgets for the projects identified by the Town for the program. Once the projects have been ranked and budgets have been developed, they get submitted to the state and become eligible for up to $400,000 in grant funding.

Gagne stated that the Bike/Ped Committee, which has expertise in pedestrian and bike safety … , “sought public input … from folks all over town [to] share concerns and thoughts about safety. Citizen input from the ground up helps to develop a healthy plan.”

The workshop is tentatively scheduled for February 12 at Center School, with a snow date of February 13. Gagne noted that there is expected to be $25 million available for Tier 3 improvements.

Also during the meeting, at the request of the Mattapoisett Police Department, the board voted unanimously to replace the “No Parking This Side” signs on the east side of Main Street from Church Street north to Route 6. Parked cars on the east side of the road have become a safety issue, according to Safety Officer Sergeant Justin King.

The town is in the throes of negotiating a successor contract with Verizon. Verizon proposes to enter into a 7-year contract with the town, which is of shorter duration than the current contract with Verizon or Comcast. Gagne believes Verizon’s proposal for a shorter contract is due to the fast-paced changes in the industry and technology. In consultation with attorney Bill Hewig of Kopelman and Paige, Gagne determined that it would be in the best interest of the town to negotiate with Verizon to receive HD transmission to all residents for public access programming. ORCTV currently transmits in HD; therefore, Verizon would merely be required to receive the HD signal and deliver it to its subscribers. This would be with the hope that Comcast would follow suit. Selectman Paul Silva pushed back on this idea, with concurrence from the other selectmen, citing the desire to have both cable companies on the same contract duration. Silva asked Gagne to revisit the issue with Hewig.

In other business, Gagne reported that the governor is asking all municipalities to assume level funding for budgetary purposes for this year. To the governor’s credit, Gagne said, the administration is looking at the Chapter 90 funds – for highways and roadways – which has been level funded for five years.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen is scheduled for February 12 at 6:30 pm at the Mattapoisett Town Hall.

Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen

By Sarah French Storer