Voters attending the Marion Fall Special Town Meeting on October 21 addressed 22 articles on the warrant, with three articles related to short-term rental taxes and fees resulting in the closest votes leading to three hand counts.

            Article 6 was to adopt the provisions of M.G.L. Chapter 64G Section 3A, to impose a six percent local excise tax on short-term rentals like Airbnb rentals and bed and breakfasts, inns, and motels. But not everyone was as enthusiastic to begin regulating something one resident later said currently “works well.”

            The state already imposes a 6.75 percent tax on short-term rentals, and Town Administrator Jay McGrail explained that an additional local excise would bring in revenue that could go toward the town’s operating budget. When one resident asked what the residents would be getting out of the new tax, McGrail said public safety mostly benefit, as the town would assume regulating and inspecting the rentals to “make sure they’re all up to code”.

            But one resident’s concern was that adding a six percent tax would reduce the rentability of a property by six percent. “You’re doing it because you can,” he said. “I really don’t know what it’s doing for the benefit of the town.”

            Town Counsel Barbara Carboni made it clear that hotels have always been taxed, and now the only change would be adding short-term rental.

            The vote was too close for the town moderator, so a hand count was called resulting in an official 76-32 vote in favor of adoption.

            Then onto Article 7, an additional three percent fee on “community impact” from “professionally managed rental units.” Thirty-five percent of that fee must be set aside for affordable housing and infrastructure projects, McGrail said, and the fee from Article 7 applies only to hotel or bed and breakfast lodging. It was Article 8 that would impose a community impact fee of three percent on those Airbnb type rentals.

            Resident Sandria Parsons asked how many of these lodgings currently exist in Marion, to which McGrail replied, “We don’t know.”

McGrail said, “The reason we don’t know, is that all short-term rentals are registered with the state, not with the town.”

            “It’s kind of an unusual,” said Parsons. “I mean, we don’t have hotels in our town, so it’s sort of an unusual thing to start planning for.”

            “There’s a lot of dots when you look at the map of Marion (online) and we don’t know if those are professionally (or privately) managed,” said McGrail. “They don’t register with town hall; they register with the state.”

            “So we’re going to be voting on something that we don’t even know that exists in the town,” Parsons said.

            Resident Toby Byrne said he thought the short-term rental business has already “been going pretty well.”

            He said, “It allows people to rent their houses out for the summers so that they can pay their taxes and their mortgages.” It also provides visitors and extended families places to stay in the absence of hotels.

            “If anything, during the summertime you can’t find enough summer rentals,” he said, “so the fact that we’re talking about putting tax, attacking a system that’s worked pretty well for a long period of time… I certainly don’t think we should start regulating them at the next town meeting.”

            This vote definitely needed a hand count, which resulted in a close call of 57-48.

            Article 8 that followed to impose a three percent community impact fee on the other short-term rentals in town also passed by a close margin of 63-43 after another hand count.

The fee applies to any rental located within a two- or three-family dwelling that includes the operator’s primary residence.

            The other article garnering more discussion that night was Article 1 to appropriate $25,000 from the Waterways Account to fund a feasibility study for a new harbormaster building at 1 Island Wharf Road.

            The hope is to fund the study and then eventually receive grants to help fund the project. Harbormaster Isaac Perry said $1 million to $2 million in grant funding could be awarded to the town.

            “Grants could fund most, if not all, of the project,” Perry said.

            If the town does not receive any grant money, the project would not move forward.

            “But we think it’s something that we should go after,” said Selectman John Waterman.

            The article passed.

            Other articles that passed:

            Article 2 authorized the Board of Selectmen to sell the Atlantis Drive building, which was appraised at $600,000. The article passed with just a handful of nays.

            Article 3 was to supplement Article 20 of the 2018 Annual Town Meeting Warrant to install epoxy floors in the apparatus room of the Spring Street fire station, transferring the funds from a prior 2016 Annual Town Meeting appropriation from Article 17. 

            Article 4 was for $44,573 for a new fire tanker truck to be funded by prior Town Meeting appropriations from 2014, 2016, and 2017: $9,676.60; $10,798; and $24,099, respectively.

            Article 5 was to transfer $30,400 from the Capital Stabilization Fund to fund the study and design of an emergency access/egress drive from Route 6 to Sippican School. The article prompted some to question why the drive could be used as another daily egress route to alleviate the traffic at the school during the morning drop-off.

            “It’s really difficult… to get the kids in and out of the school with our current set up,” said resident Dan Crete. “Perhaps it might make some sense to take a step back and assess our everyday access… It really is difficult to get the kids in and out of the school, especially in inclement weather.”

            Town Administrator Jay McGrail said the matter could be looked at during the study and design process.

            Town Meeting voters approved Article 9 to authorize the town administrator to begin the process of withdrawing from the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District. Some residents were concerned about the fate of the Benson Brook transfer station once the town withdraws from the CMWRRDD, but as part of the withdrawal negotiations, Marion will once again acquire the property and hopefully be able to keep the station operating at least on a part-time basis. 

            Article 10 was supported by the Planning Board and approved by voters to allow the rezoning of three parcels of land off Front Street containing about 0.20 acres, 0.37 acres, and 9.80 acres from current zoning in Residence A and C to General Business.

            The rest of the articles pertained to amending the Code of the Town of Marion, and all passed with the exception of one, which was ultimately passed over due to a clerical error, and another that was indefinitely postponed.

            Article 21 sought to redefine “hazardous or toxic material” and “volume” as it pertains to calculating the volume of habitable space of a structure. However, as former selectman Jon Henry pointed out, the proposed amendment wording was incorrect. Instead of excluding “uninhabitable” space from the total volume of habitable space, the amendment stated, “Attics and inhabitable basements shall not be calculated as habitable space.” Inhabitable and habitable both mean the same thing.

            Article 12 would have clarified the matter of the use of potable water but was passed over at the Planning Board’s request.

            The remaining bylaw amendment articles that passed by the required two-thirds majority are as follows: Article 11 to amend the Code of the Town of Marion Chapter 210 to clarify that two unregistered cars or trucks may be stored on one residential property at a time, and no unregistered vehicles may be stored on the front lawn; Article 14 to revise the table of principal uses to insert missing letters in the table; Article 15 to insert wording into a blank section to clarify the requirements for accessory structures or vegetation that block sight lines at intersections; Article 16 to change the wording from multifamily residences to multifamily residential housing and strikes language pertaining to open space requirements to make it more concise; Article 17 was a revision to the Flood Hazard District; Article 18 revised the Water Supply Protection District bylaw by moving up one section to become the introduction; Article 19 made two administrative changes to renumber sections of the Surface Water District; Article 20 made one administrative change in the numbering and lettering of a section of the Applicability of minor and major site plan review; Article 22 was amended to clarify that roof-mounted solar panel screening is not required.

Marion Special Town Meeting

By Jean Perry

            The Old Rochester Regional School Committee and Massachusetts Superintendency Union #55 voted to hire the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) as its consultant to assist them in the search for a new school superintendent during a joint meeting on October 9.

            ORR School Committee Chairman Carey Humphrey said representatives from four different consulting groups recently made presentations before the chairmen of the four Tri-Town school committees, with one clear candidate emerging – MASC.

            “I came in with a slight bit of an attitude because we had to reschedule this particular meeting (with the MASC representative),” said Humphrey. “But I can tell you, his presentation blew me away.” He added, “I was very impressed with them.”

            MASC “checked all the boxes,” said Humphrey.

            Superintendency Chairman Sharon Hartley said remotely via phone that she had reached out to several regional school districts for references on the four consultant groups, and the only ones to reply to her inquiry were ones that used MASC.

            “They all strongly stated that MASC did an outstanding job,” Hartley said, “and they were really satisfied and found a consultant that found a superintendent that met their… particular needs.”

            Humphrey said that MASC came in second out of the four when it came to cost, but MASC had offered to match the best offer,

            “Even if they weren’t matching it… I would still recommend MASC,” said Humphrey.

            ORR School Committee member Jim Muse pressed for an internal search for a candidate before branching out nationally, saying, “We should be looking at an internal search immediately in parallel with that, if in fact we have a highly qualified person internally who wants to apply…”

            The ORR School Committee vote to hire MASC was unanimous, but the Superintendency side vote, although in favor of MASC by majority, had two dissenting votes.

            The next step for the ‘Joint’ is to develop specific criteria for the type of superintendent the school districts seek with the assistance of surveys of students, parents, faculty, and school committee members, and appoint a search committee of no more that 11 members. 

            “Everybody’s a stakeholder, whether you have kids or you don’t have kids,” said Rochester School Committee member Anne Fernandez, acting chairman of the Superintendency Union that evening. “Whatever you are – if you’re a storekeeper, everybody has criteria and the consultant will be driving that train.”

            The goal is to hire a new superintendent by the end of January 2020.

            The next joint meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee and Superintendency Union #55 is scheduled for December 12 at 6:30 pm in the ORR Junior High media room.

Joint Meeting of the School Committees

By Jean Perry

            Marion is close to making a real promise to preserve the historic Town House with a preservation restriction currently in the works that would preserve the historical character of the Town House – the exterior, at least – into perpetuity.

            As a requirement for the Community Preservation Act funds allocated by Town Meeting this past May, the Town House must be placed under a preservation restriction to maintain the exterior character of the historical building.

            Town Administrator James McGrail said the Sippican Historical Society offered its assistance in applying for the preservation restriction and agreed to hold the restriction under its name.

            McGrail presented the Marion Board of Selectmen on October 15 with a draft of the preservation restriction that he said was necessary in order to process the CPA funding to pay for a number of renovations to the building’s exterior.

            The Community Preservation Act, while requiring a preservation restriction for the purchase of historical real property, does not require a preservation restriction for renovations to a historical property, but towns are allowed to require preservation restrictions whenever CPA funds are expended on a historic preservation project.

            The preservation restriction will also qualify the town for further grants related to the rehabilitation and preservation of the Town House.

            McGrail said he forwarded the draft restriction to counsel and had hoped to have the final draft that night for the board to sign, but it was sent to the Historical Society for final approval and McGrail had still not yet been given the OK.

            McGrail specified, though, that the Town House Annex, the rear building constructed not long after the original building was built, would also be part of the preservation restriction, and therefore, could not ever be demolished.

            McGrail said he expects to have that final draft ready for the selectmen’s signature for the November 5 meeting.

            The Historical Commission, according to M.G.L. Chapter 184, must approve the preservation restriction.

            Also during the meeting, Department of Public Works Director David Willet presented his summary of the status of 16 infrastructure projects already in the pipeline. After, McGrail gave selectmen more information about a plan to hire an assistant to Willet, the board voiced its support for the idea.

            McGrail said the position that has yet to be graded but is anticipated in the $80,000 range could be funded equally by the three different DPW budgets: sewer, water, and public works.

            McGrail said there has been a savings in the wastewater department due to the ongoing inability to fill various positions with qualified candidates. In the public works department there has been savings, McGrail said, because the need for seasonal workers has decreased since the town outsourced its curbside trash service.

            “My hope is to reduce some of the consulting costs that we currently incur,” said Willet. “Balancing outsourcing and in-house, Marion’s just got to find its niche in the spot… and I’m trying to find those balances and I think this is one of them that would pay for itself.”

            According to Willet, the DPW this year spent $100,000 on a consulting engineering firm for just one single project.

            “It makes sense to me that that will save us money over time,” said Selectman John Waterman.

            McGrail will submit the idea to the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston to grade the position and then advertise the position. 

            In other business, the board reviewed and approved the prepared list of non-union job descriptions for Marion non-union town employees.

            The selectmen approved the Tri-Town veterans’ agent’s request to establish a Veterans’ Fund to hold donations for additional services for Marion veterans in need of further assistance. The director of finance would approve any disbursements of funds from the account that McGrail said would be nearly identical to the COA Emergency Fund.

            “We have a successful program for the COA for emergency assistance,” McGrail said; said program is managed by the Treasurer’s Office.

            Former Planning Board member Steve Kokkins has expressed an interest in an appointment to the Zoning Board of Appeals for the seat left vacant from the resignation of Bob Alves. McGrail advised the board to hold off on the appointment until he again heard from Kokkins.

            Casey Cole Vieira was reappointed to the Marion Affordable Housing Trust.

            A meeting of the Tri-Town Selectmen has been scheduled for Thursday, October 24, at 6:30 pm at the ORR Junior High School media room.

            The Fall Special Town Meeting will be held on Monday, October 21, at 6:45 pm at Sippican School. All non-football fans are especially encouraged to attend given that there is a Patriots game beginning at 8:30 pm and McGrail regrettably admitted the oversight when he suggested the date months ago.

            “Poor planning on my part,” he said. “But Mattapoisett has theirs as well, so we’re not alone in this.”

            “If the Patriots lose, then it’s going to be your fault because we didn’t watch,” said Waterman.

            McGrail urged the selectmen and everyone else planning to attend to “bring their cell phones” in case a quorum of 50 proves difficult to meet.

            McGrail did promise regular updates on the game if Town Meeting exceeds 8:30 pm, but he is optimistic that Town Meeting might be run efficiently and everyone will make it home in time for the game.

            The next regular meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen has been scheduled for November 5 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.

Marion Board of Selectmen

By Jean Perry