By Beth David, Editor
The Fairhaven Select Board had a long meeting on Monday, 6/5/23, with Acting Town Clerk Elisabeth “Lissa” Horan announcing in the middle of it that the Proposition 2 1/2 override question failed decisively at the ballot box.
At about 8:40 p.m. the board took Item I out of order for Ms. Horan to announce that approximately 16.6% of the electorate voted, with 690 voting to approve the override, and 1423 voting against it. The board simply thanked Ms. Horan for her work after she announced the results. Board members did not comment on the outcome. The numbers are unofficial and should be certified later this week.
The ballot question asked for $450,000 to be added to the tax levy in an override. It would have added 11 cents to the current tax rate of $9.73.
Because the question failed, the School Department will take a $200,000 hit, and the other $250,000 will come from other departments. The salary line item will take the bulk of the hit, halting some raises and promotions.
During their meeting on Monday, the board did not hold a public hearing for an upweller system in Round Cove. The location of the project has changed, with the new proposal moving it to Hoppy’s Landing. The hearing will be held at the 6/20 meeting.
In her report, Town Administrator Angie Lopes Ellison alerted the board and the public to the placement of a 400×100 foot barge in the harbor to be anchored off Fairhaven for the Vineyard Wind project. Ms. Ellison said the barge would be there for about a year, while the second bay of the terminal is being built.
The project only has one bay to load and unload wind turbine parts. The barge will be anchored on the Fairhaven side of the harbor and will move to the terminal as needed.
“When one goes out, the other goes in,” said Ms. Ellison.
She said the company will pay the town for use of the area, but a fee structure had not been worked out yet, because it had never been done before.
The barge will probably be in place starting in September or October, so this summer will not be affected, she said.
The board spent a considerable amount of time going over board and committee appointments.
The board has been trying to formalize appointments by requiring everyone to fill out the online form.
A number of names on the list had requested either reappointment or to be appointed for the first time to boards, but had not finished the process. After much discussion, the board decided not to appoint those people until they finished filling out the form.
The Conservation Commission got a lot of discussion due to recent problems with individual members overstepping their authority on properties. The behavior prompted a report by Town Counsel, part of which is public and available online, and part that is not, as it is being cited as a “personnel” matter.
The board decided to hold off on appointments to ConCom until they can have a fuller discussion of how they want the makeup of that board to be.
During that discussion, former ConCom chairperson Jay Simmons told the board that they had to reappoint Amy DeSalvatore, who was in a meeting at the same time. Mr. Simmons said she was hearing new projects and if they took her off the committee, then the new person would have to abstain from voting on those hearings if they were continued, which is almost always the case. He referred to the Mullin Rule.
However, the Mullin Rule (Chapter 39, S23D of Mass. General Law) states that a new member shall not be disqualified from voting on a matter solely due to the member’s absence from a single session of a hearing. A new member agrees to review all the materials and watch all the proceedings, and attests to that in writing, and then is able to vote on the matter. The SB members did not question Mr. Simmons and agreed to keep that in mind.
The board also had a bit of discussion around two Planning Board members, Ruy DaSilva and Patrick Carr, who also asked to be on other committees. They both asked to be on the Zoning Board of Appeals; and Mr. Carr also asked to be on the Rogers Re-Use Committee.
Cathy Melanson, who is the chairperson of the Planning Board and the Economic Development Committee spoke rather passionately about allowing PB members to serve on other boards.
Ms. Ellison said there was no statutory conflict for members to serve on both boards, but they would have to abstain from voting if a project came before a board and they had already voted on it while sitting on another board.
In the end, the board appointed both Mr. DaSilva and Mr. Carr to the ZBA, with Mr. Espindola voting “no,” and supporting Andrew Romano, who was not appointed.
In another matter, Allen Decker from the Buzzards Bay Coalition appeared before the board asking for a Conservation Restriction (CR) on the Salt Winds property at 732 Sconticut Neck Road. The property had a Chapter 61A restriction on it for agricultural use for years, giving the owners a tax break. So when they sold it, the town had the right of first refusal to buy the property. The town assigned that right to the BBC to preserve it.
The BBC sold part of the property, the field on the south side of the main house, to the abutter and, as part of the deal, the owner is placing the Conservation Restriction on the that 3.3 acre piece that will be held by the BBC. There will be no public access to that portion of the parcel.
The other part of the parcel, 5.5 acres, will be owned by the BBC and will allow public access. Mr. Decker said he will be in front of the board later this year to have a CR placed on that property that will be held by the town.
Mr. Decker said the two deals will prevent further development of the property. There are some existing structures on the property, he said, but they cannot be expanded or enlarged. Although there is no public access to that portion, he said it is preserved for the long term.
“That’s a good thing in our mind,” said Mr. Decker, because it is “prime agricultural soil” and is in agricultural use, as “primarily a hay field” that a local farmer cuts and uses.
The board voted to support the CR 4-0, with SB member Charles Murphy absent that evening.
The board also voted to allow Fairhaven Firefighters Union, Local 1555 to “flock” town properties for the Muscular Dystrophy Association fund-raiser, “Flock-A-Thon for MDA.”
The group will place lawn ornament flamingos on lawns of residents, which challenges the resident to donate to the MDA and choose the next participant. Maggie Rocha from Local 1555, wrote a letter asking the board for permission to “flock” town hall and the public works building to build a following.
The board also met remotely with Zachary Fentross of Marcum LLP (formerly Melanson), which conducted the annual audit of basic financial statements for the town for the Fiscal Year ending in 2022.
Mr. Fentross told the board that the town was in a good financial position with the funds in the various accounts. He made a number of recommendations.
SB member Bob Espindola asked that the whole report be posted online. Ms. Ellison said the management letter was online but would not agree to post the whole report. She said they are trying to clean up the website and reorganize it.
There’s “no sense of order,” she said, so for now, she did not want to post it. She said if anyone wants it, they can request it from the Town Administrator’s office. It is a public document.
The board held a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting for Francis Cox, who died earlier that day (see page 17).
In other business, the board
• Approved the plan by the Our Lady of Angels Association to use town roads for two processions during their annual festival on Labor Day weekend. The state will also have to approve the plan as state roads are also involved.
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