The Rochester Select Board Monday night scheduled the 2023 Annual Town Meeting for May 22 and learned what will be that meeting’s most consequential article.
The Select Board meeting began with a request from Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School Superintendent Aaron Polansky to put a placeholder article on the warrant requesting funding for a feasibility study. Polansky said the state has recently “invited” the school district to submit an application for Massachusetts State Building Authority capital-improvement funding.
Polansky noted the total, rough-estimate cost for the feasibility study into how the Old Colony building should be improved would be approximately $1,000,000 to $1,200,000, but Rochester’s share of any such cost would be based on a per-pupil charge.
Rochester residents comprise 93 students out of 562 at the school right now. Polansky agreed with Select Board Chairman Woody Hartley’s calculation at 16.5% of the total student population. Polansky said the formula used to determine Rochester’s share of any capital costs would be apportioned to closely align with that number.
Polansky indicated that it was premature to forecast the costs involved in a future project. He told the Select Board that the state will fund 54.16% of the “reimbursable costs” of the study and capital project. But there will be nonreimbursable costs that the district will have to fund on its own. As of Monday’s meeting, he did not have sufficient details on specific cost factors.
The board also set the date to close the Annual Town Meeting warrant: March 3, 2023. The board acknowledged the Town Meeting will be held May 22, 2023, two days before the May 24 annual Town Election. Hartley said the latter date will remain as is.
Next, the board heard an update from the Board of Assessors regarding the town’s tax classification. Assessors Chairperson Wendy Knapp reported the tax rate will not be set until the second week in January. This is partly because the town has just concluded a five-year revaluation period. “It put us behind,” Knapp said.
The Select Board and the Assessors agreed to send out tax bills for next year based on last year’s rates. Residents may attach a copy of this year’s bill to the next-year bill or include their tax-bill number.
The board then appointed Town Administrator Glenn Cannon as the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) authorized signatory and Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar as the town’s authorized ARPA preparer/data entry representative.
Cannon reported the new Personnel Board is already rewriting the town’s Personnel Bylaw and refining to which employee the Bylaw applies. The employee, he said, must be a full-time or regular part-timer not under a contract agreement.
Cannon then noted the Building Department’s online, e-permitting has been closed down. New Building Commissioner Paul Boucher only began on the job this week and does not know how to run the system. Paper permits must be used. This is compounded by the fact there is no staff in the department with the recent departure of Patrice Braz. “It will take about a month to get up to speed,” Cannon said.
Hartley announced a person eligible to be awarded the town’s Boston Post Cane has been found. He said the award ceremony will be held at the Senior Center, most likely during a luncheon on the third or fourth Monday of January. The Boston Post Cane goes to the town’s oldest resident.
Select Board member Paul Ciaburri announced Eversource has told him a four to six-hour rolling blackout is being planned for Rochester sometime next year. It is an effort to conserve the utility’s gas supplies.
Hartley countered this with good news that the town has entered into an Electrical Aggregate Agreement contract that will offer residents a less-expensive, per-kilowatt rate for electricity than Eversource offers most utility customers. Town residents would automatically be billed under this lower rate; they would have to opt out to not share that rate.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board was not scheduled as of adjournment.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco