Apr 6, 2021
ROCHESTER The Board of Selectmen accepted the resignation of two key players in town government on Monday night.
Laurell Farinon, who has served as the town’s environmental planner and conservation agent for 27 years, and Town Planner Steven Starrett will both depart before the end of the fiscal year, leaving two town government positions vacant.
“It really stinks to lose that kind of institutional knowledge,” Selectman Brad Morse said, particularly that of Farinon who has been a presence on the Conservation Commission for as long as some Selectmen could remember.
The Selectmen agreed that the major personnel change might bring with it an opportunity to reevaluate the town’s approach to the planning and conservation roles, though, “now that they are both open together as one package.” Farinon and Starrett will be involved in discussions regarding future planning and conservation priorities ahead of their departures and before the open positions
The Wanderer
Solar Project Deals with Bad Surprise
on
February 21, 2021
The Old Middleboro Road Solar array project came up for discussion in the Rochester Conservation Commission meeting held on February 16. Though the project has already entered the construction phase, development has come to a halt after issues relating to the ancient way bordering the site were raised.
Austin Turner, representing the project, explained that due to faulty survey data of the area, a previously plotted ancient way noted in the plans had been drastically misrepresented. Turner explained that where it was previously believed that the ancient way would fork and travel around the site, the reality is that the ancient way runs directly into the proposed area of work.
The Wanderer
Featherbed Solar Can Build Based on Current Rainfall Data
on
January 23, 2021
In its January 19 meeting, the Rochester Conservation Commission addressed a public hearing relating to the construction of a new solar array near Featherbed Lane. Eric Las, of Beals and Thomas Inc., who has been representing the project since its inception in February of last year, spoke with commission members about the project’s progress over the lengthy review process.
According to Las, nearly all of the peer-review comments provided by the commission’s independent reviewer had been addressed since Las spoke on the matter in November. Despite his progress, the conclusion of the review process hinged on a lack of consensus regarding which set of rainfall data should be used to determine the size of the required stormwater basin located on the site.