Residents of Rochester will have 25 agenda items to vote on during Annual Town Meeting, including a bylaw regulating the withdrawal of water, a personnel bylaw regarding sick leave and numerous articles regarding regulations for solar projects.

Town Meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 13 at 7 p.m. at the Rochester Memorial School. Special Town Meeting begins at 6:45 p.m.

Regulating withdrawal of water

Residents will vote on a bylaw proposed by the Water Commission that would prevent people from withdrawing water from public waterways, such as wetlands, streams, lakes, springs or ponds.

Board of Selectman Chair Naida Parker said this bylaw was proposed to deal with people who have been pumping water out of Snipatuit Pond for commercial use.

“These companies that come to your house and fill your pool up with water, they go to our Snipatuit Pond and pump water out... Then they go to your house and charge you for water for your pool ” she said. “So these people go drop a line, pump it out and say 'thank you very much, I'm going to go make money on this now.'”

Violating the bylaw would cost someone $100 for the first violation and $500 for every subsequent violation.

Sick leave bylaw

A proposed sick leave bylaw is one that Parker anticipates will be contentious among voters. The change would remove the part of the current bylaw that says employees will be paid for 50 percent of unused sick days upon retirement or resignation.

Currently, town employees can accumulate up to 120 sick days as unused days roll over year after year. This will not change, Parker emphasized, but the under the proposed bylaw, employees would no longer get paid for half of these when they leave the town's employment.

“We're not telling them they can't have their sick days,” Parker said. “But when they leave, we're not paying them for that time.”

The police and dispatch unions have agreed to this for all new employees, and the town will vote on taking it out of non-union employees' compensation plans.

Zoning bylaws regarding solar installations

The town will get the chance to vote on multiple zoning bylaws regarding regulations for companies looking to build solar farms in town. Some of the regulations include: mandating a wall or fence at least six feet high, minimizing the number of trees at least 12 inches caliper high or larger, preventing large-scale ground mounted solar projects from being built in the limited commercial and historic districts, regulations to make sure the landscaping, screening and draining is being done and making sure there are funds in case of maintenance needs.

“They want to include these [regulations] in the bylaws so it gives them some control over it,” Parker said of the Planning Board.

Other topics that will be discussed at Town Meeting are the operating budget, borrowing money for a new ambulance, retirement benefits and returning the Town Meeting quorum to 75 registered voters.