In addition to elections for town offices next Tuesday, voters will also be deciding whether or not the town will plow private roads that are open to public use.

"This has been a long-time issue in the town," said Selectman Peter Teitelbaum at Monday night's WCTV debate.

He explained there is a statute that has to be adopted, and never was in Wareham, in order for the to plow those private ways.

"It was third rail question. Who wanted to say, 'They were not supposed to be doing this' when we've been doing it al along?" Teitelbaum said.

He credits Town Administrator Derek Sullivan for making the town go after a solution to the problem.

The decision was then made by Sullivan, and subsequently backed by the Selectmen, to plow those roads this winter, as had been done in previous years, but that it would come to a vote this Spring.

"If it doesn't pass, we won't be plowing private, open to public roads. If it does pass, we'll continue what we've been doing in the past," said Selectman Judith Whiteside.

"Public safety was the paramount concern here," said Teitelbaum. "We can't put emergency services at risk when there is a foot of snow, increasing response times and risks for them to do their jobs."

Whiteside and Teitelbaum agreed they think the town should vote to plow private roads open to public use, but Whiteside noted that the town doesn't get reimbursed by the state for plowing those roads, but receive Chapter 90 funds for plowing accepted roads.

At the Selectman meeting on March 25, numerous residents expressed their support for voting yes on the town to plow private roads open to public access.

Patricia Rumney, who was responsible for collecting many of the signatures that put the question on the ballot, said many people may not realize they even live on private ways.

"It would be catastrophic during winter for ambulances, school buses, police cars to travel unplowed roads," Rumney said.

She listed Windy Hill Drive in West Wareham, Doolittle Lane, White Pine Avenue, Helen Street and many roads in Great Hill Estates Mobile Park among many others marked as private roads.

Whiteside said officials at a special August meeting decided having a list of town roads would be a good place to start, but there are at least three different versions. Teitelbaum noted there are maps that date back to the 1700s, and that the town would need, "a fleet of interns" to sift through records to determine every street in town as a public or private way.

But Whiteside said interns or not, that issue is something that will need to be straightened out in the future.

"You should know if your road is accepted or not," she said. "It's going to have to be done. It's the appropriate thing to do."