The Buzzards Bay Coalition won approval to continue with its proposed purchase of Wickets Island, as well as some of the shoreline of Burgess Point, to create a public discovery center.

On Tuesday, the Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to put the proposal on the Town Meeting agenda in October. The total purchase price would be $2.5 million and total about 2,500 feet of shoreline, according to the Coalition. Of that, about 1,500 feet would come from Wickets Island and 1,000 from Burgess Point. The Coalition is asking the town for $400,000, as the remainder of the money will be raised separately.

If approved at Town Meeting, the requested funds will come from from the town's Community Preservation Committee. The state Community Preservation Act was adopted by Wareham voters in April 2002. The funds come from a three percent surcharge levied on residential property above the first $100,000 of assessed property. The state partially matches the locally-raised funds. That money must be used for historic preservation, affordable housing, preservation of open space or recreation.

The island is owned by BRT-Wickets LLC, a subsidiary of Danbury-based real estate development firm BRT General Corp. The company bought the island in 2002 for $625,000.

Mark Rasmussen, president of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, explained to the Selectmen the plan for a discovery center on the island. It would be modeled after the nonprofit Duxbury Bay Maritime School that services about 2,000 youths every year.

“It is not a yacht club,” Rasmussen said. “It is a … citizens’ place to get on the water. And they do everything you could imagine doing on the water.”

Rasmussen said the discovery center would play host to a number of activities and educational programs, such as paddle boarding and bay ecology training.

“What’s unique about this [proposal] is that I have not seen a piece of land inspire an idea for it,” Rasmussen said. “I have never seem something … inspire desire for public access like this.”

Despite voting to put it on the warrant, Selectman Patrick Tropeano voiced some concerns, namely over the fact that the Coalition has not yet evaluated the project.

“Say you own this, and this doesn’t happen,” Tropeano said. “I would hope those things would be ironed out before you came and said we need money to do something.”

Selectman Alan Slavin said Rasmussen approached him several years ago with the concpet and said he thought it was a great idea.

“[The project] would make [Wicket’s Island] a living classroom,” Slavin said. “It is not a project designed for extremely wealthy people. This is for the average person … and low-income kids, especially.”

Slavin said he saw “no downside” to the project, and that “it would be a crime not to go ahead with it.”

The Selectmen also voted on a few other Town Meeting agenda items and denied a request to put a proposal for a dog park in Minot Forest on the Town Meeting agenda.