Town Meeting voted down a citizens' petition on Monday to place a financial cap on sewer "betterment" fees to no more than $18,000 dollars in the Oakdale and Cromesett areas.

Currently, betterment fees for the Oakdale and Cromesett areas are estimated to be $22,000 per household that ties into the sewer.

Wareham has been laying sewer lines in various neighborhoods for more than a decade.

The town finances the cost of laying those lines by charging property owners what is known as a "betterment fee," which is calculated by dividing the total number of households in a neighborhood that ties into the sewer by the total cost of the laying down sewer lines in that neighborhood.

The estimated betterment fee at $22,000 for the Oakdale and Cromesett areas is well above the fees charged for other areas.

Betterment fees for the Parkwood area, which was completed in 2010, were around $15,000 per property that tied into the sewer. Fees for the Rose Point area completed in 2007 were approximately $16,700.

Barbara Gomes Beach, a resident of Oakdale and the petitioner of the article, said betterment fees for her area were not equitably calculated.

"This was tainted and flawed from the very beginning," she said. "We ask our neighbors to...raise their voices in hopefully sympathy…and to cap our fee so that we can pay an equitable and fair amount for the betterment."

Though sympathetic to the plight of Oakdale and Cromesett residents, Town Meeting voters worried about who would pay for the amount above the $18,000 cap if betterment fee was higher.

Interim Town Administrator John Foster said the money could come from three different sources.

First, Foster said, it could come from charging higher fees to all sewer users. Second, it could come from all of the town's taxpayers. Third, it could come from the "sewer enterprise fund" — a self-sufficient fund operating solely on fees paid by sewer users.

However, Finance Committee Chair Frank Heath explained that if money was paid out of that enterprise fund, all of the town's taxpayers would have to replace it.

Finance Committee member Donna Bronk was sympathetic to the high financial burden facing Oakdale and Cromesett residents.

"I do agree with the [people] in Oakdale that things don't seem to be done correctly…unfortunately, the rest of us can't pay the difference," she said. "There is nothing in the budget extra," she said, to use in case the betterment fees are high.

Sandy Slavin, who said she inherited properties in the affected neighborhoods, agreed that the fees calculated for laying sewer lines in Oakdale and Cromesett were not equitable.

Slavin specifically said that 3 pump stations were moved during the project and ended up increasing the total cost. "If we did not have to pay for these…expenses we would not have to pay for this amount," Slavin said.

Ron Robinson, a member of the Oakdale Betterment Association, similarly expressed frustration at what could be high betterment fees.

"We're the victims in this situation," he said. "Don't blame the victim and ask them where the money is coming from."

Voter Brenda Eckstrom attempted to put forth an amendment on the article asking for further study, but the amendment was struck down. However, the article to cap the betterment fee for the Oakdale and Cromesett neighborhood to $18,000 also failed, by a vote of 184-155.

After the article was defeated upwards of 50 voters left the audience.