The item that garnered the most attention at Town Meeting Monday night was an amendment to the town Wetlands Protection Bylaw that saw more than 40 minutes of debate before ultimately being passed.

The controversial amendment added an exemption to waive the "No Activity Zone" in certain wetland areas to allow reasonable access to the shoreline for people who are handicapped as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"We as a town need to do much better when it comes to making accommodations to assist the disabled to live their lives and access the same things those of us who are able- bodied can," said Selectman Peter Teitelbaum. "Our population is aging, and one day it might be one of us who needs that waiver to get down to the beach to enjoy a nice summer day."

The majority of speakers saw this as a common sense vote.

"I think it is socially and morally incorrect to deny people access through their own land," said Donna Bronk, Finance Committee member. "This is human rights, folks."

"We're not changing the scope of the article. Exemptions already exist," said School Committee Chair Cliff Sylvia. "What we're allowing a property owner to do is to allow access to the waterways."

"I can't believe that we're going to debate whether we should allow an exemption for disabled people," said resident Bill Heaney. "This is insane."

The strongest voice in opposition to the amendment was Bill Clemmey, of 18 Winship Ave., whose family has been entrenched in a lengthy legal battle over private wetland use with a group of four other Wareham families.

As a non-registered voter, Town Meeting voters had to approve his request to speak. They did so by a vote of 150 to 104, with three out of four Selectmen present dissenting.

Clemmey said that the amendment is flawed because the ADA does not apply to bylaws regulating the use and protection of wetlands located on private property. He also said there were problems with the way the article was brought up, since it was not reviewed by the town Conservation Commission.

"The Conservation Commission had no say in this. We were surprised to have it presented by the Board of Selectmen without any input from our commission," said Sandy Slavin, vice-chair of the Conservation Commission.

Slavin said the commission had discussed looking at the Wetland Bylaw for the next Spring Town Meeting and requested the item go for further study.

Teitelbaum said there was no need for further study by any boards or commissions because Town Meeting decides what goes into the bylaws.

"Ultimately this body [Town Meeting] is responsible to understand what is being proposed, to review it, and to decide what makes sense," he said.

Teitelbaum said the issue came to the Conservation Commission in June and after two months, the Commission hadn't taken any action on it.

"We [Board of Selectmen] waited a reasonable amount of time for the Conservation Commission to act on this. They chose not to. The Board of Selectmen did choose," said Teitelbaum. "I haven't heard one remark about this article where there is any disagreement with the technicalities of it, that it's going to be hard to enforce. It's not going to be hard to enforce."

Voters rejected the motion to send the item for further study and overwhelmingly passed the item.