One citizen is bringing three petitions to Town Meeting

Wareham citizen and former Select Board member Brenda Eckstrom is bringing three proposals to Town Meeting Monday, Oct. 27.

Her three proposals include putting term expiration dates for town officials on the town website, requiring town officials to have easily accessible email addresses and an amendment that aims to “clean-up language” used in an affordable housing zoning bylaw.

Prior to Town Meeting, Eckstrom presented her proposals at the Tuesday, Oct. 21 Select Board Meeting. 

Eckstrom is requesting term expiration dates listed next to town officials’ names and titles on the town website. Chair of the Select Board, Judith Whiteside, said over the past two years the town has been making progress to do just that.

"As of [Tuesday, Oct. 21] morning— there may be one or two missing— but virtually every name on any committee has an expiration date on it including the elected officials," Whiteside said. 

Eckstrom is also proposing  the town require administration to provide emails to boards, committees and commissions to better connect the community and officials. 

"Right now the only way to get in contact with [the Select Board] is if someone pretty much emails the entire board or they stalk you and they find out where you live and what your phone number is," Eckstrom said. 

According to Eckstrom, the town used to provide email addresses to Select Board members. She said she spoke with three other towns to determine the cost to operate these emails and came up with $12 to $17 per email a year. 

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan said that all town officials do have emails, though the town website only shows selectboard@wareham.gov in the directory. 

Eckstrom’s last proposal changes some language in an existing affordable housing bylaw passed at the 2021 Spring Town Meeting. The bylaw aims to increase the amount of affordable housing in Wareham by allowing property owners to place an affordable housing designation on single-family homes and apartments, rather than just large-scale developments.

According to Eckstrom, the main additions in the new amendment include; adding more square footage to make these homes “accessible” as well as require applicants to include the deed to their land with their application.

Eckstrom proposed a similar change to the bylaw at the 2022 Spring Town Meeting to fix the original language, but it was not approved.