After more than a year of data collection and presentations, town officials are ready to devise a new plan to charge for sewer usage within the town.

At a relatively short meeting Tuesday where Selectmen met as the Board of Sewer Commissioners, Selectman Patrick Tropeano said the board plans to ask Tighe and Bond to increase the scope of the reports they have delivered to the town. The board plans to ask the Pocasset-based engineering and environmental consulting firm for an implementation plan on alternatives to how the town could charge for sewer usage.

Currently, Wareham sewer users pay a flat annual $596 per EDU (equivalent dwelling units). A single-family home is charged one EDU, while a two-unit duplex is generally charged two EDUs. Businesses are scheduled similarly. For example, restaurants are charged one EDU per 12 seats; gas stations are charged one EDU per service island.

Tighe and Bond were commissioned by the town last May to study alternatives to the EDU system. Since then Tighe and Bond Project Manager Michael Schrader has delivered reports at multiple public hearings on what the firm has learned from studying the data.

At the most recent hearing on June 21, Schrader presented the town with three different models. One would be to keep the current EDU system. The second would be to adopt a strictly flow-based fee. The third "hybrid model" would be to adopt a flat fee for all users with an additional flow-based fee for heavier users. The town is now seeking guidance on how to implement these potential changes to the EDU system.

Although it would appear the town plans to alter the system in the future, Selectmen voted to keep the current system at the $596 EDU rate for at least another year at their meeting on June 17.

While discussing other sewer business at Tuesday's meeting, Selectmen created a policy that would allow for a more accurate charging of restaurant sewer bills.

Effective immediately, Selectmen unanimously voted to allow Water Pollution Control District Director Guy Campinha to use data from Inspectional Services rather than the Board of Health, whose data has been used to bill restaurants since 2007.

Campinha said whenever a restaurant changes their seating capacity they must go before the inspectional services department. By using data from that department, it would eliminate the possibility of over or undercharging restaurants because of a discrepancy in the seating capacity on their bill and in reality.

"In recent years the town has required an engineering and floor plan for restaurants. That's a real number. So I'm asking if we can use those numbers [from Inspectional Services]," he said.