While in the middle of an independent study aimed at determining the best way for the town to charge for sewer usage, Selectmen voted to keep the current $596 annual EDU (equivalent dwelling units) rate for another year.

"I would respectfully request that we leave the EDU rate where it is and that should produce a budget surplus," said Guy Campinha, director of the Water Pollution Control Department.

Campinha said the department had a new budget set this year that would allow him to drop the EDU rate to $525. But he said he doesn't support that idea because the department should be using a surplus to save money for the many known capital projects on the horizon.

Campinha said between projects in Onset, Swifts Beach and other general maintenance, the department is looking at spending $30 million over the next 20 years.

He said he doesn't want to come back to the voters and raise the EDU rate after lowering it because he needs to create funds for projects the department expects to undertake in the future.

"It would be prudent for us to leave things the way they are," he said.

Currently, Wareham sewer users pay a flat annual $596 per EDU. 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.

Tropeano said he agreed with Campinha that the rate should stay the same because people are used to it, officials know capital projects are coming down the road, and it makes sense to put money aside.

Selectmen voted 4-1, as they also serve as  the Board of Sewer Commissioners, to continue with the current EDU rate with Alan Slavin dissenting. He said the $596 figure is arbitrary and he can't support a number that isn't backed by concrete figures.

"I said I would not go forward setting a rate I couldn't justify," he said.

The next EDU workshop will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 21 in the Selectmen's meeting room in the Multi-Service Center.

The workshop will feature a presentation from Tighe and Bond, the Pocasset-based engineering and environmental consulting firm commissioned by Wareham last May to study alternatives to the town's current flat-rate sewer fee system.