In addition to several housekeeping articles, Town Meeting voters Monday approved the use of Community Preservation funding for upgrades to the Depot Crossing affordable housing complex and to protect the Weweantic River corridor and began a discussion on the fiscal year 2012 budget.

The meeting reconvened to address budgetary articles that could not be addressed when Town Meeting began in April, after a $919,000 discrepancy was discovered in the town's books. Roughly $219,000 of the discrepancy remains, but Town Administrator Mark Andrews announced that the budget could be addressed after learning how much the town would receive in state aid for the upcoming year.

The conversation about the budget got off to a rocky start, with Finance Committee chair Donna Bronk asking Town Meeting voters to further delay a vote until June 14.

"We feel it necessary [to delay]," she said. "There are a lot of things not resolved in this budget."

Bronk said the committee didn't have all the information it needed about the budget.

The committee received a copy of the budget last week with revenue from an increased meals tax - approved by Town Meeting in April - and was concerned about its role in the budget, members said.

"Last Wednesday, all of a sudden we had a meals tax appropriated to operating expenses," Finance Committee member Frank Heath explained, noting that he and fellow committee members thought that the money would be used for capital planning purposes.

When the tax was approved in April, attorney Rich Bowen said all the money collected must into general fund and then could be used for capital planning. An automatic transfer to capital planning could not occur without special legislation.

Additionally, Finance Committee members said they were dismayed at the lack of a written agreement between the School Department and town administration regarding the cuts needed to close a $2.6 million budget gap addressed during meetings of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee formed earlier this year.

"The Ad Hoc Committee didn't really work out all of this," Bronk said. "We were told that an agreement was going to be made between the School Department and the administration. We haven't seen a signed document to this effect."

To help close the gap, Town Administrator Mark Andrews and the School Department agreed on a "health care premium holiday," meaning the town and its employees will not pay into the trust fund used for insurance claims.

Under a self-insurance plan, the town and employees pay premiums into the town's trust fund. All health claims are paid from the trust fund, with insurance companies involved only in claims processing. Unlike a traditional insurance plan, the town saves money if claims cost less than expected.

The savings from the holiday would total roughly $1.5 million, which is reflected in Andrews' proposed budget.

The Finance Committee also expressed concern that the Board of Selectmen, meeting before Town Meeting on Monday, voted 1-4-0 in opposition of taking a health care premium holiday.

"We were informed about five minutes before this meeting that the Board of Selectmen did not support [the holiday]," said Heath, who served on the Ad Hoc Committee. "We've been blindsided."

At that meeting, members of the Board of Selectmen said taking the holiday wouldn't be fiscally responsible.

"School operations are an annual expense. What happens next year?" asked Selectman Steve Holmes. "This has happened in other towns without good results."

Town Meeting ultimately decided to begin discussing the budget, with voters concerned that, with another delay, Town Meeting would not approve a budget before fiscal year 2012 begins on July 1, opening up the town to penalties from the state.

The discussion ended at 10 p.m. and will begin again when Town Meeting reconvenes on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Wareham High School auditorium.

Depot Crossing upgrades

Voters approved the use of $50,000 of Community Preservation funding to make necessary updates to apartments in the Depot Crossing affordable housing complex on Minot Avenue.

Community Preservation member Nancy Miller told Town Meeting that the funds will allow South Shore Housing, the company that owns the property, to apply for the needed tax credits and grants to proceed with renovation.

Miller said the funds will ensure the apartments can continue to be rented as affordable housing units, in turn helping Wareham in its work to meet a required quota of affordable housing set by the state.

“This will protect the property,” Miller said. “No one will get a penny from [the Community Preservation Committee] until we have a contract [stating the units will be used as affordable housing only],” she assured voters.

The article passed by a majority vote after a short debate.

Funding for Weweantic River conservation

Voters approved the use of $375,000 in Community Preservation funds for the purchase of 33 acres of land along the Weweantic River in West Wareham.

The Conservation Department, with assistance from the Wareham Land Trust and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay, will use the funding to help leverage state grants for the $735,000 total cost of the purchase.

“This funding is available to us now and it may not be in a year,” said Jesse Ferreira of the Wareham Land Trust.

Twenty-eight acres of that land will be owned and operated by the town. That land has pre-existing hiking trails and space for public parking, Ferreira said.

The Community Preservation Committee, Wareham Land Trust, and Coalition for Buzzards Bay will co-hold a conservation restriction on the remaining acreage.

The purchase is meant to preserve the river and the downstream water quality and conserve open space.

Ferreira said an environmental assessment of the land will be done before the purchase.

This is the second phase of the project. At October Town Meeting voters authorized $225,000 to purchase the first part in what conservationists hope will be a three-phase project to establish open space on the Weweantic.

Ferreira said that the ultimate goal is to enable a corridor that extends from the Weweantic to the head waters in Carver.