The Wareham High School gym roof will be repaired, defibrillators will be purchased for the Police Department, and Town Hall will be getting security upgrades after Town Meeting voters approved $350,000 in spending on Monday.

The approval of the roof repair came as a relief to approximately a dozen high school students who attended the meeting.

A Proposition 2½ debt exclusion — which would have raised property taxes temporarily to pay for the roof repairs — was defeated at the ballot in July. This fall, sporting events have been canceled and gym classes have been moved due to flooding.

At the beginning of the meeting, students Nicole Nault and Charlemya Erasme presented a petition with 416 signatures in support of the funding to repair the roof. The school has 650 students.

"Gym class is becoming limited and/or dangerous," Erasme told voters.

Voters apparently sympathized, and funded the repairs without much debate.

Also funded was technology equipment, three vehicles for town departments, funding to purchase or repair a school bus, and repairs to the Wareham Free Library.

The money will be borrowed at a 2.5% interest rate and paid back over five years.

Though the Town Meeting warrant article was passed as it was proposed, voters protested some of the spending, including the funds for defibrillators.

The $40,000 will purchase somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 defibrillators, which will replace older units in most of the Police Department's vehicles.

Voters wondered if 20 defibrillators are needed.

Police Chief Richard Stanley noted that police are often first on-scene, when minutes count in the instance of a heart problem.

"A couple of minutes means life or death, and if you don't have that defibrillator with you, the ambulance has to come from where ever they are to get to us," Stanley explained, later exclaiming: "I can't believe the discussion is even taking place!"

Selectman Ellen Begley, a nurse, agreed.

"This [Town Meeting] body didn't have much of a discussion about spending almost the same amount of money on a building," she noted, referring to the approximately $47,000 earmarked for repairs to the library. "We're talking about human life here, people!"

Here are some other things voters did on Monday:

• Allowed the Dog Bylaw Study Committee to continue drafting updates to Wareham's laws, as the committee needs to work with new state regulations. Town Meeting also allowed hearings for dangerous dogs to be placed under the Selectmen's purview, rather than the Police Department.
• Approved changes to Wareham's waterways bylaws. Boaters who fail to pay mooring and other fees will face new penalties.
• OK'd the spending of $15,000, as the town's 10% portion of the cost of purchasing four "12-lead cardiac monitor/defibrillators" for Wareham Emergency Medical Services vehicles. The EMS Department has applied for a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for the balance.