Voters at Town Meeting Monday agreed to help the Buzzards Bay Coalition purchase and preserve Wickets Island, provided money to keep the town’s recycling center open and shot down an attempt to make Town Clerk an appointed position.

Acting on 33 matters in a sometimes-contentious, one-night meeting, voters also dealt with issues ranging from liquor licenses to zoning changes to school repairs.

Voters approved the use of $400,000 in Community Preservation funds to help the Buzzards Bay Coalition purchase Wickets Island in Onset Bay. Purchase, restoration and preservation of the 4.6-acre island is part of the Coalition’s larger Onset Bay Project, which includes the purchase shoreline acreage on Burgess Point, and the creation of an Onset-based environmental education center. See story here.

Acting against officials’ recommendation, voters supported the Recycling Center’s request for $5,000, which will allow the center to remain open. Officials argued that the town didn’t have the money to fund the largely volunteer-operated center. See story here.

Selectmen had proposed that the elected position of Town Clerk be made appointed to ensure that whoever holds the office have the necessary skills for the job. After debate that included some impassioned defense of democracy, voters rejected that request, opting to keep Town Clerk selection in the hands of voters. See story here.

Reigniting debate that had been dormant for years, Selectmen requested authority to sell a portion of the Westfield property. Designated by Town Meeting in 2010 as the site for affordable senior housing, the land off Charlotte Furnace Road in West Wareham has stood vacant, as several requests for bids from developers yielded nothing.

Rejecting Selectmen’s appeal to “trust us” with the land’s disposition, voters defeated the request, even after an amendment would have required that Selectmen bring any specific plans for the land back to Town Meeting. See story here.

Voters agreed to spend up to $60,000 for a feasibility study to assess the boiler and a portion of the roof at Decas Elementary School. The roof and boiler at the school are both as old as the school itself, and the roof leaks. Officials said state grant money will likely pay for a significant portion of the study and subsequent repair work. See story here.

What was on the Town Meeting agenda as a request to scrap the town’s Wetlands Bylaw had evolved into a request to form a study committee by the time the meeting convened on Monday. The bylaw, which supplements state regulations on what property owners can do on and near wetlands, has been criticized as unnecessarily restrictive. See story here.

After some discussion of who would be on a study committee and how that committee would be appointed, Town Meeting approved the study approach.

Other action taken at Monday’s Town Meeting included:

Youth Summer Jobs Program. $50,000 was allocated to create summer jobs performing such duties as trash pickup and handing out “carry in – carry out” bags at beaches. Officials described the expenditure as seed money, saying future funding could come from grant money.

Liquor licenses. In previous years, the Legislature has granted Wareham liquor licenses above its state “quota,” assigning the licenses to specific addresses. On Monday, voters agreed to petition the Legislature to lift those address-specific restrictions on the “over quota” licenses.

New Junk Bylaw. Town Meeting approved a new Junk Bylaw drawn up by an ad hoc Junk Study Committee in the wake of last year’s realization that the previous bylaw was virtually unenforceable. The new bylaw covers any business or organization selling used goods in town as well as collection boxes for used goods.

Rezoning. With no debate, voters approved a request to rezone four plots of land on Tobey Road near Walmart and Wareham Crossing. The plots were zoned for industrial use. The land’s owners made the case that “strip commercial” is more consistent with neighboring locations.

Old District School #6. Town Meeting approved the use of $34,200 in Community Preservation funds to restore the antique schoolhouse on Main Street.

Bryant Farm. $67,000 in Community Preservation funds were voted to create a parking lot and wheelchair accessible walking trail at Bryant Farm on Sandwich Road.

Swifts Beach playground. $11,000 was approved for an engineering plan for the redesign of the Joseph W. Conway playground at Swifts Beach.

Fearing Hill land purchase. Voters authorized Selectmen to seek $675,000 in state, federal and private grant money to purchase 50.94 acres on Fearing Hill Road to be used in the creation of a bike path.

Rent control for mobile home parks. The town voted to further study a proposal by a group of citizens who are asking the town to create a rent control board to regulate rents in mobile home parks.

Electricity Aggregation. Voters agreed to proceed with plans to merge the town’s electricity resources into a consortium with other communities participating in the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District.