A disagreement between the Clerk/Treasurer of the Wareham Fire District and the Superintendent of the Water Department has the Town of Wareham holding the bag for a $210,000 water pipe repair. And Selectmen aren't happy.

“This was discussed and agreed upon. We did the work. There was a promise to pay and they did not pay,” Selectmen Chair Steve Holmes said during the board's meeting on Tuesday. “We just don’t have that cash to throw around. ... That’s town money and we should be paid back that money.”

Town officials agreed to take care of the water main work, completed in the area of Indian Neck Road and Mayflower Avenue during a recent sewer extension in that area, with the understanding that the Wareham Water District would reimburse the town at a later date.

The work was paid for out of the sewer "enterprise fund," which is funded by fees that sewer users pay. The bill was not paid for by the sewer betterment fees charged to residents for connecting to town sewer.

With Water Department Superintendent Michael Martin and Clerk/Treasurer Marybeth Beth Fernandes in disagreement, and both believing they have the law on their side, the discussion has been at a standstill.

“We have faithfully pursued the collection of this money, and we’re arriving at a fork in the road as to how we’re going to do this,” said town attorney Richard Bowen.

Reached by phone on Wednesday morning, Martin said that the Water Commissioners are ready willing and able to pay the $210,000, but Fernandes, who writes the checks, says the deal may not be legal.

“Where there’s a difference of opinion is [with] the Clerk/Treasurer’s Office. ... We are in complete disagreement,” said Martin. “The Wareham Water District entered into a legally-binding agreement with the Board of Selectmen. ... The water department agrees to pay and is obligated to.”

But Fernandes says that the project should have gone out to bid -- that is, companies would compete for the project, and the lowest bidder would be awarded the work.

Martin says that the rate-payers saved $600,000 on the work as it was completed, but Fernandes argues: "Unless you bid it, there’s nothing to base that statement on. ... It should have been put out to bid, rather than an agreement between the town and the Wareham Fire District."

Martin says that he believes Fernandes is doing what she thinks is right, but that if she believes there was a violation, she needs to make a formal "bid protest" with the Attorney General's office.

Fernandes says that she is basing her decision on conversations she has had with the Attorney General's office by phone and e-mail.

Martin says that the town and the Water Department had a similar agreement for a $547,000 project that he says Fernandes did not have an issue with.

“If the second one is illegal, how come the first one wasn’t?” Martin asks.

According to Fernandes, the first one slipped in under the radar.

"The first one got by," she explained. "It was Christmas Eve and it went undetected."

Town officials decided to meet with Water Department officials to determine how to move forward.