Town Moderator Claire Smith and the Onset Protective League hosted Pre-Town Meeting on Thursday, an opportunity for voters to review the items on the meeting agenda and ask questions before having to vote.

"I would like to stay away from debate," Smith said in the beginning of the meeting. "I think that should be saved for Town Meeting."

Attendees obliged, with most using the meeting to hear Smith or proponents explain the articles, though a few questions were asked about Town Administrator Mark Andrews' request for voter approval of seven "capital" items - assets such as land, buildings, and equipment which are predicted to have a life of many years.

Capital items on tap for approval are 40 defibrillators, a generator, and a parking meter system for Wareham Police; Leases for a prisoner transport vehicle and a four-wheel drive vehicle for the police; Funding for an ambulance rebuild for Emergency Medical Services; A three-year lease of seven school buses.

Smith said each separate item on the list will be discussed and voted on individually at Town Meeting.

Andrews said the town is looking to purchase the items in an effort to "improve our public safety assets."

Though the article does not indicate when the town would acquire the items, Andrews maintains that the items would be purchased in fiscal year 2013, which begins on July 1, 2012, as long as the town has the "free cash" to do so.

Free cash is the unrestricted funds left over from previous years' budgets. It does not become available for the town to use until the state Department of Revenue "certifies" it, or confirms that the money is indeed available.

Last year's free cash will not be certified until November or December and would not be available to use until the fiscal year 2013 budget, prompting some attendees to question why Town Meeting would have to vote on the capital items this month rather than during Town Meeting in April when the upcoming year's budget is discussed.

"Why can't we wait until the spring Town Meeting and discuss it with all the budget items?" asked Sandy Slavin.

Andrews responded: "I think we need to keep capital planning on the front burner. ... We're trying to make sure we have the right equipment in the right people's hands."

Finance Committee Chair Frank Heath, echoing comments made by voters at the FinCom's public hearing on the financial Town Meeting items on Wednesday, October 12, noted that the actual motion that residents will need to vote on at Town Meeting says "borrow," leaving some to wonder whether the town would instead be borrowing money to pay for the various purchases and leases, rather than using free cash.

"We've had starts and stops with capital planning," Andrews said following Heath's statement. "Now is not the time to start and stop. ... My approach is to keep the capital plan moving forward."

Slavin asked that Town Meeting voters be provided with the total cost of the leases. Town Meeting is only being asked to approve six months of payments on three-year leases for the prisoner transport and four-wheel-drive vehicles and 12 months of payments on the three-year lease for the school buses. Voters will be asked to approve the remaining payments at subsequent Town Meetings.

Smith said the numbers will be provided to voters.

Later in the meeting, Gary Cananzy, who petitioned to have an item added to the agenda that asks the town if it would like to purchase Bay Pointe Country Club for $1.4 million, explained his reasoning for the article.

"Bay Pointe is a funny thing in this town," Cananzy noted. "All kinds of people have made all kinds of money with our golf course."

Cananzy, who was the FinCom chair when the town purchased a portion of the golf course's land in 1993 and who recently ran the operation for six months, estimated that the function space on the property could bring in $700,000 to $1 million per year "provided it's on a resort-quality golf course."

The property was recently foreclosed on - a fate other previous owners of the golf course have met - and is now owned and operated by Digital Credit Union.

Cananzy said he will ask Town Meeting to further study the matter until April and ask that a committee be formed to see if the town would like to own the entire property again. He estimated it could bring in $300,000 per year in tax revenue.

"Bay Pointe is an economic engine," he said. "That is a unique parcel of land in this town and we have never realized the benefit from it."

Digital Credit Union currently has an investor interested in purchasing the property for $1.7 million and is asking the Board of Selectmen to give up its right of first refusal to purchase the property.

The Board of Selectmen has decided to delay a vote on the issue until voters weigh-in at Town Meeting.

Town Meeting will begin on October 24 at 7 p.m. at the Wareham High School auditorium.

Smith said she and Deputy Moderator Joseph Ashley have attended nearby Town Meetings and have been discussing ways to help Wareham's meeting run a bit smoother.

"We're really trying hard to make this a better process, making a better Town Meeting," Smith said at the conclusion of Pre-Town Meeting.

She asked that voters make an effort to stick to the subject of the article when rising to speak at Town Meeting, noting that if the meeting does not finish in time, voters could be asked to attend on Halloween.

For more information about the Town Meeting process, visit the Town of Wareham's website at www.wareham.ma.us, click on "Boards & Commissions," and then click "Moderator."