Wareham’s voters don’t want their students to lose their weight room.

There was some discussion regarding Article 25 on the first night of Town Meeting Monday, which would have authorized Selectmen to lease the town-owned building at 54 Viking Drive (formerly used as the Boys and Girls Club) that is currently used by the school for a period of up to 20 years.

Resident Valerie Cummings said her daughter and a group of her peers on the track team as well as other student-athletes at Wareham High had worked hard to make the building usable and a place where they can train year-round for school sports.

“It shows when you look at what they’ve done to perform on the track,” said Cummings, noting that the girls track team had nine members represent the school at the recent indoor track state championships, which was the most for the school in recent years. “These girls are stronger and faster because of that weight room. To take it away from them would (take away from the schools and the athletic department). I can’t imagine what will happen next year if you take that away from all these kids.”

To put the building up for lease, it would have required two-thirds vote in favor of the article. Voters ruled against it with a count of 199-160.

“I know the coaches in general have worked very, very hard on upgrading the (former) Boys and Girls Club,” said Athletic Director Ed Rodrigues when asked if someone from the schools had recognized the work the students had done. He also noted that there were batting cages in the facility among other training items useful to the school’s teams. “They put so much time and effort into it and it has really paid off.”

Though both the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen unanimously supported favorable action on the article, voters ruled against it.

Wareham Community Television had expressed interest in the building if it had gone up for lease, saying they’d use it as a way of providing better programming to the community.

Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood said the school was awaiting other decisions in terms of relocation, and that they did have a plan in place for a weight room if the building were to be leased.