Voters approved a $3.5 million Water Department operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 during a special meeting of the Wareham Fire District on Monday.

A vote on the Water Department's budget was tabled at the district's annual meeting on April 11 after a $170,000 shortfall in the “betterment reserve fund” was pointed out. The budget was passed with little discussion Monday.

The betterment reserve fund is used to repay the money borrowed for water line extension projects. It is funded by the "betterment" fees paid by property owners served by the water line extensions.

It was not clear why the fund was short. Betterment fees are set to assure that they will cover all borrowing. The shortfall could have been due to property owners not paying betterment fees on time, some betterment fees being used to cover operating expenses, or some combination of the two.

Water Department Superintendent Michael Martin said after the meeting the fund would likely balance without incident.

“At [the April meeting], we were short between then and now," Martin said. “It looks like that gap has closed significantly."

The district also voted to allow the Prudential Committee to seek proposals for the lease of district land for a solar facility.

The article was originally asking for approval for the Board of Water Commissioners to request the bids. The commissioners estimated that the district could generate and save roughly $35,000 though the lease of the land and the money saved through an agreement that would allow it to purchase power through the grid at a discounted rate.

Voters and Prudential Committee member Elizabeth Pezzoli argued that the Prudential Committee should be the entity that issues requests for proposals. The article was amended to shift the responsibility to that committee and was approved by a majority vote.

District voters also approved the use of $18,000 to pay for the study and design of a new fire station.

“This money will be utilized for the purpose of … identifying the needs of the different offices, apparatus room, and things of that nature,” said Wareham Fire Chief Robert McDuffy. “We have a couple of optimal locations [for a new station] … but ultimately we need to determine the size of the structure before we can determine the size of the land.”

McDuffy noted that the department cannot expand its current Main Street facility due to space constraints. Voters unanimously approved the use of the funds.

It took more than 20 minutes for the meeting to secure a 50-person quorum, with attendees more than once going upstairs to the Town Hall auditorium to pluck Wareham Fire District voters from a Planning Board public hearing on the A.D. Makepeace Rosebrook development. The district's business was completed in less than an hour.