(The following is an open letter to the Board of Selectmen)

To the Board of Selectmen:

As a 45-year tax paying seasonal resident of Wareham I’d like to make a few observations and suggestions which may resonate with many of my neighbors. First, thank you for your service. Your job is often thankless and I appreciate your willingness to serve. Balancing the needs of all constituents with the budget realities of the town is a very difficult task. While we all need to do more with less, I would hope that you remain committed to properly maintaining the infrastructure we currently have. I’ll address my concerns as they pertain to Onset as I live on that side of town. However, I’m sure my observations could carry over throughout the entire area.

As a taxpayer, I expect all public properties to be properly maintained. Roads need to be repaired (potholes are everywhere), trash needs to be picked up (it was shortsighted to eliminate barrels, what did you think was going to happen?) and beaches need to be cleaned daily. The bluff in Onset is a good example. It is overgrown and has at least five completely dead trees. This is one of the most picturesque public vistas anywhere around. I spoke with an innkeeper with property on the bluff. They told me that they have repeatedly called municipal maintenance but to no avail.

It isn’t that hard, send out a crew and fix it. If we don’t have the manpower, ask for a prison crew. If we cannot maintain our existing property, let’s not even consider new endeavors like dog parks, etc. We seem to have a habit of taking formally tax paying properties off the tax role (Wickets Island). While they may seem like good ideas in the public interest we must ask the critical question as to whether we can afford it. (With respect to Wickets Island I do know that a nonprofit has taken ownership. Good for them and good luck. Municipal services will however still be needed – such as police and fire – and we have now taken another private property off the tax role.

We also need to hold all property owners (business and personal) to a minimum public standard. Maintain your property, be a good citizen and neighbor. As you enter town from the east you go over a new bridge welcoming you to Wareham.

To your right, you then see a beautiful harbor surrounded by a weed infested overgrown vacant lot. For those that may not remember that was formerly Byron’s Landing. A very nice restaurant on the water. I’m hard pressed to think that the town can’t do anything to solve this blight on the landscape. Properly done it could support a nice tax-paying enterprise. There are many other examples throughout town. There has to be a minimum acceptable standard of maintenance on our public ways.

I know I’ll inevitably get responses like, “this is not Marion, if you don’t like it move” and “we don’t need part-timers telling us how to run our town.” The fact is that I love Onset and want to see it flourish.

I don’t use many of the public services (schools, etc.), but pay the full tax rate. I also pay a separate personal property tax which is levied on all residents who do not declare Wareham their primary residence. It would be an interesting exercise to see the percentage of people who are not primary residents and their percentage contribution to the annual town property tax revenue. We don’t vote here as our principal residences are elsewhere. However, we are a material part of your constituent base. Please maintain public investments with our tax dollars. Wareham is a beautiful seaside gem. Let’s maintain it for future generations.

Respectfully,

Neil Sullivan