The Board of Selectmen Tuesday voted to begin appointing members to the committee charged with putting together a bid request for the construction of senior affordable housing at the Westfield property in West Wareham.

Nine eager residents have already submitted their applications for the seven-person committee. The Selectmen decided to give interested other volunteers until February 1 to submit applications, which can be downloaded on the Town of Wareham website at www.wareham.ma.us, or picked up in the Board of Selectmen's office in Town Hall.

In October, following the presentation of a now disbanded committee that examined options for the Westfield land, Town Meeting approved the use of the land for senior housing, and decided that a new committee would be formed to work with the Board of Selectmen in drafting the specifications of the bid request and reviewing received bids.

It was initially believed that the town's Appointing Authority (consisting of Town Moderator Claire Smith, Selectmen Chair Jane Donahue, and Finance Committee Chair Donna Bronk) was to appoint the committee. But Donahue said Tuesday that, after reviewing a recording of the Town Meeting discussion and conferring with Town Counsel, the Appointing Authority “had to be the Board of Selectmen because of the way the [Town] Charter is set up."

Selectmen Cara Winslow and Steve Holmes expressed confusion about the process and indicated that they were under the impression that the Appointing Authority would be forming the committee.

"There was no discussion at Town Meeting specifically about this,” Donahue explained, indicating that Town Meeting did not specify who should appoint the committee, which led Town Counsel to determine that the responsibility falls upon Selectmen.

The committee will serve as an advisory board to the Board of Selectmen, which will ultimately submit the request for contractors' bids.