Town Meeting warrant deadline fast approaching

Feb 12, 2014

With the deadline to propose articles for Town Meeting fast approaching, Selectmen voted Tuesday to put on the warrant a handful of articles that have already been submitted, mainly concerning projects involving Community Preservation Funds funds.

The deadline for submission is Feb. 14, so some submissions will be dealt with at next week's meeting, but Selectman Peter Teitelbaum said, "I'd like to try to pick off what we have this week, get it done and put it on the warrant." He reiterated the board was not voting "favorable action" on any articles, just whether or not to put them on the warrant.

The articles put on the warrant that were seeking Community Preservation Act funding included an $11,000 engineering study to determine potential use for the Onset Beach Bathhouse and $25,000 for the restoration and preservation of the old town offices.

The state Community Preservation Act was adopted by Wareham voters in April 2002. A 3 percent surcharge is levied on residential property above the first $100,000 of assessed property and the state partially matches the locally raised funds.

The total revenue of the Wareham Community Preservation Committee in fiscal year 2013 was $791,391.That money must be used for historic preservation, affordable housing, preservation of open or recreation facilities.

One article seeking Community Preservation Committee funding for open space/recreation is $29,000 in renovations to the Wareham Little League fields.

According to Community Preservation Committee documents, the Little League complex on Charge Pond Road has broken glass coming up through the dirt across the entire complex and the work on renovations to the fields "will be done by the Little League organization and parent volunteers will be asked to help."

Selectmen also put on the warrant renovation projects at the Agawam Village housing complex, which can be funded with Community Preservation Committee funds as long as it's proven to preserve or protect the structure of the buildings, not simple maintenance.