The normally-still waters of the Wareham Fire District Annual Meeting were disturbed Monday night by a resident asking why the department felt it needed $60,000 to refurbish a new fire boat.

“To me, this sounds like a toy,” said Tim Petricca. “It almost seems like the Fire Department wants to be part of the Coast Guard.”

The proposal aimed to transfer money from "free cash" (an account containing the District's unrestricted funds from the previous fiscal year) to refurbish the boat. The district received the boat through a federal surplus program a few years back, but it had no electronics or motor.

Anticipating such a question, Wareham Fire Chief Robert McDuffy had prepared a presentation to address any concerns raised regarding the boat, currently housed at the fire station in West Wareham.

“The Fire Department is responsible for the waters of the coastline, and that’s part of our jurisdiction,” McDuffy said. “We would like to have this safe boat as an addition, so that we can better serve you as the public and protect our firefighters, so they can, at the end of a tour, go home safely.”

The presentation contained a detailed list of issues surrounding the boat currently used by the Fire Department, including antiquated electronics, personnel space and safety problems, and lack of adequate funding for a little over a year.

“We’ve been trying to find creative methods, in order to get power for this particular vessel, so that we didn’t have to burden the taxpayer,” McDuffy said. “Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful,” despite working with the Coast Guard out of Woods Hole and Boston.

The presentation also broke down what will go into the $60,000 requested for the boat. The cost of the motor clocked in as the highest -- $27,600.

According to McDuffy, the importance of the vessel lay in the numbers: since 2010, the area has had 32 waterway incidents, about one third of the number of calls received regarding burning buildings.

Following McDuffy’s presentation, the item passed unanimously.

Most of the other items on the agenda passed unanimously, including the passage of the $4,232,671 Water Department budget, a 2.48 percent increase from last year, as well as the $5,310,999 budget for the Fire Department, Prudential Committee, Clerk/Treasurer and Mechanics Division, a 4.12 percent increase from last year.

Though McDuffy said he wished more people would come to Fire District meetings, he was pleased with the public’s willingness to let the department spend such a large amount of money.

“I strongly believe the role of a manager, especially in public safety, is being prepared,” said McDuffy.