Wareham Community Television has three new board members as of Wednesday night's annual meeting, and is on its way to having new studio space following a Tuesday Historic District Commission decision.

In what felt like a revolt of WCTV members, longtime board member and president John White’s bid for another term was rejected in favor of Main Street merchant Traci Medeiros, former animal control officer Carlston Wood, and Community and Economic Development employee Jaime Rebhan.

The three – all sounding upbeat and optimistic about expanding community participation in the public access cable organization – topped the balloting after two other candidates, former WCTV executive director Jay Heard and longtime volunteer and board member Paul Ciccotelli, withdrew their nominations in favor of the new blood.

Also sounding optimistic was interim executive director Steve Ruiz as he reported that the Historic District Commission Tuesday evening approved WCTV’s plans to build an 1,850-square-foot addition to the organization’s Old Town Hall quarters to accommodate more studio space.

After the meeting, Ruiz explained that the project could now be put out to bid with the expectation of breaking ground this coming spring. He said it will be paid for by WCTV, which is funded by Comcast and Verizon through the company’s cable contracts with the town.

Old Town Hall itself is owned by the town and leased to WCTV, which has been seeking larger quarters for several years.

Also at the annual meeting, held at Salerno's Function Hall in Onset, attorney Margaret Ishihara was honored as Volunteer of the Year for her work producing WCTV programing for the First Congregational Church and jumping in to help on numerous other community television projects. She said she was surprised and appreciative.

The main event was clearly the election of board members. Before balloting, each of what were then six candidates was given the opportunity to make a 2-minute speech.

First up, Ciccotelli reeled off statistics of declining community membership in WCTV and declining original programming.

“There need to be some serious changes in this board,” he said, going on to talk of “shenanigans on this board ” and to describe how the president had called the membership “fluff.” He concluded by saying he was withdrawing his name from nomination in favor of “Jaime, Traci and Carlston.”

Heard followed and, with a different tone, followed suit. “Some of those points Paul made are valid points,” he said. “Like Paul, I am going to bow out of this race.” Unlike Paul, he said White would get one of his votes.

Heard used many of his few words to say what a privilege it had been to have served as executive director for so many years and to thank the members for their support. He sat down to a round of loud applause.

Medieros, a 23-year resident of Wareham who has owned and operated Main Street’s Gallery Consignment Shoppe for the past 11 years, said her focus would be “membership, membership, membership."

WCTV should be “a hub of activity” and a “fun place to be,” she said. “We need to get the people in this town to realize what an asset we have.”

Rebhan, a founding staff member of Wareham Week and for several years editor, talked of coming to town for her Wareham Week interview and being excited to learn that Wareham had an active public access cable operation.

While at the paper and later at the School Department, she worked with WCTV to produce an “In the Soup” program, televise the delivery of relief supplies to Superstorm Sandy victims, and film the champion Wareham Tigers football team’s trip to Disney World. Appointed to fill out a departed board member’s term, she has been serving on the WCTV board for a few months.

“I love WCTV. It’s amazing,” she said. “I feel like we have to do more. . . . More programming. Get more people in to the station.”

Wood noted that those in the room probably all knew him from at least one of his roles in town: animal control officer, musician, father, ghost investigator and more. He talked about being a team player interested in “growth and creativity” and “diversity . . . I want everybody to feel welcome.”

Incumbent White acknowledged that some of Ciccotelli’s “concerns are valid” but talked about how he had been “involved in WCTV since Day One” and how he “wanted to keep it a vibrant organization.”

“Do I have detractors? Yes. It comes with the territory,” he said. “There are selectmen here. How many detractors do selectmen have? It comes with the territory.”

The remark elicited smiles from the three selectmen in attendance – Judy Whiteside, Peter Teitelbaum and Alan Slavin – but the sentiment did not carry the day.

After the votes were counted and the results announced, White was philosophical. An entrepreneur, he said he liked to “build new things” and was proud of what he had helped build in WCTV.