Near the end of Monday's Town Meeting debate on funding the town's recycling center, Selectman Stephen Holmes told recycling center advocate and School Committee Chairman Geoff Swett that Swett and Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood “figure out a way to pay for that $5,000 out of the school budget."

Voters clearly disagreed, passing by voice vote a motion support the center out of general town funds.

Without the $5,000, the center would have been forced to cease operations in early 2016. According to Recycling Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Gady, the center serves 150 families per week, and keeps more than 150,000 lbs. of recyclable materials out of landfills per year. It also takes hazardous recyclable materials, such as latex paint and sharp objects like needles.

Recycling Committee member Earl Russell explained that the money is used to keep the center open, as well as pay the recycling center coordinator. Though about $3,500 is used to pay the coordinator, Russell pointed out the coordinator “does a lot of other things, besides staff that center.”

“The coordinator … makes sure [the center] is open every day, makes sure it’s plowed [in the winter], makes sure all the bills are paid … and reconciles it with the the town accountant on a monthly basis,” Russell said.

Russell said the remainder of the money is used to “provide facilities for people”, such as a trailer with a restroom, and pays for its own electricity, water, and sewage disposal. Pickup of hazardous recyclable materials also contributes to the cost. He also said people from other towns use Wareham’s recycling center, as they have no centers of their own.

Other Wareham residents also defended the center. Resident Robert Brousseau spoke against the Selectmen’s majority rejection of the article.

“We sometimes see this town run a budget of over $50 million, and you are telling me we can’t spend $5,000 to keep this town clean?” he asked.

Selectman Peter Teitelbaum spoke as the lone Selectman in favor of continuing to fund the center, saying that he was sure “we could scrape the money out of somewhere.”

Swett spoke in favor of the article, too, for the center’s educational benefit for Wareham’s students.

“There are students there helping out as volunteers,” Swett said. “I think this sends the message to our students that recycling and the planet is important. … This is certainly worth more than 25 cents per citizen.”

The Selectmen, Finance Committee, and Town Administrator Derek Sullivan objected to funding, because, according to the Finance Committee Clerk Ellis Bailey, there was “just no source of funding for this article,” and they knew “there are drop off centers in Marion and Rochester.”