A Saturday meeting between sewer officials and residents of the Parkwood Beach neighborhood has left residents puzzled and Selectmen fuming.

At the meeting, residents of the newly sewered neighborhood were told that each property owner would be charged a “betterment fee” of a little more than $15,000 for the sewer extension.

That number is in line with previous estimates. But Selectmen, who also serve as Sewer Commissioners, have not yet set the Parkwood betterment fee.

And setting the Parkwood fee at $15,000 would mean that betterment fees for the separate Cromesett/Oakdale sewer extension would probably top $22,000 per property. At issue in setting the betterment fees for both neighborhoods is the allocation of $1.4 in state “stimulus” money. Because the Cromesett project was more expensive than the Parkwood project, splitting the stimulus money equally – as was outlined on Saturday – would create an approximately $7,000 gap between the two projects’ betterment fees.

Adding to the confusion: Several Selectmen, who received puzzled and angry phone calls from residents after Saturday’s meeting, said they did not even know that Saturday’s meeting was going to be held.

"We are the Sewer Commissioners in the Town of Wareham still," said a visibly frustrated Selectman Steve Holmes, referencing a decision of Fall Town Meeting to take the sewer responsibilities off the plate of the Board of Selectmen next spring. Citizens "come in here asking for answers, and we haven't even seen the report!"

Continuing, he was even more direct: “This is bull."

Selectman Brenda Eckstrom agreed. “I’ve never been so much in the dark as a Sewer Commissioner as I am on this project," she said. "I got the phone calls about how rude it was that none of us showed up" to the meeting.

Even Chair Jane Donahue -- who, as a Parkwood resident, may have been notified of the meeting -- agreed that Selectmen should have seen the information to be presented at Saturday's meeting before it was given to the public.

The upshot was that, although setting the Parkwood betterment fee was on Tuesday night’s Selectmen’s agenda, the matter was postponed until next week’s meeting.

While apologizing profusely for the lack of communication, Water Pollution Control Facility Director Guy Campinha said the Saturday meeting was held only to discuss the sewer tie-in process now that the project was completed and ready for homes to tie in to the sewer line.

He said the meeting was Town Administrator Mark Andrews' idea and that residents of the affected neighborhoods were notified of the meeting by post cards.

"We had the meeting to bring the residents up to speed," Campinha said Wednesday. While again apologizing for the lack of communication with Selectmen, he added, "Everything we did at the meeting was in the best interest of the community."

Campinha said he and John Sanguinet, assistant to the Board of Selectmen, made the presentation about tie-ins to the residents, but that the conversation quickly turned to betterment fees.

Residents said they were told at the meeting that their betterment fee would be just over $15,000.

In July meetings, Sanguinet told residents and Selectmen that a stimulus funding allocation that would leave Parkwood with $15,300 fees would probably leave the not-yet-complete Cromesett/Oakdale project fees at about $22,100.

Selectmen's Assistant Sanguinet -- after being ripped by Selectmen for not telling them about the Saturday meeting -- told the board Tuesday that he knew the fee had not been finalized. And Donahue noted that the Board had still not decided how to divide the state stimulus funding.