The four candidates vying for one of two Selectmen seats in the April 2 town election's only contested race sounded off about the issues during the WCTV Candidate Debate on Wednesday.

Incumbents Steve Holmes of Onset Avenue and Cara Winslow of Peaceful Lane are seeking re-election. They are challenged by Frank DeFelice of Maki Way and Patrick Tropeano of Dowd Avenue. (Click on the candidates' names for longer profiles about them!)

Tropeano served one term on the Board of Selectmen from 2002 to 2005. He also served on the Finance Committee for five years, four of which he served as chair. DeFelice is running for Selectmen for the fourth time, but has served as Selectman in New Hampshire, and currently serves as chair of the Board of Health.

A one-year Selectmen term is also on the ballot. Judy Whiteside of Great Neck Road is running unopposed for that seat.

Questions sent in from voters were asked by Jaime Rebhan, editor of Wareham Week, and Caitlin Flaherty reporter for the Wareham Courier.

Here's a sampling of the responses from the candidates. Check back later for video!

How, as a Selectman and a liaison to several boards, committees, and commissions, will you communicate their activities to both other members of the board and the general public? The liaison reports at the end of the Board of Selectmen's meeting are lacking content.

Frank DeFelice: "At the present time I'm on the board of health and... if elected I would like to be the liaison to the Board of Health. I would bring whatever I can, whatever goes on at the meeting, just to help the Board of Health anyway I can. I feel it's very important that the selectmen have the information that's going on eh the different boards. so they can help the boards, that would be a priority of mine to move the Board of Health in any direction I can."

Steve Holmes: "It's  a question that comes up not only about liaison boards, but I think all across, getting information out to the public  I think lately there's been more communication during that period... I think in some cases it's easy to get that information out but we could always do a better job at communicating. We're actually looking at more ways to get information out about what the committees are doing. We actually had some committees come in on Tuesday nights to give a presentation about what's going on... I think we can always have better communication."

Patrick Tropeano: "When I was on the board in 2002 I was liaison to the School Department, Sewer Treatment Plant  and others, and these are really good bridge building kinds of things. ...I was able to bridge a lot of the gaps that were between the two boards, especially with the school department which was really really helpful to us so we were really amicable... We understood each other's problems...I think sometimes you figure 'well the board members know', but the public doesn't hear it. So I think it's important .I will try to make sure we give a full report on what's going on...I'll make sure that I get more content in those meetings, and in those reports."

Cara Winslow: "We've had a number of different approaches...When Walter Cruz was Chair he asked us all to partner with a member of the School Committee and then we kind of switched partners so we were developing relationships...sometimes the boards and committees are conducting what they consider to be routine business and there isn't that much going one. The committees I'm a liaison to are very good at letting me know when we need to make sure that information gets out to the public..I do agree that it's important and I think there's still a lot of room for improvement. I've been committed to improving communication for the last three years, and I plan to continue that commitment."

Everybody knows the need for economic development and everybody wants to promote economic development. What are three concrete ways you plan to promote economic development?

Steve Holmes: "I think economic development today is one of the more important things we need to do because we need to increase our revenue base.  Over the last three years we have at least 20 [businesses], that I can count that gave either came to Wareham, expanded in Wareham or stayed in Wareham. .. Most of this has been done in the last 18 months. That's quite a list, and that's quite an improvement... If you can break bread with somebody you can work with them. I have many people come to my home and have a cup of coffee. Some of it is 'what goes on in Wareham, why would I want to come to Wareham'? And Those are the types of things that as selectmen I think it's really critical that we do that work, and that we really are ambassadors for Wareham...Once we hand it over to [Community and Economic Development Director Sal Pina] you can see that these businesses are coming in... [The opening of Wines and More at Wareham crossing]came from a guy who met with Mr. Pina, and myself, and Mark Andrews. And we brought him into a department head meeting and said 'here you go, ask any question you want about economic development...He didn't end up moving his business here but the guy from [Wines and More] he was a good friend of his, and he ended up coming here. So one: We need to be good ambassadors. Two: We have to get the word out..about publicizing and getting out into the news media every time we do something and every time we bring a business to Wareham because if you do that, then you're spreading the word. And the third piece, very concrete... is to have a hand holding process where somebody comes here and says 'I want to open a business', and you say 'here are steps A,B, C, and D.' And you open the doors."

Patrick Tropeano: "I think one of the things we have to do is we need to start talking about how the process is. We need to streamline our process a little bit. Quite often I hear people say 'it takes too long it's too hard there's too many things in the way...and I think we need to talk about, as  a board, with the Town administrator, and the Town Administrator needs to talk to people about trying to streamline the process and I think that will help a lot, just getting that done. We also, as Selectmen, have to keep our ears to the ground a bit about what's going on in the community if we listen we will hear the people who are thinking of coming here... and then maybe as a board we need to approach some of these people and say  listen, you know, we would like to talk to you...about what your ideas are about coming to town, and how we can help you."

Cara Winslow: "Wareham really needs to identify itself, and branding itself similar to what Plymouth did. Plymouth is 'live, work, and play', and that is attractive to a potential business ...I think we need to continue to work on who we are and how we want to market ourselves to potential businesses. Another thing is we really do need to get the stakeholders around the table, everybody that's got a real interest in the community. You know, we've got a huge project about to occur on Cranberry Highway within the next few years...What do we want that area to be?  What kind of businesses do we want there? There are zoning issues, things that take time and now is our opportunity....The third thing is...we do need to promote or own community, we do need to ensure that when people come in and are looking for licenses that they get through that process in a timely manner."

Frank DeFelice: In Eastham, where he works as Building Commissioner, "when somebody comes to the town that wants to start a business, that's what they want to know is what the zoning is and how hard is it to get permits, and what's the process...I've worked in municipality and I know how it works. You want to encourage businesses to come here, and I think they're doing a great job as it is. This town has everything and  we just need to promote it a little better, and there are ways of doing that and one of the things is to be consistent with what we have with management.

What is your approach for solving the 40B issue as it applies to mobile homes?

It is required that Massachusetts municipalities have 10 percent of their housing stock designated as "affordable." If a municipality doesn't, developers are able to come to down and bypass some zoning bylaws to build affordable units.

Wareham has multiple mobile home parks that provide reasonably-priced housing, but are not officially deemed "affordable" by the state. If they were, the town would likely meet the required 10 percent.

Cara Winslow: "We need to go back to our legislative delegation we have...and ask for their assistance in getting this accomplished. We do have a large number of mobile homes, they are affordable and that's what they were designed to be. It's not a reflection on the people who live there. We have brand new 40 B housing; Union Pond, 815 Main Street, both of them are new and they have nice landscaping. There's no real bad thing to designating our mobile homes as affordable. I think it helps everyone involved."

Frank DeFelice: "The reason why you want to get the mobile homes as affordable...then you can pick and choose the developments you want in the town. You can't until we reach that ten percent.  The only thing we can do as Selectmen is go to the legislature and try to push it through. That would be the only thing we could do as far as I'm concerned."

Steve Holmes: "Representative Gifford, last I knew as recently as less than a year ago, explained to the voters in Wareham, you know,  she brings this up all the time on Beacon Hill. Part of the problem with that is 40B is a sacred cow for many of our legislators...She's brought up two issues; one is to get mobile homes part of [40B], and the other part is Wareham is tied to  Boston and that area as opposed to New Bedford, so we're in a market with very high rents which hurts us. We've had recent talk about affordable housing...Basically these guys (40B developers) are not credible people. They refuse to give development plans to the Zoning Board intentionally so that then they can go to the state court...the Zoning Board here will not approve their projects, because they never presented the plans,  and then they're happy to take us to Mass land court because they have friends on Beacon Hill, and then they put their projects in and our Zoning Board loses control over those projects. So it's a hornet's nest. We need to get some folks in the legislature with a D after their names to help us with this.  Representative Gifford has done a lot of work on this, however unsuccessfully. So we need to continue that track, and again, get us more in line with the New Bedford Values than with Boston."

Patrick Tropeano: "When they did this originally the first time around, by the way, Boston is allowed to count their as affordable for reasons of funding. We were not allowed to count ours as affordable, but Boston was. So you know that's something everyone out there should be calling their legislators about."

Now that senior affordable housing will likely not be built on the 77-acre Westfield site in West Wareham what else, if anything, should the property be used for?

Cara Winslow: "I don't have a real answer to that.  I think that there are some recreational fields out there right now, it's actually kind of a nice quiet spot right now. There is some housing developments, but they're further down the road. I'm not sure what a good fit would be out there at this point. I think that's one of those questions that we really need to get some feedback from the community to determine what the best use of the site would be for them."

Frank DeFelice: "I think they should just continue on with the recreation part that's there...put another ball field out there, You know whatever, but at least use it for some good reason and I think recreation's a great reason, so why not?

Steve Holmes: "There's been a couple of people but they really haven't taken the bait yet and I think with the other development, and the increase in development in Wareham, you're going to see people start to move toward that area...I think a great use for that property in terms of recreation is not another ball field outdoors, but an indoor facility. You know, you could have batting cages for kids to play baseball, they have indoor golf things now, you could have an ice rink that you turn into a meeting place or a little concert hall. So I think to keep that land in a recreational state we need to find someone who's willing to do that. That'll bring more tourists, more visitors to Wareham. The hockey teams in the schools are always looking for a place to have practice. So I think that if we could find somebody with a few dollars to invest that would be a great use of that property...and then if we needed outdoor stuff built around it you could do it with the revenue that comes from the arena."

Patrick Tropeano: "This property goes back a ways for me, there was a thing called the Westfield project once upon a time that had four fields out there, four baseball fields...and then there were some soccer fields that were supposed to be built out there... It was a great plan, it was a terrific plan. Unfortunately it ran into money problems when...they tried to get, not the Army Core, but the National Guard, who would go around in the summer time and build some of these fields and things, and we had a scheduled date and we had put everything together to do it, and something came up and they just never could make it back here. And of course now, we use the National Guard more like the military so now they don't have Any time for this stuff...Stave is totally right, what we need to do is find somebody who wants to develop that kind of use...it's absolutely the perfect place for a recreational facility and we should start talking, keeping our ear to the ground, finding somebody who wants to do something like that."

How do you suggest we can move forward with Upper Cape Tech in the face of an ever increasing need for money?

Frank DeFelice: "Well I don't think It's an Upper Cape problem, I think it's the school problem in Wareham. The problem there is that kids are slowly deserting the town of Wareham...And the reason is, my personal opinion from what I hear, is that the school can't get it together between the administrators, the union, the teachers. There's animosity there and until they get their act together, you can't blame Upper Cape. And to get the money to give to them, again, I don't think we're going to have a choice. We're going to say no, the other four towns will say yes, We're going to have to come up with it. The kids are there I don't think we have a choice."

Steve Holmes: "We have, obviously, budget issues in the Town of Wareham...We're having enough trouble getting the money to give to our own school district and this budget went up by 19 percent, and we have to pay it. We voted, last year, no at Town Meeting which was a great vote. However, the other towns voted yes so we had to come back and vote yes. And now they come up with this $500,000 that they want us to put into a fund, so they have some capital to go out and get and bond for a sewer treatment plant...The answer's going to be no, we have to say no loud and clear. But this time, I think we'll have support from the other towns because now we've got Board of Selectmen working with Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee working with Finance Committee...This is turning into  a hole where we're spending a lot of money, and they just send in the request and we have to pay it. We're about to stop that I hope."

Patrick Tropeano: "We had a similar problem years ago when I was on the board. They wanted some money that we just didn't have. The way that it works is there's a bunch of towns; we're 36 percent of that, which means we're the biggest chunk. So if the other towns vote in favor of it - and why not, because they're paying a lot less - then we have to pay the bill. In this case, it's a $500,000 bill. Back then we were able to go to their meetings we found out early enough...and we were able to scale back the way that they did it so they did it over a longer period of time, so we were able to pay it over the course of time and get the same thing accomplished...Just by getting there and having those conversations, we really tried to reach out to all the Boards of Selectmen and others from the other towns, and really we met with little success because at the time it was miniscule what they were paying compared to us...But it's  a big chunk to us and we get hurt big time. So we need to keep those lines of communication open and try to get these things and head them off early. I'm sure this didn't happen overnight, it's probably been going on for some time and we probably need to be on top of it. What we don't have is a liaison to that board. We have some members from the community who sit on that board...We just need to have more communication so we can head these things off because I think you can spread this thing, right now, over a course of time and still get the same thing accomplished and not hurt the town so much."

Cara Winslow: "I think there's two issues here. There's the issue of the stabilization fund they're requesting and they haven't come before the board and explained...when they come before the board in public and give us an explanation than I'll make a firm decision as to whether I support it or I don't.  One of the reasons why we saw such a high increase this year in the Upper Cape tuition budget is because our enrollment is increasing. while I will agree with Mr. DeFelice, to an extent, that Wareham High is having a difficult time competing with Upper Cape, There are also kids who are not interested, or just simply are just not looking to go to college. For whatever reasons. They may not like school, they may not have the money or want to take on the debt, or they may not be interested in what college has to offer. Upper Cape is an important option to our children here in Wareham. It offers them the opportunity to  go to work after high school, and not be stuck in minimum wage jobs for the remainder of their lives. It presents real opportunities and real career paths.  so when you take into account the increased enrollment, the actual increase in their budget outside of the stabilization request for the sewer issue, is about eight percent, which is higher than what we can give to our own kids. So we do need to have more regular meetings, whether that's through a liaison or through an invitation to our elected officials who sit on the Upper Cape board. One way or another, we need to start talking about solutions."

Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 2. Here's where to vote: Precinct 1 voters cast ballots at Town Hall; Precinct 2 votes at the Ethel E. Hammond Elementary School; Precinct 3 residents vote at Minot Forest Elementary; Precincts 4 and 5 voters cast ballots at the John W. Decas Elementary School; Precinct 6 residents vote at the Wareham Lodge of Elks.