Bourne Deserves Better From Wareham - Editorial
We think the Town of Bourne is, quite frankly, lucky that residents at Wareham’s Special Town Meeting on Monday were both concerned and confused enough to strike down the town’s $36 million proposal for upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant.
It was a close one: four more “yes” votes and it would have passed, slapping Bourne with a charge for more than $6 million. We would say it was nerve-wracking to watch, but it wasn’t—because we, along with apparently everyone else in Bourne, had no idea it was happening.
The whole situation was a show of brazen disregard on Wareham’s part for the partnership between the two towns. There is a plethora of concerns here, the biggest being the fact that Wareham officials neglected to even inform Bourne in a timely manner of the plans to upgrade the plant. What good, then, is the intermunicipal agreement between the two towns?
Local coverage of Wareham’s meeting on Monday made it clear that the borrowing authorization request from the town’s sewer commissioners was underdeveloped, going before residents with far too many unknowns and not enough support. Even the town’s select board—which, unlike Bourne’s, has a different composition than its sewer commissioners—voted against supporting the proposal. It was, however, recommended by Wareham’s capital planning and finance committees, in addition to the sewer commissioners.
Bourne and Wareham are supposed to be in communication about all things related to the treatment plant, but it is clear that Wareham has struggled with doing so for quite some time. Last April, Bourne Town Administrator Marlene McCollem expressed concern over a lack of clear communication from Wareham, and a number of Bourne Select Board members concurred. Even back in 2019, when Bourne entered a new agreement with Wareham, the need for clear and consistent communication was heavily underscored.
The chairman of Wareham’s sewer commissioners has said that he was waiting for the borrowing authorization to be approved at Special Town Meeting before meeting with Bourne officials, which we think is a ludicrously disordered way of doing business. While the intermunicipal agreement does stipulate that Bourne covers about 18 percent of the cost for repairs and upgrades to the plant, it is hard to imagine a world in which Wareham’s arrival at Bourne Town Hall with an unexpected bill for $6 million and change would be beneficial to the already tenuous relationship.
Bourne Select Board member Peter Meier pointed out that, had the proposal been accepted on Monday, Bourne would have been left scrambling to adjust its Fiscal Year 2024 budget accordingly. That is not a very courteous way to treat a business partner.
Bourne officials have already expressed their displeasure with the way the situation unfolded, but we hope that they take it a step further and either demand a seat at the table or find a new place to sit.