Wareham Town Meeting Approves $26M Sewer Borrowing and Plastic Bag Ban

Town Meeting · Meeting of April 27, 2026

Wareham town meeting voters authorized $26 million to replace the town's largest sewer force main and passed a $74.5 million FY27 operating budget in a marathon April 27 session at Wareham High School. The borrowing under Special Article S13, approved by two-thirds voice vote, funds a three-phase project replacing the deteriorating 50-year-old Narrows Pump Station force main along Sandwich Road; engineers from Environmental Design and Research and Weston and Sampson told voters the pipe has suffered up to 48 percent wall thickness loss and that a reactive failure could cost as much as $45 million. Water Pollution Control Facility Director Scott Crayhansel said the town could pursue zero percent financing through the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust and noted Wareham previously received 23.9 percent debt forgiveness on a prior $16 million infrastructure loan, saving $3.824 million.

Ratepayers can expect an annual cost increase in the range of $125 to $200 per sewer user, depending on grants secured. Voters also approved a citizen's petition banning single-use plastic shopping bags under Annual Article 18, with petitioner Joanne Finn citing Wareham's coastal waterways and noting 163 Massachusetts communities have enacted similar bans; Select Board Chair Judith Whiteside noted that the FY27 budget, approved by majority voice vote, preserved funding for both the library and the Council on Aging despite what Town Administrator Sullivan described as a net negative $498,000 swing in state aid.

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Source: the Town Meeting meeting of April 27, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.