Wow!  Hate those summer residents much, Ham? 

Many people (myself included) need(ed) to make a living, and jobs in Wareham are limited.  Yes, it is possible to commute to Boston or Providence and waste three hours a day in traffic jams, but many people prefer to spend that time with their families.  In addition, the Wareham schools are on life-support.  So many people choose to simply own summer homes in Wareham and live closer to their work and to good schools.  Without the money of the summer residents, this town would be under the DOR. 

The fact that someone was not born in Wareham or is not a year-round resident  does not make them a person "who is unaffected by what goes on in Wareham" nor does it mean that they do not care about Wareham.  Some summer residents have been coming to Wareham for generations.  They pay property taxes, water bills, sewer fees and an additional personal tax.  They spend money in local businesses.  Many (like me) will choose to retire here.

Allowing talented summer people to sit on non-elected advisory boards such as Tremont Nail or Bike Path will not "sell the town down the river"   I think it is a matter of common sense and compromise.  Make a list of acceptable committees for "out of towners" and a list of those committees that demand voter input.

I know I'm being "preachy", but endless references to "them" and "us" do not further the cause.

Yeah Gatemen, I don't mean to sound like I "hate" summer residents, I just think that you have to draw the line somewhere or where does it stop?  Out of towners who own business property in Wareham are affected by what goes on in Wareham too, should we let them on boards as well? 

This isn't just little committees...this article could let someone who lives in Boston and comes to Wareham for two weeks in July sit on the finance committee. When it comes down between police, schools, public safety, or keeping his property taxes low, how do you think he'll vote?

And yeah, obviously keeping property taxes low should always way into the decision, but I'm talking about an instance where a tough decision had to be made between property taxes or the public good.

Hey Ham, I agree with gogagtemen.  You wrote in part, “plus an article that would sell the town down the river to out of towners by letting out of town property owners not affected by what goes on in Wareham to sit on boards and make decisions about a town they don't care about enough to live in.”  I beg to differ with you.  My primary home is in Boston. My summer home is here in Wareham and has been since 1972.  I am here from the first week in March till the last week in November.  I do all my shopping in Wareham and I visit only locale restaurants.  As an out of town property owner and tax payer here in Wareham I take exception to your comment that I am “not affected by what goes on in Wareham.”  I am very affected on what goes on here.  Moving Walmart affects me. Paving Cranberry Highway affects me. Making Depot Street a one way affects me. Raising the price of the Beach Sticker would really affect me. LOL  Although I am a registered voter in Boston and can not vote here in Wareham, everything you folks vote on for affects me.  So please don’t say it doesn’t.  I pay my dues down here.  I even go to the town meetings as often as I can because I can still join in on citizens participation if I needed to.  I bet this year I have gone to more town meetings than most folks that reside here.  It’s sad because when I pass the Elks on my way to the town meeting, there are more people in there playing Bingo than at the town meeting.  I care about Wareham and as soon as some personal family situations are taken care of and I can sell my house in Boston, believe me I will be a voter here in Wareham because I love this town.
No hard feelings I hope.

Last edited by Zephyr (2010-09-18 15:43:18)

Hi Liz,  Two good questions. I usually come down a couple of times a month just to check on the place from December to April.  It’s only about an hour ride if I time it right.  I would absolutely like to vote down here but if I register in Wareham I am told I would pull jury down here also and that I don’t want to do right now.  If I’m wrong on this I hope someone lets me know.  In fact, I just received my notice this week that I have jury duty December 8th at 8am.  I’m not sure if I had jury duty down here or in Plymouth that I could make it down on time during rush hour.  You know how traffic can be.
As much as I feel that I am fairly knowledgeable in regards to the politics in Wareham, I don’t think I would volunteer for a committee unless I was actually a legal voting resident.  I just feel that it would not be fair to the other members.  You know how things could happen and people may want to meet at the last minute.  Again, I just don’t think it would be fair to the other members or the town.
Do you think I’m wrong?

Zephyr, I think we found some common ground here because it sounds like you wouldn't be interested in being on a Wareham committee because the commute to make it down here to weekly meetings would be too much.  In reality, aren't most summer residents in the same boat?  Are people who live out of state or in Boston really interested in driving to Wareham once a week for a committee meeting?  That's why I think this is more about a couple of out of towners who have been whispering in some tin hat ears.

I didn't mean to disrespect the importance of summer residents to the town, but I just feel the line has to be drawn somewhere or else you'd have a situation where people are getting to vote twice.

I would very much like to see someone make an amendment to the article about the CRC being formed every 5 years instead of every 10 years.  What I would like to see added to this article is that no committee member can serve consecutive terms.  This way, we don't have to see the same bozo's in 5 years.

Bill’s right we should try to go through each article starting with the charter review committee to see if we can summarize and make sense of each article. Bill I have read them all and tried to start to summarize them but some of them are so convoluted and have so many parts it makes it difficult to summarize and understand what the hell they are talking about. I will try to make a list.

Don’t you need a 2/3 majority to change anything in the charter?

I hope Claire Smith as reserved the school for at LEAST 5 nights. It is going to take forever to get through these articles. I think that is what the charter review committee is counting on so many articles no one will show up every night and they might get the votes for some of the articles.

Hamatron5000,  I can completely understand where you are coming from.  But I do have friends in the Swifts Beach area who live just outside of Boston.  They keep the house open all year down here and come down now and then during the winter.  Being on a committee may work for them although I doubt it.  And they are not registered voters down here. Never being on a committee here I’m not sure how they work.  I would like to think that if a person on a committee isn’t pulling their weight then the rest of the members should report that to the BOS.  Then again, it’s not a perfect world.  LOL  Bottom line is I feel you should be a registered voter to be on a committee and I would vote NO on this article if I could vote.  If anyone believes I'm wrong, I'm more than willing to listen to them.
The good part about this type of town government is if you don’t like an article then you vote no.  Where I live in Boston we have a Mayor and don’t get a chance to vote on anything.  We can voice our opinion but that’s it.  You folks are lucky in that respect.

pick your battles. think about it. we can't get enough people who live in wareham to get off their lazy butts to be on a committee and to drive three miles across town to a meeting. something tells me we won't have a flood of out of town people wanting to join committees. there is a by law that says if you miss three meetings in a row you are out. there are more important charter changes to get worked up about.

Section 2.    Any appointed committee member failing to attend three consecutive
meetings of his committee without justifiable cause may be dismissed after a hearing before the appointing authority.  The vacancy shall be filled by the original appointing authority.