Mashpee voters opted for continuity at Saturday s annual town election, as John Cotton and Thomas O Hara were reelected to new terms on the Board of Selectmen.
Cotton, the board s current chairman, led all candidates in the three-way race for two seats on the board with 1,136 votes. O Hara, the board s vice chairman, received 932 votes.
Marie Stone garnered 861 votes in her bid for one of the board s two seats.
Voters also passed 1,445-217 the lone question on the ballot Saturday seeking a debt exclusion to fund the first phase of the town s wastewater treatment project.
At a cost of $54 million, the first phase calls for construction of a new wastewater treatment plant adjacent to the town’s solid waste transfer station off Asher’s Path, as well as sewering from Butler Lane and Drew Lane south to Yardarm Drive and along Route 28 and Quinaquisset Avenue.
MASHPEE Town meeting voters unanimously approved funding for a new wastewater treatment plant Monday night, marking the culmination of decades of work to address the town s water quality problems.
436 voters unanimously approved the project at this year s spring session, which was held outside Mashpee Middle-High School.
“We all have a stake in this,” Selectman Andrew Gottlieb told voters Monday night. “The cost of doing nothing is significant. We are already paying that price. We’re paying it through loss of aesthetic value, we’re paying it through loss of recreational value. We’re paying it because we live in a less healthy, less robust, less forgiving environment. It’s up to us to change that.”
Update: This article has been updated with more recent information about a Monday Mashpee Board of Selectmen decision to vote to indefinitely postpone Article 7.
Town Meeting voters on Monday will determine the future of the town s wastewater system, including a treatment plant, sewer substation and flow rules.
Mashpee special and annual town meeting
When and where: 7 p.m. Monday at Mashpee Middle-High School, 500 Old Barnstable Road
Key issues:
1. Wastewater
The biggest hot-button issue revolves around the town’s wastewater, which has been affecting the town’s water quality for years through nitrogen pollution. The main article, Article 6, seeks to appropriate $54 million to fund the implementation and construction of a wastewater treatment plant that will be located adjacent to the town’s transfer station off Asher’s Path. A sewer main system will be installed and will stretch from Butler Lane and Drew Lane south to Yardarm Drive and along Route 28 to Quinaquisset
MASHPEE Three articles set to go before voters at town meeting next month will help bring the town’s long-time-coming comprehensive watershed nitrogen management plan to fruition if passed.
The Board of Selectmen voted last week to approve and recommend articles for the upcoming spring session on May 3.
“If you want clean water, and you care about the future of both the environment of the community and the economic fundamentals of the community, we need to start to address the water quality problems that are relevant in our waterways,” said Andrew Gottlieb, a member of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen and liaison on the Mashpee Sewer Commission.