REHOBOTH - Selectmen Chairman Christopher Morra calls the 241-185 town meeting vote last week to spend $650,000 on an upgrade for the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School's wastewater system, a victory for the town.

"The town won once again. Any amount above $650,000 would have resulted in a loss of operational monies which would have had a drastic impact on our children," said Morra.

The approved article was changed and is no longer subject to a temporary override of the state's Proposition 2 1/2 tax-limiting law.

The school committee supported a different article that asked for up to $1.2 million, and specifically called for construction of a new septic system.

The committee planned to amend the $1.2 million to $950,000. David Katseff, school committee vice chairman, said that $950,000 was the amount required to authorize the project.

But Morra contended that the school committee had other money available that could be used for the project.

Katseff attempted to table the selectmen's article and change the sum to $950,000, but both amendments failed to pass.

Katseff said it was important for the language in the article to match the language agreed upon by Dighton, but most of the language went unchanged. Dighton will share in the cost of the project, with Rehoboth paying 60 percent.

Town meeting debated the issue for more than two hours, with residents divided on which of the two articles to support. Some residents felt the town should trust the school committee and award the amount that they were asking and others were concerned about borrowing too much money.

Several voters expressed a desire to move forward with the project and "get on with the business of educating our children," as one resident put it.

After voters approved the $650,000 article, Katseff made a final attempt to secure $950,000 by amending the second article from $1.2 million to $300,000. But that amendment also failed.

"We're disappointed with the $650,000 appropriation for the bond, and now we're going to have to look into alternatives for the additional money necessary to do the project," said Katseff.

"We do feel bad for our fellow citizens from Dighton who had already agreed to fund the project for up to $1.2 million," he added.