For the fourth time in less than two years, Somerset voters have defeated a controversial citizens petition that would have removed fluoride from the town’s water supply. 

At a Special Town Meeting held Saturday morning at Somerset Berkley Regional High School, voters were asked whether they favored having the town seek an exemption from state law governing the fluoridation of drinking water.

The item failed, 192 votes to 154. 

The article, originally second-to-last on the meeting warrant, was second to be discussed after Selectman Jamison Souza successfully moved to have it heard much earlier in the lineup, with more citizens present — bringing the matter before voters about 20 minutes into what wound up a 4-hour, 30-minute event.

Read more at heraldnews.com.