Thirty years ago the town of Tisbury moved several departments into “temporary” accommodations, grandly called the town hall annex, opposite the elementary school on West Spring street. All this time later, they are still there.

Now, the town is looking to move them again, sometime around the end of this year, into alternative temporary accommodations, so the West Spring street site can be redeveloped into Tisbury’s new emergency services facility.

But where will they go? Two years into the process of relocating the town’s emergency services, this remains the big unanswered question in the whole plan.

Maybe into a comfortable, $600,000 temporary building. Or maybe into a collection of trailers, rented at minimal cost, up by the town dump. Or maybe into one of several other places instead. Nobody knows.

And how temporary will the move be?

Tom Pachico, the town’s health agent, and one of the people who will have to move, reckons he knows the answer to that question, at least.

“Wherever we go is where we’ll stay until I’m dead and buried, I’m sure,” Mr. Pachico said.

Which explains why he was a little exercised at last Tuesday’s meeting of the selectmen, when they finally got around to discussing options. In particular, he did not like the suggestion of the chairman of the selectmen, Tristan Israel, that the displaced staff could be cheaply housed in several trailers.

The idea of splashing from one trailer to another in the pouring rain, just to use the photocopier, did not appeal at all to Mr. Pachico.

And Mr. Israel’s assertion that it would only be for six to eight months did little to calm Mr. Pachico’s concerns, perhaps understandably, given the town’s previous redefinition of the word “temporary.”

He also questioned Mr. Israel’s assertion that the trailers could be had for as little as $3,000, pointing out that apart from the cost of renting them, there would also be considerable cost associated with connecting them to services.

But all the other options, and there were four others put up for discussion in all, also have their drawbacks.

The solution proposed by the town’s planning board is to erect a prefabricated building at the Department of Public Works site in High Point lane.

The main problem with that is the projected cost: $600,000.

Another selectman, Jeff Kristal, suggested putting the displaced staff in the currently-unfinished basement of the Tisbury senior center.

Then, when the town was done with it, the seniors could have the space back, all nicely fixed up.

But that idea ran into opposition, too. There were questions about whether it would breach the building code to have the staff housed below ground level. And questions about handicapped access, and about the as-yet unknown cost.

The old town barn, actually something more like a garage-cum-storage facility adjacent to the annex, was another possibility. Once again, though, the cost of making the ramshackle construction habitable has not been determined. And there are other plans for that site: to turn it into parking for the school.

So, how about the old Water Works building, further down Spring street? The historic building already has had large amounts spent on it, but it would no doubt require a lot more to make it suitable.

Currently, its floor is on several levels, making problems for handicapped access. Plus parking could be difficult. And there are questions about the extent to which measures to make it habitable, like insulation, could detract from its historic status.

The discussion went round in circles; to every solution there was a new problem. The only agreement was that the problem is very pressing.

And so the town administrator, John Bugbee, was charged with finding out more detail about all the competing alternatives, the better to inform another discussion, scheduled for 90 minutes next Tuesday, Sept. 8.

In other business, selectmen decided to explore the prospect of a merger of the police departments of Tisbury and Oak Bluffs.

The prospect of a merger was contained in the final report into the Tisbury police by consultant Robert Wasserman.

The town has not made the report public, but Mr. Israel told the meeting it canvassed several options, including a full merger of the two towns’ police services, as well as lesser restructuring, such as keeping the departments separate, but with a common police chief.

Oak Bluffs, which currently has deep budgetary problems, has previously raised the prospect of combining services, and Mr. Wasserman has offered to assist negotiations between the towns.

Selectmen agreed to a Jeff Kristal motion to proceed with merger talks, and to approve $700 to pay Mr. Wasserman to help facilitate them.