After a specially appointed Mill Pond research committee clashed over the best plan to improve water quality in the pond — causing committee member Kent Healy to abruptly resign — the committee has been reorganized and expanded and will begin to meet again in the coming weeks.

Selectmen over the past two weeks appointed a pair of members to the committee, expanding it from three members to five. Last week the selectmen voted unanimously to appoint Anna Alley to the committee; this week they voted to add Rick Karney to the panel, again without dissent.

Mr. Healy resigned in November after selectmen authorized an application for $25,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to perform several tests of the Mill Pond, the historic man-made pond that graces the entrance to town on the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road.

The two other members, Bob Woodruff and Craig Saunders, framed the funding request as the first step in a plan to dredge the pond and prevent it from drying up and turning into a marsh — a project which could cost as much as $200,000.

Mr. Healy opposes dredging the pond, and believes the town does not need to spend money to perform tests on the pond. He favored a simpler plan to record and monitor sediment deposits in the pond over time.

On Dec. 9 selectmen voted to replace Mr. Healy with Rez Williams, the only person who responded to the request for volunteers.

Town administrator Jennifer Rand said the initial plan was to create a five-member Mill Pond committee, but only three residents volunteered to join the panel. It is unclear if the committee will still pursue a plan to dredge the pond, and it is also unclear if the committee will have a plan ready in time for the annual town meeting in April.

The newly reconstituted committee is expected to meet in the coming weeks.

In other news, selectmen accepted a letter from Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss stating that a plan to build a wind turbine at the West Tisbury School has been abandoned. In a letter dated Jan. 4, Mr. Weiss said a consultant hired by the up-Island school committee has concluded that the wind turbine is not feasible for the proposed location.

“In an effort at researching this issue more fully, we engaged a consultant to conduct a noise level study, and those results were extremely negative. It appears that the town of West Tisbury is a very quiet place and the installation of a 250 [kilowatt] turbine at the school site would raise the noise level well beyond the acceptable levels,” Mr. Weiss wrote, adding:

“At its Dec. 21 meeting the up-Island regional school committee reviewed these results and made the difficult decision to stop all efforts at installing the turbine.”

Assistant principal Bob Lane this week said the plan was to install the wind turbine at the back of the school, near a residential area. He said school officials still have the option of installing the turbine in front of the school, but decided against that because of potential problems with logistics and aesthetics.

“As good neighbors we did these tests [in back of the school] ahead of time and learned that noise would be an issue. Although this was an important project, we did not want the turbine to disrupt the neighborhood,” he said.