Tisbury officials this week looked at several alternatives to building an all-new town hall.
A proposed town office building on High Point Lane, drafted by Icon Architecture, was estimated last month to cost a prohibitive $32 million, leading to the consideration of possible alternatives.
Tisbury’s municipal offices presently are split among several locations, with the finance and town clerk’s department operating from cramped and moldy quarters beneath Katharine Cornell Hall on Spring street, the town administrator and personnel sharing space with the public works department on High Point Lane and other departments crammed into a nearby pair of decaying trailers known as the town hall annex.
At the select board meeting Tuesday, Icon architect Mark McKevitz presented four potential scenarios that could address the current inadequacies for up to $10 million.
The first approach would have Icon architects and engineers identify, prioritize and estimate the costs for repairs at the existing town hall on Spring street and the annex at High Point Lane.
A second option would combine repairs to the first floor of the Spring street hall with new, larger trailers at the High Point Lane annex.
The Spring street site, built as a meeting hall in the 1800s, is unsuitable for expansion, Mr. McKevitz said.
“We don’t think an addition can be done in a cost-effective manner on this historic property in the area that we have available [because] it will be very expensive,” he said.
Thirdly, Mr. McKevitz said, Icon could revamp its original draft design for the High Point Lane hall, switching to a more economical plan that would use modular construction methods to build in two phases, beginning with 8,000 square feet for offices and followed, when funding is available, by another 7,000 square feet to include a public meeting room.
The fourth option, leasing space, would have Icon switch its efforts from designing a new building to identifying 6,000 to 8,000 square feet of commercial space elsewhere in Tisbury, and then estimating the costs to fit it out for municipal offices.
Select board members John Cahill and Roy Cutrer agreed to a $54,000 contract with Icon to evaluate the four alternatives and return to the board with estimates.
Also Tuesday, the select board appointed two new Tisbury police officers, Miguel V. Jarillo and Nicholi T. Grant, who recently graduated from law enforcement academy and were sworn in following the board’s vote.
In other business, the select board gave its approval to the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District for a new program of artist-designed banners in the downtown area.
Cultural district clerk Taylor Stone said the district has the support of public works director Kirk Metell, whose department is charged with installing and replacing the seasonal banners that adorn 16 poles on and around Main street.
The American flag banners announcing patriotic holidays will remain in rotation, Ms. Stone said.
“We’re planning on just swapping the seasonal ones, that tell you what season it is, with local artwork,” she said.
The cultural district is issuing a call for original designs by Island artists that would then be produced as pole banners, Ms. Stone said.
“We plan to cover the costs ourselves,” she said.
The select board tabled a request by Tashmoo Spring Building management committee chair Lorraine Wells to tighten attendance limits for events at the historic waterworks, saying the language needed more specifics.
Mr. Cahill agreed to work with Ms. Wells so that the select board may take up the request in April.
The board also approved short-term road closures for repairs to the roof of the Claudia jewelry shop on Main street and the removal of a tree at the Visiting Nurses Association building on State Road, with both jobs expected to take place within the week and to take less than half a day.
This article appears in March 27, 2026.