More than a year after the Tisbury planning board first floated its ambitious proposal to link State and Edgartown-Vineyard Haven roads, voters this week endorsed the layout for a connecting system of streets that would ease congestion on the heavily trafficked corridors.

Voters at the special town meeting Tuesday night also approved more than $1 million in spending for town projects and, as expected, postponed discussion regarding the proposed emergency services facility until the spring.

Among the funding requests to win approval were $600,000 for an emergency town well at the Sanborn station, $300,000 to purchase land for aquifer protection and $150,000 to construct a garage to temporarily house the town's new ladder truck.

One-hundred and thirty-five people, or five per cent of registered Tisbury voters, turned out at the Tisbury School to vote on the 21-article warrant. Moderator Deborah Medders opened the meeting shortly after 7:30 p.m. First to be taken up was a package of articles related to the emergency services facility - a compound to house the town's fire department and ambulance services.

While the concept has been under discussion in town for some months, no plan has been formally approved. Early estimates for the project came in around $4 million, and sites under consideration include areas on High Point Lane and Evelyn Way.

On Tuesday, feeling discussion on the subject to be premature - and taking into consideration complications with the High Point Lane property - selectman Tristan Israel made a motion to take no action on site selection, with an eye toward resuming the discussion at annual town meeting next year.

"At this point, the [emergency services] committee feels that there are still some questions regarding the sites, and we will revisit them in March," Mr. Israel said. "It gives us another opportunity to be more precise and concise."

The motion passed.

Voters also approved an amendment to an article requesting funding for an architect and project manager. The board of selectmen originally asked for $400,000, or 10 per cent of the estimated project costs, but Mr. Israel amended that number to $40,000 - the cost of hiring just the project manager.

"This allows the town to get the ball rolling should we get to that point before a spring meeting," he said.

Voters also took no action on a $60,000 request to move part of the department of public works access road to make room for the emergency services facility should the High Point Way site be approved.

The most hotly debated article of the evening involved the granting of an easement over town-owned land to the Manter Trust property.

Sponsored by the school committee, the article sparked a lengthy discussion over what to do with the remaining seven acres of the Manter Trust; the trust originally included 24 acres left to the the town by Ellis Manter, who died in 1933. The school committee wants to use the land to build housing for teachers, while others want property to be considered for conservation. The small parcel is surrounded by land owned by the town and the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank.

John Bachellor of the school committee urged voters to grant the easement before planning board member L. Anthony Peak argued against it. Former selectman Cora Medeiros also implored the room to protect the land for future generations and turn down the article.

But school committee member James Norton said passing the article was simply fulfilling a promise the town made almost 30 years ago, when, according to Mr. Norton, the town agreed to allow access to the land-locked property.

"We owe it to ourselves to complete what we committed to do in 1977," Mr. Norton said.

Tisbury School principal Maureen DeLoach said that using the land for teacher housing was a way to get perpetual use from it.

Mr. Peak, however, reminded the room that voting against the article had no negative impact on the land and did not preclude any future decisions regarding its use. Town building inspector Ken Barwick also spoke against the article, saying the easement had not been granted in the past to protect the aquifer.

In the end the motion failed, 84-35, well short of the two-thirds necessary to pass.

Debate immediately picked up again with the discussion of the connector road. Planning board member Henry Stephenson gave a brief slide show of the proposal, which calls for a road to cut northwest off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and then split into multiple branches, filtering onto State Road at three different points: Nobnocket Road, High Point Lane and Evelyn Way.

Mr. Stephenson said that after studying several options the planning board endorsed the plan intruded least on private land and existing residential communities.

But Clarence (Trip) Barnes 3rd, whose Barnes Trucking company sits at the end of Evelyn Way, disagreed.

"We're talking about changing the back face of the town," he said. "There are over 200 trucks on that road with the other businesses down there. This should be talked about with the whole town."

Marie Larsen wondered if it was responsible to build new roads, and also argued against it. "It is spiral planning that provides for an exponential growth in traffic," she said. "More and more our town will be handed over to roads."

Mr. Israel, who admitted he once opposed a connector road with only one outlet on each side, said he was voting in favor of the project to keep the process moving. Voters seemed to agree and the plan was approved.

Other funding requests that garnered approval included $75,000 for heating fuel for town buildings as well as fuel for department of public works vehicles, and $10,000 for a survey of the historic Tashmoo Spring building on West Spring street, the hub of the first water works system on the Island.

Voters also unanimously approved several nonspending items, including an amendment to a town zoning bylaw, the adoption of the Military Leave Act for town employees and the authorization of the disposal of surplus town equipment. An end to a sewage flow moratorium in town was also accepted by voters.

The adoption of a bylaw establishing a committee to dispense funds generated by the Community Preservation Act (CPA) was also approved, but not without several last minute changes. Tisbury housing committee chairman Robert Wheeler began a string of motions to amend the article by recommending changes to confusing wording within the text. His amendment passed unanimously.

Tony Nevin then suggested writing into the bylaw that no less than 50 per cent of the funds generated by the CPA should go toward affordable housing efforts in town. Mr. Israel, however, cautioned the audience to give the committee flexibility in distributing the funds, and voters agreed. The amendment failed.

In the evening's only other act of dissension, voters shot down an attempt to expand the historic district to include the Main street business district. Approval of the article, which was submitted by petition, was discouraged by Mr. Peak, who said the article was potentially legally deficient.

Representatives of the petition failed to speak on its behalf, and the article was defeated unanimously.