A packed audience breathed a collective sigh of relief Tuesday as Chilmark selectmen voted 2-1 to grant a one-time extension to town residents who this year missed the deadline to renew their application for a town mooring or slip.

After much debate, selectmen Warren Doty and Frank Fenner voted to extend until Feb. 15 the deadline to renew. The application was due by noon on Jan. 15. The extension also applies to those on wait lists for the coveted spots.

Selectman J.B. Riggs Parker cast the sole dissenting vote.

Commercial fishermen, town residents who missed the deadline — some by as little as two hours — and concerned neighbors turned out in force Tuesday to ask their selectmen for a break.

“When we miss a mortgage payment deadline, the bank does not come to take our house away,” town resident Edward (Spider) Andresen, unable to attend the meeting, wrote in a letter addressed to the board. Former Chilmark selectman and longtime fisherman Jonathan Mayhew read the letter aloud.

The vote came in the midst of years of frustration and complaints over the harbor rules and regulations.

In November 2005, selectmen amended the regulations governing town waterways, originally drafted in 1996. The town manages 200 moorings and 53 slip assignments at Menemsha. The new amendments sought to streamline and better organize the rules governing the harbor and make the system of allotting slips and moorings in town more transparent. The new rules imposed a strict Jan. 15 deadline to return leases and payments for mooring and slip permit renewals.

Following the new amendments, the wait for space on the harbor decreased. Yet each year, a small number of residents came to the selectmen distraught after inadvertently losing their mooring or slip due to a late payment or forgotten registration. Since 2005, selectmen have at times reinstated lost harbor front. At other times, they have stuck to the deadline.

On Nov. 15, 2007, harbor master Dennis Jason sent out 360 renewal forms to slip and mooring holders and those on the wait lists. The letters were stamped with brightly colored stickers marked “Time Sensitive.” They included instructions, deadlines and a copy of the town rules and regulations as well as a registration form.

“Roughly 40 people failed to return the forms by noon on the 15th, harbor department administrative assistant Virginia Jones said.

One was Jill Hobby Napior. Mrs. Napior dropped off her check with the harbor department at 2 p.m on the 15th. A few days later, she received a phone call from them notifying her of her late payment. She was told she was in danger of losing her mooring.

“I really cherish my mooring,” Mrs. Napior told the board Tuesday. “These are things that are hard to come by.”

Mr. Mayhew was also late in his payment. He came to the department at eight on the morning of the 16th and deposited a check, which the town cashed. He later received a similar phone call. “There is something definitely wrong with the process,” Mr. Mayhew said Tuesday.

Mr. Jason disagreed. “I feel the regulations we have in place are working,” he said. “I strongly urge the Jan. 15 deadline be kept in place.” Without a deadline, Mr. Jason argued, the process of assigning moorings and slips will drag on and the wait time will increase. “By putting the safety net under people, our waiting list will probably grow and move less frequently,” he said.

Mr. Parker sided with his harbor master. “These people were sent color-coded renewal notices two months in advance. That’s a lot of notice. You don’t get that for your credit cards,” he said.

Mr. Parker argued that rules are rules and should not be changed.

“It’s not the American way,” he said. “It’s not good government. It destroys the integrity of government. It’s just silly and we shouldn’t be doing this.”

His was a minority position. “The town should give a person a fair opportunity to state their case,” Mr. Fenner said. “There is room in the regulations to take and clarify them.”

In the end, Mr. Fenner and Mr. Doty voted to modify the rules and for this year only grant a one-month extension to the deadline. Following the vote, Mr. Doty said a future meeting of the selectmen will address further changes to the process, including the possibility of allowing the harbor master to accept applications up until February and to charge a $50 handling fee for late submissions.

In other news, selectmen gave the thumbs up to the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group to go ahead with an application for a 25-acre open water aquaculture site in town waters as part of their Blue Mussel Project. The project, begun last year, is an experiment to expand aquaculture on the Island. Rick Karney of the shellfish group updated the board Tuesday on progress. “We have good results so far,” he said.