Winter is coming and the Aquinnah town hall needs a new furnace.
But first town voters must approve $8,500 to pay for it.
The money for the furnace is one of 10 articles and some $25,000 in spending — all transfers from one fund to another — that will confront Aquinnah voters when they convene for a special town meeting on Tuesday night.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the old town hall and town officials are urging voters to turn out for what they expect will be a quick and painless — but necessary — business session.
A total of 39 voters are required to make a quorum. Moderator Walter E. Delaney will preside over the meeting.
Money to pay outstanding bills, $4,000 to pay for burying the power lines at the Circle, and $4,500 to regrade the parking lot used by public safety vehicles alongside the town hall are among articles on the warrant. The $8,500 to buy and install a new furnace for the town offices would come out of the capital building and grounds stabilization fund.
Voters will also be asked to approve a policy that would direct the selectmen, when selling landlocked land, to give preference to landowners who abut the land and have established legal access to it, as long as the owner agrees not to convey the land to a third party.
In another real estate policy vote, voters will be asked to reduce a minimum bid from $600,000 to $400,000 for the sale of a 3.6-acre piece of town-owned land in the Sandcastle Lane area on the Lobsterville Beach side. At a town meeting in June voters agreed to place the sale of the land in the hands of the town selectmen; the requested change in the minimum bid is due to the fact that the assessment on the land has been revised downward to $595,000.
Voters will also be asked to:
• Transfer $3,000 from the stabilization fund to relocate an overhead Verizon wire at the Aquinnah Circle.
• Transfer $1,495 from the stabilization fund to pay for towing unclaimed skiffs abandoned at Menemsha Pond beaches.
• Transfer $40 from the county dog license fund to pay for library expenses.
• Transfer $3,622 from the stabilization fund to pay seven outstanding bills.
• Create a new position of assistant to the harbor master and shellfish constable.
Yesterday Aquinnah town administrator Jeffrey Burgoyne said replacing the town hall furnace, which is one step shy of failed, is a key item. “For the past two years it’s been running on a whim and a prayer,” he said.
Comments
Comment policy »