A bare quorum of Edgartown voters ran through a packed warrant at a special town meeting Tuesday night, approving all 20 articles in under an hour, most with little discussion.

At final count 196 voters turned out to the elementary school cafeteria to approve spending for an eminent domain purchase for more town cemetery space and research for a public-private sewering partnership with the Island Grove subdivision, among other issues. Town moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. presided with typical efficiency.

Voters approved a perpetual town lease for $1 a year of almost an acre of Cow Bay beach, a private stretch of beach next to the town-owned Bend in the Road Beach.

The Cow Bay Corporation has agreed to the deal in exchange for sand dredged from Sengekontacket Pond, to combat erosion.

Voters also agreed to pay $750,000 to complete an eminent domain purchase of land on Robinson Road, which will be used to expand the New Westside Cemetery.

The town approved $1.55 million to acquire the property in 2006 from the Methodist church organization. But Paul Donovan, a New York resident who had signed a purchase and sale agreement, sued the town claiming the property was undervalued.

This further payment represents a settlement in the case. But not all voters were happy with the arrangement.

“I’ve heard a lot lately about bailouts and golden parachutes,” said James Cisek. “Can we give it back to him?”

Town counsel Ronald Rappaport backed the settlement as the work of Richard Renehan who has represented Edgartown in the case.

“He’s a premier counsel and he recommended this,” Mr. Rappaport said.

The meeting also saw passage of two articles concerning the formation of an Edgartown affordable housing trust, which will streamline purchasing for affordable homes.

A bylaw for the trust describes a governing board which will be made up of a revolving group of four affordable housing committee members, one selectman and two members at large.

James Joyce, a voter who spoke on several occasions from the back of the cafeteria during the course of the evening, asked if the positions would be paid.

“Are they voluntary?” reiterated Mr. Norton posing the question to affordable housing committee member Alan Gowell.

Mr. Gowell answered that they are.

“You want the job Jim? Not any more? Okay,” said Mr. Norton.

Affordable housing committee chairman Janet Hathaway said forming the trust was a necessary step for receiving a $1.8 million donation from the Edgartown Field Club. Developers of the upscale club in Katama agreed to the donation this fall, in lieu of building affordable housing lots as a part of their own project, as initially agreed.

One mildly controversial article on the night concerned spending $70,000 on design, permitting and bidding to connect the Island Grove subdivision to the town sewer system. The subdivision lies in the watershed for the Edgartown Great Pond. Wastewater plant superintendent Joe Alosso fielded questions from a dozen voters who had concerns about precedent with the town financing of private projects. Others expressed reservations about paying for the project, bound to run into the millions, during a recession. Mr. Alosso said that the project offers the townwide benefit of lowering nitrate levels in the Edgartown Great Pond, and that it would as a single measure satisfy the recommendations of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project. The article ultimately passed with few dissenting votes.

Voters approved $145,000 to finance repairs to the historic town hall ceiling and building facade; the money will come from $80,000 in community preservation funds and another $66,000 in a ceiling insurance account.

The community preservation funds cover the estimated cost of repairs already completed on the front of the building after painters discovered last month the wooden facade was wet and rotting.

A decision on a bid for the ceiling work is expected to be reached at a selectmen’s meeting today.

In June large chunks of the 100 year-old horsehair plaster ceiling fell down, leading to the evacuation of most of the top and second floors of the building. Many departments are now squeezed into temporary office space, with selectmen’s meetings held alongside the desks of busy town personnel.

In other business, $160,000 from a windfall lawsuit for Edgartown will go toward the North Water street beautification project.

“This is out of the sky money,” said selectman Arthur Smadbeck, introducing the article. “I’ve been told by town counsel that it’s never happened before.”

In 2005, a trace amount of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a toxic gasoline additive, at the federally allowed limit but posing no health risk, was found on a single occasion in a town well, allowing the town to join a nationwide class action lawsuit.

Last month the town received a $295,000 payment, the result of a successful court action against a single manufacturer. Mr. Rappaport has said further, smaller amounts are likely to follow.

The water commission supported the selectmen’s proposal on the understanding the funds would be reimbursed within five years.

The privately-funded North Water street project, spearheaded by longtime resident of the street S. Bailey Norton, is in its fifth year and carries a working price tag of $3.2 million. Mr. Norton spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, praising those who have contributed to the project. He said $2.6 million has been raised to date and that the committee hoped to complete the project by the end of spring.

The article carried, followed by five more speedy, unanimous votes. Other approved measures included permitting the town to accept gifts or funds for alternative energy projects.

A further $50,000 in insurance money was transferred to the library account for continuing repairs to the North Water street public library, following a furnace puffback incident which left much of the building covered in an oily vapor last December.

Use of $5,000 from free cash and $10,000 from the selectmen’s clerical account was approved to cover staff absences due to illness at town hall.

And the moderator declared the meeting over just before 8 p.m.