A lean budget, new library and a series of zoning bylaw changes top a hefty 68-article warrant that awaits Edgartown voters at the annual town meeting Tuesday night.

Longtime moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. will preside over the session; the meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Old Whaling Church.

Voters will be asked to approve a $27.5 million budget, up 3.4 per cent over last year, largely due to increased education assessments, a large police and fire department budget and funding for a town dredging project in Sengekontacket Pond.

The budget includes an increase of $457,000 in expenses from the Edgartown School, upping the school budget to $1.5 million; the town assessment for the regional high school also increased by $100,000. If voters approve, the dredging project will cost $236,000, and police and fire department budgets combined will increase slightly from $3.73 million to $3.74 million.

In addition to the budget, voters will act on a series of articles, most notably the Edgartown Library expansion project. This will be the first time voters will have the opportunity to weigh in formally on the plan to move the library from its current North Water street location to a potential new building at the old Edgartown School on Edgartown-West Tisbury Road.

The library building design committee will ask voters to approve the new design and authorize the selectmen to accept grant monies from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners in advance of the board’s early summer decision.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $10.7 million, $6.38 million of which will be funded by the grant. If Edgartown is awarded the grant, voters will be asked to pay the remaining portion, estimated at $4.3 million. The library project cannot move forward without the grant.

The vote will be a turning point for the project that has proceeded in fits and starts since 2005. A plan that would have expanded the historic Carnegie building, keeping it in its original location but accompanied by a price tag of $15 million, was scrapped last year. When it was determined the current library site was too small to contain the required program size for an increasing summer population, the new building committee voted to abandon the old site and start anew.

Affairs of state to be decided in church. — Sam Low

If approved, the old Edgartown School will be demolished and a brand new building similar in character and style to the current Carnegie library will take its place. Building committee members have held public forums for the past several months, receiving community feedback in an effort to gain support. If the town is awarded the grant, another town meeting will be held to ask voters to approve the remainder.

Town administrator Pamela Dolby said this week she never knows which articles will prompt the most discussion, but in addition to the new library, a series of bylaw changes may have the most impact on the warrant.

Voters will act on two noise bylaws. The first modifies existing language in a town bylaw that extends music to include all noise audible from 50 feet from a vehicle or premises from which it originates. The second is a new construction bylaw which restricts construction noise between the hours of 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and prohibits noise on Sundays and holidays.

The planning board is also requesting an amendment to the town wind bylaw by giving it its own new section in the zoning bylaws. If voters agree, residents wishing to put up wind turbines will now have to set them back at least three times the maximum height of the machine from the grade. The amendment also redefines abandonment of a wind turbine from two years to six months.

Voters will be asked to approve a personal wireless service facility bylaw, which requires carriers to go through a special permitting process to build a wireless tower over 32 feet. Wireless services trump most town bylaws, but this amendment updates the existing bylaw (originally adopted in 2000), by giving the planning board an opportunity to work with carriers.

Large public safety spending articles include spending $58,000 for two new police cruisers, $60,000 for shingling and new trim for the Edgartown fire station, and the highway superintendent is requesting $98,000 for a new backhoe. A corresponding override question appears on the town ballot for this spending item.

Other large articles include $25,000 to pay partially for restoring the mural in the rear interior of the Old Whaling Church, and a request to have the town contribute $25,000 to the Fourth of July fireworks display.

And as in other Island towns, an article by petition asks voters to adopt a resolution to end taxpayer spending on the U.S. military efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This story has been changed since its original publication to correct two errors.