Over strong objections from competing taxi companies, the West Tisbury selectmen this week granted a new company a license to operate in town.

Lighthouse Taxi, owned by Antoniya Sabeva, will operate a year-round, 24-hour taxi service from the airport with four vehicles.

At the weekly selectmen’s meeting Wednesday, Ben Baldwin and Gary Davidson of Bluefish Taxi strongly objected to a new taxi company in town and said business is suffering.

“Four taxis in West Tisbury is absurd; I’ve heard nobody say ‘I can’t get a taxi in West Tisbury,’ ” Mr. Davidson said. “To add more to West Tisbury . . . you’ll be putting us at peril. We have way more taxis than we need right now.”

Mr. Baldwin agreed. “As a resident of West Tisbury you do harm to me by licensing an unnecessary company,” he said.

In a letter to the selectmen, Lance Pope, owner of Mario’s Taxi, said he too opposed the new company.

“The owner of the newest West Tisbury taxi company gave up one of his two licenses. Why? Because there were not enough customers to sustain it; I also gave up one of my licenses for the same reason,” Mr. Pope said. “It is my opinion that West Tisbury has enough taxi licenses at the current time.”

There was procedural confusion at the beginning of the meeting. Martha’s Vineyard Taxi company owner Morgan Reitzas applied to transfer his taxi license to Mr. Tucker, but in a letter Mr. Baldwin questioned if the license was current. The selectmen decided to hear Mr. Baldwin’s complaint at a later date.

There is no cap on the number of taxi companies in West Tisbury.

In other business, town administrator Jennifer Rand said she began the process of applying for state funds to build a sidewalk between the Congregational Church and Alley’s General Store, but only recently learned the application requires an engineered plan.

Town voters approved $12,500 at last week’s annual town meeting for the project, but Ms. Rand said the funds will not support the full cost of the plans and construction. She said she had received an estimate between $1,000 and $2,000 for the plans.

The selectmen agreed to use money from their discretionary account to pay for the engineering plans.

“I am unclear and I don’t think the board has discussed this, as to where the sidewalk would go out front,” Ms. Rand said.

“The question of where the layout is needs to be answered,” selectman Richard Knabel said.

Ms. Rand suggested once the plan is complete the selectmen hold a public meeting to allow townspeople an opportunity for comment.

The board also voted Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd as chairman; selectman Cynthia Mitchell will be vice chairman.