Last weekend several upstanding West Tisbury citizens were met with an unhappy surprise when they went to buy their beach permits for the summer.

“There was a small glitch,” town administrator Jen Rand told selectmen this week, explaining that residents of West Tisbury are unable to purchase town permits if they owe taxes.

“One of the folks selling the beach permits was working off the list of those people who are in arrears for their taxes instead of the town’s resident list, so over the course of the weekend when that individual was on duty pretty much everyone that came for a beach permit was told they couldn’t buy one because they owed taxes,” Ms. Rand said.

“This was the one time I could have gotten a beach permit,” quipped selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd.

“Obviously there were some unhappy people on Monday,” said Ms. Rand, “But I must say with very few exceptions everyone was lovely about understanding that it was a mistake.”

Earlier in the Wednesday meeting, selectmen had approved an event permit for a celebration of retiring Martha’s Vineyard Commission water resource planner Bill Wilcox on July 9 at the Agricultural Hall. Now Mr. Manter had a question.

“Is Bill Wilcox up on his taxes?” he asked.

“He is actually,” replied Ms. Rand.

In other business, selectmen said they planned to attend a conservation commission meeting next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the town hall to discuss the use of dirt bikes in the Greenlands conservation area. Selectman Richard Knabel said he believes the use is not allowed.

“I read the management plan [for the Greenlands] and it’s very explicit about motorized vehicles not being permitted,” he said.

The board also appointed Pat Mitchell and Robert Smith to the town police station building committee.

And it was announced that selectmen will hold meetings on July 13 and 27, rather than their weekly schedule.