Oak Bluffs voters accustomed to cost cutting will get another chance to do so next Tuesday at a special town meeting when they will be asked to decide how to close a $300,000 budget gap. And town leaders hope that this latest round of belttightening will once and for all put the town on course for a sustainable future.

The special town meeting will be held on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs School.

This week interim town administrator Robert Whritenour outlined the work he has been doing since he took the job Sept. 6 (a period he humorously called A.B. for After Bob) — identifying deficits held over from previous years and underfunded line items that have left the selectmen with some $303,861 to cut from this year’s budget.

“The good news is these deficits are not recurring,” Mr. Whritenour said. “Some of the items that we’re cutting are not necessarily permanent cuts. They’re not going to come back next year so that’s going to free up revenue in FY13 to restore some of the temporary reductions we’re doing.”

Those proposed cuts include $45,000 for an unfilled reference librarian position, a move that has drawn loud protest from library trustees and staff; $35,000 for an unfilled cemetery maintenance position; $25,000 in building inspector salaries, after inspector Jerry Weiner retired and the position was changed to part-time; and $48,861 from the town employee training and travel budget, among others

“After article two is passed, if it is passed, the budget will be balanced for fiscal 2012 with no known deficits,” Mr. Whritenour said. “That allows the town to set the tax rate and send out the bills on time, and I honestly feel that Oak Bluffs will be the only Island community with its tax rate completely set for the January billing.”

He also said it would allow the town to move forward on its fiscal year 2013 planning unencumbered by holdover deficits.

“The issue is that we’re trying to achieve sustainability,” he said.

“And we’re trying to clean up a lot,” added board chairman Kathy Burton.

Another article on the warrant addresses one such area of cleanup from years past. The selectmen will ask voters to transfer funds from the community preservation committee or to raise and appropriate money to cover a $75,228.12 shortfall in the Seaview Heritage project, which includes renovation of the town comfort station, Civil War statue and drainage repair in Waban Park. The project budget, originally set at $799,204 has swelled to $874,432.

“I have gone through pages and pages and pages of spreadsheets to try and understand what happened,” said Ms. Burton. “We clearly didn’t have excellent project management. I would think that the town administrator would really be the end point of project management.”

She added:

“I would recommend for future projects that we have a designated project manager for each CPA project and that we have regular reporting of the project’s status and the project accounting to both the CPC and the board of selectmen.”

The town’s belt-tightening could become more visible to voters if another article on the warrant passes. Highway superintendent Richard Combra was directed by the previous board of selectmen to identify streetlights to turn off around town. Mr. Combra found 45 such streetlights to dim, adding up to $6,000 in savings, that he will present to voters for their approval.

“I don’t think it’s going to break the bank one way or the other if people decide they don’t want to turn the lights off,” Mr. Combra said.

Mr. Combra chose no lights in the downtown area, over sidewalks or on busy roads like Barnes and Old County Road.

Another article asks voters to return $342,131.46 in unused Community Preservation Act monies from the Bradley Square affordable housing project to the community preservation general fund. Voters previously approved $400,000 in CPA money for the project, which later failed. The property has since been sold into the private market.

Voters will also be asked whether they’d like to join the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative. The cooperative currently claims 19 municipal members including the towns of Tisbury and Edgartown. Oak Bluffs is currently eyeing three sites, the roof of the library, the roof of the Oak Bluffs school and roof of the wastewater facility, to generate upwards of 100 kilowatts of solar power.