As Edgartown and West Tisbury prepare to appeal the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s approval of the roundabout in superior court, the West Tisbury selectmen closely questioned the commission chairman this week about the project, including why it was not referred for review earlier in the process.

MVC chairman Chris Murphy appeared before the selectmen at their weekly meeting on Wednesday.

“How can the commissioners not have recognized this [as a development of regional impact] earlier? They seem to have recognized it too late in the game,” said selectman Cynthia Mitchell. “It seems to be a flaw in the process.”

Mr. Murphy partly agreed with the assessment.

“Oak Bluffs should have referred it a long time ago,” he said. “It should have started at the commission rather than ending there.”

Planned as a traffic improvement for the intersection of Edgartown-Vineyard Haven and Barnes Roads, the roundabout was approved bvy the commission in a close vote six weeks ago.

Selectmen in Edgartown and West Tisbury have voted to appeal the decision.

“In the roundabout case, it dragged on for so long everyone thought someone else was going to refer it or had,” said Brian Smith, who represents West Tisbury on the commission and also attended the meeting Wednesday. “We’ve all learned from this going forward . . . if we think it has regional impact, we should jump on it,” Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Murphy agreed the roundabout proceedings are a lesson for the future.

“Nobody wanted the commission to go out turning over stones looking for things to get upset about and they still don’t,” he said. “One of the checks in this whole thing is it has to be nominated by somebody . . . this has shown all the towns they need to think about sending stuff to the commission early rather than waiting for it to explode. The cross-town referral has always existed.”

Mr. Knabel suggested better communication between MVC staff and elected commissioners.

“At least your chief administrator is accountable to commissioners, then why wouldn’t commissioners say to the executive director, why wouldn’t this come to us?” he said. “Why are we in this limbo? In this particular situation, why was it allowed to go on for that long?”

Mr. Murphy replied: “I see your point, it’s something I’ve been struggling with for a long time and it isn’t easy to answer. Let me work on it.”

On the matter of the legal appeal, selectman and board chairman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter recommended that West Tisbury and Edgartown selectmen hold a joint meeting with special counsel Richard Renehan, a partner at Goulston & Storrs in Boston who will represent them.

Town administrator Jennifer Rand said she would schedule the meeting.

Ms. Rand said she also received a letter from Sen. John Kerry’s office about the end of monthly visits to the Island from a Social Security representative. The letter said that $12 million had been spent on a computer program to handle paperwork remotely, and that the monthly visits from a representative are unlikely to be restored.

“Nothing is going to change, this is not a solvable issue,” Ms. Rand said.

Mr. Manter made a motion to write a letter to President Obama on the matter.