West Tisbury selectmen approved the town’s first one-day beer and wine license last Wednesday, granting permission to the Vineyard Nursing Association to serve alcohol at its annual clambake and auction, which will be held August 1 at the Field Gallery. VNA chief executive officer Bob Tonti said he expects approximately 225 people to attend the event.

To give organizers time to set up and dismantle the event, one-day licenses were also issued for the days before and after the clambake. An event permit will be issued pending confirmation of ServSafe training for the catering team.

Selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd abstained from the vote, saying that while he was in complete support of the VNA fundraiser, he was uncomfortable with the idea of serving alcohol on town property.

“I don’t want to vote against it,” he said, “I just want people to understand how I feel about this.”

Selectmen also voted to declare the reading room of the library town surplus property. The room is due to be eliminated as part of the library renovation, but library building committee chairman Leah Smith said: “We’d rather not just wreck it.” Mrs. Smith added that the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School had expressed some interest in taking ownership of the room and that the selectman’s declaration would allow a permitting process to start for moving the room to a new location. The room must be relocated by Nov. 1.

In other business, the board appointed Matthew Gebo of the West Tisbury police department as a personnel board employee representative, the first time in memory that the position has been held by a non-town hall employee, said town clerk Tara Whiting. Selectmen also approved a commercial shellfish license for David Merry.