Chilmark voters sped through a 15-article warrant at Monday’s special town meeting, unanimously approving 11 articles and indefinitely postponing four.
The meeting was attended by 47 voters (25 are needed for a quorum), lasted just over 20 minutes and was moderated by Everett Poole.
The town line between Aquinnah and Menemsha remains unchanged after two articles were put off for another day. A proposal to shift a portion of the boundary between Menemsha Pond and Menemsha Bight by 200 feet is still under discussion between the neighboring towns to develop a more structured agreement, selectman Warren Doty said.
“We had a meeting with the Aquinnah board of selectmen just one week ago and we’d like to work more on this boundary change so that we have a unanimous feeling in both towns for a line change that makes sense and is a little more organized . . . [so it] doesn’t go through the buildings that are there,” Mr. Doty said.
A new hardwood floor at the Chilmark Community Center will also wait for another day.
“Over the past month we have looked at this floor that we’re sitting on a great deal,” Mr. Doty said. He said the floor had been analyzed by the selectmen, two architects, two insulation professionals and town engineer Kent Healy. “I think after doing that we’ve decided that we are not ready to move ahead with an expensive project on the floor this month,” he said.
Mr. Doty said the town plans to place a vapor barrier and moisture meters beneath the floor to better assess the situation before embarking on an installation process.
One part of Chilmark will receive new installations, however, as voters approved $33,000 for new pilings in Menemsha Harbor. The amount was amended down from $55,000 after voters learned that the waterways fund had less funding than originally thought when the warrant was prepared.
Mr. Doty said that while Chilmark’s overall financial situation was robust, with more than $558,000 in free cash, the waterways fund, which is financed by mooring fees, had $46,000 instead of the $68,000 initially thought. The harbor piling project will use $13,254 from the Waterways Fund, and the rest will come from surpluses left over from previous town meeting articles.
Harbor master Dennis Jason said he had initially planned to install 26 pilings but would be able to install about 15 with the funding.
Voters agreed to spend another $24,000 from the waterways fund to construct a new harbor master shack. The current shack was built more than 34 years ago.
Voters also approved:
• $3,000 from the waterways fund to install chain anchors on the floating docks in Menemsha Harbor;
• A transfer of $30,000 from a previous annual town meeting article to put toward a Tri-Town Ambulance replacement car;
• $100, 000 in treasury appropriations for OPEB requirements;
• $55,000 to fund state-mandated reevaluation of town real estate;
• $34,000 to repair the town hall HVAC system, pay for tree work and brush cutting on town roads, purchase new file cabinets for town hall and fix more than 55 damaged roadside posts in town.
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