West Tisbury voters will face the town’s first override in 10 years, a budget that the finance committee has voted not to recommend, several capital projects, and funding for a Mill Brook watershed study at their annual town meeting Tuesday.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the West Tisbury School. Dan Waters, poet laureate from 2006 to 2008, will preside in his first appearance as town moderator. There are 48 articles on the warrant.

Voters will be asked whether to approve the $16.9 million budget for the fiscal year, contingent on a further vote at the annual town election April 16 that would allow the town to exceed its tax levy limit by $300,000. All five members of the finance committee voted not to recommend the annual budget.

Also on the election ballot are two proposed debt exclusions that would allow the town to exceed the levy limit for the purpose of funding repairs to the West Tisbury School and contributing to a new building for the Center for Living, which serves Island seniors.

While an override would permanently increase the town’s levy limit, the debt exclusions would mean a temporary tax increase for the life of the debt. It’s possible to later pass an underride to bring the levy limit down, but town accountant Bruce Stone has never seen that happen on the Vineyard. “There have been a couple in the state but not very many,” he said.

The finance committee voted 3-2 not to recommend the proposed $1.6 million in borrowing for the Center for Living building, which would require the approval of all six Island towns. It also is recommending against approving the debt of up to $3.9 million for a new high school administration building.

An article asking for $80,000 to help renovate the West Tisbury School playground is expected to be withdrawn on the town meeting floor. The finance committee had voted against that appropriation, which also would have required a debt exclusion.

Finance committee chairman Katherine Triantafillou pointed to a number of concerns, including the override, rising school spending, and the overall number of capital improvement proposals, as reasons not to recommend the budget. “I think in general people were kind of surprised that all the numbers added up to a [Prop] two and a half override,” she said.

She said some of the regional items, including those related to the school district, Tri-Town Ambulance and the Center for Living, had arrived late in the process, leaving the committee with few options other than to reject the entire budget.

Despite the finance committee vote, selectman Cynthia Mitchell believed the budget would pass. She said the committee’s objection hinged mostly on a $100,000 discrepancy in spending for the school district. “When they say they have not approved the budget, it is kind of a technicality,” Mrs. Mitchell told the Gazette by telephone this week. “They are recommending that most of it be approved.”

The finance committee did recommend 42 of the 48 warrant articles, in most cases unanimously. Many of those are routine housekeeping items, but some involve major expenses, including $357,000 for a new fire truck and $100,000 to help fund the construction of six affordable apartments in Tisbury.

Voters will be asked whether to approve a bond of up to $2.5 million, as requested by the Martha’s Vineyard Refuse District, for a restructured transfer station in Edgartown. West Tisbury’s contribution would be 15.5 per cent. The request would require the approval of all four member towns, including Aquinnah and Edgartown. Chilmark approved the article in October.

An appropriation of $11,993 would help fund an Islandwide information and referral service for Island seniors, which would be overseen by the Healthy Aging Task Force. Funding for another referral service, My Senior Center, has been included in the Up-Island Council on Aging budget. That service would involve a computer station being installed in each of the Island senior centers, at a cost of about $5,000. Oak Bluffs and Edgartown have opted to put that request on their town meeting warrants. An Islandwide discount would depend on all six towns adopting the program.

Voters will also decide whether to designate historic town roads as special ways: Pine Hill Road, Red Coat Hill Road and Motts Hill Road, Shubael Weeks Road and Old Coach Road. A two-thirds vote is required.

The finance committee has voted not to recommend funding the final phase of a watershed study that would determine, among other things, whether to dredge Mill Pond. Mill Pond was dammed many years ago, when there was a grist mill at the site, and has been slowly filling in. It is home to a variety of wildlife, and is stocked each year with freshwater trout. It is among five other ponds in the 3,700-acre watershed.

“The town meeting has several times turned down moving forward on a dredging project before the results of a baseline study of the watershed is complete,” said Mrs. Mitchell, who co-chairs the Mill Brook watershed management planning committee. The pond was last dredged in the 1970s, she said, under much different environmental and regulatory conditions.

The town has contracted with the ESS Group, with offices in Waltham, and expects a baseline study to be completed by March 2016. The study will require further funding for a survey of macroinvertebrates. Mrs. Mitchell said the $25,000 request will be amended down to $6,600 on the town meeting floor.

Ms. Triantafillou said the committee’s vote wasn’t about the necessity of the project. “I think if people voted against it, it was that we are over budget, we don’t have the money to do this and it has to be put off,” she said.

“It’s not like there is huge controversy,” she said of the articles in general. “It’s about the money.”

The committee has warned many times in the past of rising costs, especially those associated with the school district. “We have been saying many of these same things year after year, and nobody has paid attention, quite frankly,” Ms. Triantafillou said. But she added that people were showing more interest this year: “What’s new is the vote not to recommend the entire budget.”

One way or another, said Mr. Stone, a budget will need to be passed by June. Voters may end up approving the budget as it stands, or they may offer amendments on the town meeting floor. If the current budget passes but the override question fails, then further action would be required, Mr. Stone said, most likely in the form of a special town meeting.

Also on the warrant for Tuesday are several town improvement requests, including:

• $24,500 for a removable walkway over a dune leading to Lambert’s Cove Beach.

• $14,000 to replace or repair the windows of the Up-Island Council on Aging building.

• A total of $50,500 for town hall improvements, including upgraded bathrooms and acoustic paneling.

• $50,000 for planning and design for a new or renovated highway department building.

• $8,105 for a veterans’ monument near the town hall.

The annual town election will be held Thursday, April 16. In the only contested race this year, selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd will be challenged by write-in candidate Benoit Baldwin. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town public safety building.