Edgartown selectmen are considering what to do with 28 buildable lots now owned by the town, identified after an exhaustive inventory of tax possession properties. Most of the lots were taken because the owners failed to pay property taxes on the land.

Five of the lots could conceivably be sold at public auction, with the proceeds going to the town general fund, or earmarked for uses such as affordable housing or conservation land.

A number of town boards or departments, including the conservation commission, the affordable housing committee, the wastewater department and the water department are also interested in using some of the lots.

“Those that can be put out to auction, I think we should do that,” said selectman Margaret Serpa at the board’s regular meeting Monday. “Put them out there and see what happens.”

Selectmen Art Smadbeck and Michael Donaroma favored a closer examination of the lots involved, before making any decisions. Some of the department requests could be politically sensitive, including a wastewater department request to consider a town-owned lot on Sixth street as a possible site for a future wastewater treatment plant.

In the end the board took no action.

“The selectmen are going to study the list of properties and have full discussion with the interested departments,” said Mr. Smadbeck by phone Tuesday.

In other town business, animal control officer Barbara Prada submitted her quarterly report to selectmen. Among the more unusual calls during the summer months was the discovery of a coyote carcass on South Beach. Ms. Prada said the carcass was clearly a coyote, but she said the most likely way it landed on Martha’s Vineyard was drifting by sea from the mainland or the Elizabeth Islands.

“It was pretty decomposed,” Ms. Prada said. “It washed up, it was right after we had a storm.”

Ms. Prada also provided, as she often does, a lighter moment, when describing the rescue of seven mallard ducklings from a local homeowner’s swimming pool.

“The people came over, there was a skimmer net, and I had my crab net,” Ms. Prada said. As soon as she scooped a few ducklings out, they would jump back in, much to the alarm of the squawking mother duck. “It was like baby duckling ping-pong.”

Eventually, she said all seven ducklings were saved, and last seen walking single file down the road next to the home.