All work and no play is the prevailing theme in West Tisbury when voters gather for their annual town meeting next week to tackle a tidy lineup of business-like spending requests. There are no obvious hot-button issues this year in the town that lies in the rural agricultural heart of the Vineyard, although history has shown that on the town meeting floor anything can happen.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the school gymnasium. Moderator Dan Waters will preside. There are 39 articles on the warrant.
Voters will take up an $18.2 million annual town budget, an increase of four per cent over last year, and a variety of spending requests in individual warrant articles.
Four charts prepared by town accountant Bruce Stone and posted on the town website illustrate the town financial story on spending and taxation. In fiscal year 2018 the town will spend $2.1 million on general government, $10.2 million on education, $2.9 million on public safety and $1 million on debt service. Warrant article requests this year total $286,925. A fourth chart in the series tracks cumulative changes in tax levies in every Island town against the state as a whole from 2006 to 2017. West Tisbury is at the low end of the trend, while the trend in Aquinnah spikes sharply upward for the past five years.
One article early in the warrant involves an overdue plan for maintenance on town buildings that comes out of a recent study by the capital programs committee. “The town has a number of new buildings now and the annual maintenance needs have become complex and technical,” selectman Cynthia Mitchell told the Gazette by phone this week. A consultant was hired last year to examine town buildings and recommend a plan going forward. As a result, voters will be asked to approve a series of transfers from unused balances that add up to $100,000. Mrs. Mitchell said the plan calls for putting aside $100,000 a year for the next five years in order to put the town back on track with building repairs and upgrades. This year the town aims to use the money to replace a roof and skylights at the Field Gallery and remediate a moisture problem in the so-called bump-out section of the new town library.
The fire department’s pumper truck is on its last leg and voters will be asked to spend $460,000 for a new one.The police department is asking for $27,500 to buy and equip and all-wheel-drive cruiser. Ongoing repairs to town roads will cost $82,420 this year, if voters approve.
A series of Community Preservation Act spending articles include $10,000 to refurbish the town basketball court and soccer fields at the elementary school, $80,000 for the regional rental assistance program and $50,000 for an Islandwide shared program to replace the roof of the old marine hospital in Vineyard Haven with wood shingles. The building is owned by the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.
With affordable housing an ongoing town priority, voters will be asked to contribute $500,000 to the Scott’s Grove apartment complex planned for a piece of land near the old fire station. The money would be borrowed, with the debt repaid using Community Preservation Act funds ($57,000 a year for the next 10 years). The Island Housing Trust is the developer for the project.
A previously-approved $2.5 million expansion plan for the regional refuse district’s central transfer station is back on the docket for a fresh vote. West Tisbury said yes to the spending measure last year but Edgartown voters balked, requesting more details and sending the plan back to the drawing board. The plan needs approval from voters in Edgartown, Chilmark, Aquinnah and West Tisbury in order to pass.
On the annual town election ballot Thursday, West Tisbury voters will add their collective voice to two Islandwide nonbinding referendum questions, one to eliminate moped rentals from Martha’s Vineyard, and a resolution to establish a regional housing bank.
Other regional initiatives on the warrant include a share of funding for the One Stop online referral service for the elderly.
A new bylaw would outlaw Jake braking — also known as exhaust braking — by diesel trucks on town streets. If the bylaw is adopted, violators will be subject to fine of $100 for a first offense and $300 for subsequent offenses.
Voters will be asked to use $575,000 in available free cash to reduce the tax levy for the coming fiscal year.
In a final article, voters will be asked to consider providing child care for town meetings.
The article was submitted by petition. Mrs. Mitchell said it is unclear how much demand there is for child care services at town meetings.
“But we will hear it out,” she said.
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