Remember the pleasures of browsing the shelves at Bickerton and Ripley Books on a late summer day, maybe ducking around the corner afterwards for an ice cream? Many Islanders still do. But the Yellow House on Main street Edgartown has been a rundown eyesore for so many years, it’s almost hard to recall anymore what it was like when the place was a living, breathing building that housed a bookstore, jewelry shop and other retail enterprises.

It’s time for the town to intervene and take the Yellow House, either by purchase or by eminent domain, and get on with the business of reclaiming the heart of Main street. Voters will have the chance to do just that at the annual town meeting Tuesday night and they should not hesitate to seize the moment.

The eleventh-hour plea from Benjamin Hall Jr., chief spokesman for the Hall family, that is running as a paid advertisement in today’s Gazette and online as a letter to the editor frankly has a hollow tone and comes across as too much, too late. After decades of inaction, shoddy stewardship and failed promises, it’s more than a bit of a stretch to believe the Halls are suddenly serious about making repairs to the building and finding a tenant. It begs the question, why now?

A few short miles down the road at the foot of Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs lies the Island Theatre, another historic building owned by the Halls that has been left vacant and untended for so long that it is now a danger to the public. Voters in that town will be asked on Tuesday night to spend $200,000 for emergency repairs to make the building safe. Demolition for the old theatre seems like the inevitable route, but that will be up to the town to decide.

Meanwhile, in Edgartown the selectmen have taken careful, deliberate steps to prepare for a possible eminent domain taking. An appraisal of the building has been commissioned. A committee was appointed to negotiate with the Halls. Public meetings were held.

If voters agree to buy or take the building, the next step will be for the selectmen to negotiate a possible purchase with the Halls and failing that, move forward with a purchase by eminent domain. Separately, they also will need to craft a request for proposals to find a commercial tenant who will become a new steward for the property. That process will demand a whole new series of deliberate steps — and importantly, transparency.

Before that new chapter can begin, the latest chapter in the history of the Yellow House must be closed for good. It has been the saddest chapter, but happily it need not be the last.