A moped ban, a $30.3 million budget, a Proposition 2 1/2 override, new rules on parks and beach use and a hefty list of major capital improvement projects are all set to come before Oak Bluffs voters at their annual town meeting this year.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the regional high school Performing Arts Center. There are 29 articles on the warrant. Moderator Jesse (Jack) Law 3rd will preside.

The long-running moped issue that has occupied the town and the Island for decades is coming to a head. After overwhelmingly approving a nonbinding petition to ban mopeds at last year’s meeting, town voters will be asked to approve sending a home rule petition this year to the state legislature that would grant the town the power to adopt a bylaw to prohibit moped rentals.

The home rule petition follows a series of legal battles last year that the town lost because state law protects the rights of moped owners to use public roads. If the petition is approved by the legislature, the town will be granted independent authority to regulate moped rentals, as soon as next year’s town meeting.

Infrastructure and public building improvements are another theme on this year’s warrant, with large appropriations requested for projects that include the harbor master facility, the town elementary school and Sunset Lake.

On the harborfront, voters will be asked to spend $250,000 to renovate and expand the harbor master shack and make a series of dockfront repairs to electrical systems that have deteriorated due to age and the saltwater environment. Some costs would be offset by harbor-related receipts from fuel sales.

The elementary school needs a new roof and HVAC system, also due to age, and voters will be asked to spend $350,000 to develop design and bid specifications for the job. If the article is approved on the town meeting floor, the measure will also require approval in the ballot box Thursday as a debt exemption question.

Another $250,000 is requested for the Oak Bluffs school to upgrade and rehabilitate the school’s recreational fields. Funding would come from the town’s undesignated fund balance and the rest from the CPA open space/recreation reserve fund. The funding is contingent on the Field Fund, a community group advocating for grass fields for Island schools, contributing funding to the project.

A major $600,000 spending item would formally launch an ambitious environmental restoration and park project around Sunset Lake. Last year neighbors formed a group to clean up the scenic area which had become overgrown. The brackish lake near the town harbor also suffers from eutrophication, and there are drainage problems on surrounding streets.

Some money for the project would come from Community Preservation Act funds ($200,000) while the balance ($400,000) would be borrowed.

A lengthy new bylaw would establish detailed regulations for town parks and beaches, including rules for pets and a ban on alcohol. The bylaw is the outgrowth of ongoing discussion about how to regulate increasing use of the town’s numerous and popular public parks and beaches for fundraisers, festivals, concerts and other events.

As in recent years, voters will be asked to contribute money to an array of regional initiatives, including for affordable housing and rental assistance. In a new regional request, the county sheriff’s department is asking the town to contribute $100,000 to help pay for the Islandwide communications center. The sizable 50 per cent share was calculated based on the volume of dispatches, which are higher in Oak Bluffs due to the hospital and high school, town administrator Robert Whritenour said.

But with money tight this year and a $275,000 override already on the ballot just to pay for the town budget and school expenses, town leaders have balked at what they consider extras.

Unlike in the other five towns, a county health and human services spending initiative that would go toward substance abuse prevention education, First Stop, the Healthy Aging task force and the Core program of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services will not appear on the Oak Bluffs warrant this year. Instead, voters will be asked to approve $40,000 to support regional health and human services in general. Selectmen would be responsible for distribution of the funds.

In a note on the warrant the finance committee explains the reasoning. “The town of Oak Bluffs has seen a rapid increase in recent years in the amount and number of private human service agencies requesting funding support,” the note says in part. The town already carries line item expenditures in its budget for Vineyard Health Care Access and the Center for Living, the note says, and the new funding requests this year “simply cannot fit within the town’s budget due to financial constraints.”

In a similar vein, the town wants to level fund its annual contribution to ACE MV, the Islandwide community adult education program. Voters will be asked to approve $10,000 for ACE this year. The finance committee is recommending no contribution, with a note suggesting that ACE leaders make good on a promise from a few years ago to develop their own funding for the program after Island towns contributed seed money to revive it.

Mr. Whritenour said the penny pinching is out of necessity this year.

“Hopefully folks understand we are trying to be as conservative as possible with the budget,” he said. “Every penny in the budget is very important.”

Two override questions appear on the ballot next Thursday. One is to allow the town to exceed the state tax cap by $275,000 to cover the town’s regional high school assessment and general government spending. A second question would exempt the debt for the $350,000 in borrowing for school repairs from the tax cap.

In ballot contests, there is a three-way race for two seats on the board of selectmen, and a race for planning board and cemetery commission.

In the selectmen’s race, six-term incumbent Greg Coogan will seek reelection, while Rich Michelson and Jason Balboni are running as first-time candidates. Incumbent selectman Kathy Burton is stepping down this year.

Josephine (Jojo) Lambert and Abraham Seiman are both running for an open seat on the planning board. On the cemetery commission, incumbent Jesse (Jack) Law is facing a challenge from Catherine Buck.

Polls are open Thursday, April 12 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Oak Bluffs library meeting room.