Edgartown selectmen voiced their approval on Monday for a taxi regulation amendment that allows vehicles for hire to charge using a meter system. Selectmen will hold a public hearing on Oct. 15 to air the change.

The proposed rule change opens the door for taxis to use tablet or mobile device metering apps that charge fees based on a plethora of variables, including time, location and distance. The town would have access to logs detailing taxi fees and usage rates.

The selectmen agreed the amendment made sense after a brief presentation from town IT manager Adam Darack.

“I was charged with being the liaison between the selectmen and the taxi companies regarding a potential solution for companies asking to have taxi meters,” Mr. Darack told the selectmen. “The proposed amendment is my recommendation. I worked with town counsel, tried to keep it simple, trying to help the taxi companies survive with outside competition coming in with ride sharing. If the company wants to be innovative and try to change the way business has been done here historically it’s worth listening to.”

The amendment does not require taxi companies to charge using a meter-based system but rather gives them the option to do so.

“We have no interest in trying to force meters down their throats,” Mr. Darack said.

Selectman Arthur Smadbeck praised Mr. Darack’s work on the proposed amendment.

“I think what you came up with was perfect,” he said. “I think it is going to accommodate public taxi companies, passengers, and it ties it all up in a nice neat package.”

The amendment comes as other towns across the Island have taken steps to allow metered taxis. In June, Tisbury selectmen approved a license to allow Martha’s Vineyard Taxi to use a meter app for fares, while West Tisbury has a vote on the selectmen’s agenda for Oct. 3. Currently, West Tisbury only has one taxi company, and if selectmen vote yes next week it will require that company to charge fees using a meter-based system.

“We may follow suit, we may not, but it’s on for the 3rd,” West Tisbury town administrator Jennifer Rand told the Gazette by phone.

In Edgartown, the Oct. 15 hearing will be held during the regular Monday board meeting, but selectmen made clear their support for the change.

“The end of the road, maybe,” selectman Michael Donaroma said. “We can adopt the amendment right at the hearing.”

In other business, the board finalized the bay scallop season after hearing from shellfish constable Paul Bagnall.

Family scalloping begins Oct. 1, with a weekly limit of one level ten gallon wash basket, including shells. There will also be no dragging for scallops in Cape Pogue until dawn on Nov. 2. All other rules and regulations for recreational harvest will remain in place.

The commercial scallop season will begin a little over a month later on Monday, Nov. 5, with a daily limit of three level ten gallon wash baskets, including shells. Harvesting will be allowed Monday through Friday.

Both scallop seasons will end on Saturday, March 30, 2019.

As far as the oyster season goes, Mr. Bagnall said they would wait and see how the bay scallop goes before setting any dates, but that it looked like there would be a commercial oyster season on Sengekontacket and Edgartown Great Pond.

“We didn’t have a commercial in Sengekontacket last season, so we’ll go there for the oysters and then Edgartown Great Pond and hopefully that will get them through till the end of April,” he said.

Selectman Donaroma queried Mr. Bagnall about the scallop crop this year in Cape Pogue Pond.

“I’ll go out on a limb and say there are a couple thousand of bushels for us to scrape up from that pond,” the longtime constable said. “Back in the good old days it was twenty thousand, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen that.”

Upon Mr. Bagnall’s recommendation, the selectmen appointed Jason Mallory as deputy shellfish constable at 32 hours per week.

Selectmen also voted to extend the lease negotiation deadline on the Yellow House to Oct. 8. The Celeste family’s LLC, Summer and Main, made the only bid to purchase and remodel the Yellow House on Edgartown’s Main street in July.

“We’re getting closer on that,” Mr. Donaroma said.