Mounting legal bills have prompted the Aquinnah selectmen to tentatively set a special town meeting and special town election for early October to raise more funds for the legal budget.

Town administrator Jeffrey Madison said the town wants to add $125,000 to the 2020 legal budget to provide a cushion for a variety of issues, including ongoing litigation with the Wampanoag tribe over the proposed gambling hall in town. Mr. Madison has proposed two options for raising the funds.

The first would be to call a special town meeting to appropriate the funds, along with a special election seeking a Proposition 2 1/2 override. No dates have been set yet.

As a second option, Mr. Madison has proposed selling a town-owned parcel of land at the top of Pancake Hollow Road to offset the spending needs.

“I think that there is a way to raise $450,000 without too much of a problem with that lot, without a lot of angst to anyone,” he said.

He also said growing legal bills involve more than just litigation over the casino, citing a dispute with the former leaseholder over rights to a beach shack in Menemsha, and longstanding litigation on various fronts with real estate developer James Decoulos.

“I didn’t want to direct this article specifically to the Wampanoags, because it isn’t,” Mr. Madison said. “It is more than that.”

Despite the other legal fights, selectmen clarified that the current issue mainly concerns litigation with the tribe. “This discussion really concerns our position with the casino,” James Newman said.

Voters appropriated $90,000 for the town legal budget at the annual town meeting in April. The town has retained the Boston firm Goodwin to handle most of the casino case. The proposed $125,000 would bring the legal budget to over $200,000 for the 2020 fiscal year.

Mr. Madison said voters will ultimately have the chance to decide whether it is worth the expense.

“I expect there will be a full discussion on why we need the 125,000 bucks,” he said.

In other business, selectmen heard from Church street resident Heidi Vanderhoop about an increase in traffic on the small roadway south of the Aquinnah library. Ms. Vanderhoop said her dog was recently killed by a driver on the road, and she suggested that traffic is on the increase from drivers using Church street as a through-way between State and Old South Roads.

“It’s tragic. Every year there’s more traffic on the road,” Ms. Vanderhoop said.

Selectmen and police chief Randhi Belain mulled a number of potential solutions, including more signs, weight limits and converting the road to a one-way because of its narrowness. Ultimately, the question of whether it was a town-owned road limited the options.

“It’s not really a town road,” Mr. Madison said. “We maintain it, but it’s not really a town road.”

Selectmen also discussed a foul odor emanating from the water off Oxcart Road on the north side of the town. Selectman Gary Haley said he went down to investigate the smell and discovered that it came from a large growth of seaweed. The selectmen hoped fall weather patterns would clear it up.

Selectmen also:

• Voted to join the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative;

• Authorized town counsel Ron Rappaport to clear up the title on a land bank property;

• Joined other towns in writing a letter to the Steamship Authority urging the boat line not to eliminate the 5:30 a.m. ferry to the Island next summer. A group of Woods Hole residents wants the trip eliminated, and has petitioned the boat line for  a public heariing. The hearing will be held  on Monday at 4 p.m. in the Falmouth High School.