West Tisbury convenes its annual town meeting Tuesday with a stripped-down warrant that includes requests for funding to restore bus service, repairs to the local dump and a series of articles related to affordable housing.

Voters will be asked to approve a $19.8 million budget for the next fiscal year, a 2.8 per cent increase in spending over the previous year. Town officials have worked across the board to trim projected spending by about $255,000 from the budget proposed in early March.

The meeting begins at 4 p.m. at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.

Originally scheduled for April 14, town meeting was postponed three times because of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, selectmen significantly pared down the warrant from 61 articles to 29, many of them requests for shared funding for Islandwide services.

Map shows where to park and enter for town meeting at the Tabernacle.

“Everything is straightforward. Anything that could require a lot of conversation or explanation, we took off,” town administrator Jen Rand said of the reduced warrant. “We only went forward with things that needed to be funded right now.”

The annual town election follows on Thursday, with only one contested race on the ballot: incumbent selectman Kent Healy, seeking a second term, is facing Michael Bellissimo for a seat on the three-member board.

Selectmen voted Wednesday to reduce the quorum requirement for the annual town meeting from 130 voters to 30.

Ms. Rand outlined the safety protocols for town meeting in a letter, posted on the town website:

Voters can contact town hall to arrange for transportation. Masks will be required in order to enter the Tabernacle, and voters will be asked to leave the park immediately upon completion of the meeting.

Seating will be six feet apart, with an exception for family members who live in the same household. Voters will also be asked to stand six feet apart while checking in at one of three entrances to the Tabernacle. All voters must enter via Siloam avenue, off Dukes County avenue. No entry will be allowed from Circuit avenue, Lake avenue or Dukes County avenue, and voters are asked to keep a distance from cottage porches in the Camp Ground.

Town acccountant Bruce Stone said over the last couple of months town officials have looked for ways to trim the town budget.

“The biggest change was the personnel board withdrew their recommendation for a wage scale adjustment,” Mr. Stone said, adding that savings totaled about $80,000. “Other than that, it was a lot of small stuff, here and there, added up.”

The proposed town budget includes $11.2 million for education spending, a 5.6 per cent increase over last year. The up-Island school district accounts for $8.47 million and the regional high school district for $2.77 million of that amount.

Apart from the budget, the largest single spending request is for $92,496 to pay for the town’s share of restoring full service to the Vineyard Transit Authority. Each town is considering a similar article, with an assessed amount changing based on ridership within the town. If voters in other towns do not approve the article while West Tisbury voters do, Ms. Rand said service will be restored in routes specific to the town.

Voters will also be asked to approve $80,000 for safety improvements at the local transfer station. Ms. Rand said the bulk of funding will go toward repairing the retaining wall, which currently poses a safety risk to residents. The funds will be appropriated from free cash.

A series of funding requests relate to affordable housing and homelessness prevention using Community Preservation Act funds. They include $100,000 for Island Housing Trust’s acquisition and development of seven new affordable apartments in the Perlman House, $80,000 to Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard to fund the acquisition of future housing for homeless residents, $60,000 for the town’s share of funding the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, $56,925 to pay down principal and interest on borrowing for Scott’s Grove affordable Housing development and $145,000 to be transferred to the West Tisbury Affordable Housing Trust for use toward future affordable housing opportunities.

Voters will also be asked to approve the town’s share of funding for a series of programs administered through the county. Included are: $4,272 to support the substance use disorder and homelessness prevention programs; $84,502 to support the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living programs; $11,392 to support CORE programs; $4,457 for the First Stop Information and Referral Service; $15,927 to support healthy aging; and $27,775 to pay off a building to provide health and human services for county residents.

The county is also asking West Tisbury voters to contribute $7,308 to cover its budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.

The warrant also includes two school requests: $14,009 to cover the town’s share of replacing the dust collection system in the regional high school and $55,543 to cover the town’s share of a roofing design project at the West Tisbury School.