West Tisbury selectmen voted Wednesday to strongly encourage the board of health to require face coverings in all downtown areas, looking to model themselves after Oak Bluffs, Edgartown and Menemsha as mask requirements reach all corners of the Island.

The vote came prior to a board of health meeting scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m., when final terms and boundaries of the order will be set in place.

On Wednesday, health agent Omar Johnson presented selectmen with a preview of the order in the hope of receiving a proactive endorsement. Mask orders fall under the purview of the board of health.

“I am inclined to agree with mandatory face coverings for all designated areas in the same fashion as other towns,” Mr. Johnson said. “I will propose to my board that we support face coverings in those districts that we deem busy.”

The order will be considered in the two businesses districts, North Tisbury and the area near the public library, as well as the town dump, Mr. Johnson said. Selectmen said the board of health can expand or contract the boundaries of the order at their discretion.

“I have not seen a large amount of people walking around without face masks,” Mr. Johnson said. “I do think it’s important we put this in place . . . I think it is important the whole Island is in one accord with this.”

Mr. Johnson added that he has ordered educational signs, which will be placed in the businesses districts and roadside at town boundaries.

In other business, selectmen voted to sign a letter supporting a request from boards of health throughout the state for increased funding. The letter was written by the Massachusetts Public Health Association and brought up at the meeting by the West Tisbury board of health.

The letter states that local boards of health are not equipped, in both staffing and funding, to handle a global pandemic.

“Now is the time to move rapidly to transform our local public health system to adequately protect public health and safety during the remainder of the COVID-19 crisis,” the letter states in part.

Selectmen voiced support for the letter at the meeting Thursday.

“There have been a lot of financial obligations taking place over the last several months,” said selectman Skipper Manter. “There is going to be a financial hit pretty soon. But I am in favor of this.”

Selectmen also held a nuisance hearing for a dog owned by resident Matt Hayden, with animal control officer Tony Cordray determining that the dog killed one of resident Cynthia Riggs’s chickens.

Ms. Riggs appeared before selectmen last year for a similar incident, when 13 of her ducks, chickens, and guinea hens were killed by an unknown assailant. The dog in question Wednesday was not associated with that incident, selectmen said.

Selectmen ordered Mr. Hayden to build a six-foot high fence enclosure, of no less than 400 feet in area, to prevent the dog from escaping. They also ruled that the dog must be leashed at all times outside of the enclosure.

Mr. Hayden pushed back, saying the rules would require him to euthanize the dog.

“If that is something that will be enforced, I will be euthanizing my dog this weekend,” Mr. Hayden said. “I can’t afford a gate that big. That will solve all the problems.”

Selectmen told Mr. Hayden it is within his right to euthanize his own dog, but urged him to reach out to animal services instead.