The West Tisbury Farmers’ Market is poised for a return to the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society grounds for a second socially-distanced season, provided the town zoning board of appeals grants the market another special permit this year. Town administrator Jennifer Rand said she and West Tisbury health agent Omar Johnson had studied the possibility of the farmers’ market resuming operations at its traditional Grange Hall home, but were unable to make it work.
“We simply couldn’t come up with a way,” Ms. Rand told selectmen at their regular online meeting Wednesday.
The zoning board of appeals will hold a public hearing on the market’s special permit request on March 25 at 5:15 p.m. on Zoom. The agricultural society also asked the town to allow two other special activities that took place in 2020 due to the pandemic: a distribution of Easter food baskets by the Serving Hands food equity group on April 2, and graduation exercises for the regional high school.
“They really didn’t have another option,” Ms. Rand said of the school, which held its pre-pandemic graduations at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.
Town staff are in favor of the events, Ms. Rand told selectmen, who voted unanimously in approval of the agricultural society’s event schedule.
In other business Wednesday, the board learned that there are seven candidates to replace retiring fire chief Manny Estrella, with the application period now closed. The contenders now face initial review by a screening committee that includes Edgartown fire chief Alex Schaeffer and other first responders as well as Dukes County commissioner Leon Brathwaite and Ms. Rand.
Selectmen also voted 3-0 to hold a special town meeting May 18, with the sole business of deciding whether to change the name of the town’s governing body from board of selectmen to select board.
“I feel like it’s an important question to answer,” board chair Cynthia Mitchell said.
The special meeting is scheduled for 4:50 p.m., just before the annual town meeting begins at 5 p.m.
Among the articles on the annual warrant, voters will be asked to appropriate $5,000 in town funds to match a $5,000 grant from the Edey Foundation, awarded so that West Tisbury can pay for a climate coordinator in 2021. Climate committee chairman Kate Warner told selectmen Wednesday that the coordinator would take on some of the many responsibilities she and others have long performed as volunteers, such as seeking grant funding for projects that save the town energy and reduce greenhouse gases.
The board agreed to begin advertising for the consulting position on a contract basis with the understanding that only $5,000 is currently available, to be paid monthly, with the expectation of regular reports on the work being performed.
Ms. Warner said she intends to apply for the position.
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