Mopeds top the warrant for Tuesday’s special town meeting in Oak Bluffs, where voters will again weigh in on a home-rule petition asking state legislators to ban moped and motor scooter rentals in the town.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Oak Bluffs School. Moderator Jesse (Jack Law) 3rd will preside. There are 22 articles on the warrant.
A similar moped home rule petition in 2018 won town voter approval, but went nowhere in Boston after a state transportation committee hearing the following year saw no Islanders supporting the ban showed up to testify. Only Oak Bluffs moped rental company owners appeared in person to make their case against written testimony from the town.
A separate home rule petition on Tuesday’s warrant asks voters to back a request for state legislators to allow a complicated property swap with the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. Under the plan, the town would acquire a 24-acre parcel now owned by the land bank near the ice arena that has long been eyed for affordable housing. In exchange, the town would give the land bank a similar-sized parcel the town now owns near The Preserve off County Road.
In a related article, voters will be asked to approve a town plan to develop the eight-acre Southern Tier property for affordable housing, and to transfer a five-acre parcel to the affordable housing committee for development as housing for veterans.
Two articles placed on the warrant by citizen petitions are taking aim at the select board’s plans for the downtown streetscape project, approved at the 2020 annual town meeting.
One requests a town ballot question at next spring’s election on the board’s decision to change Circuit avenue parking from diagonal to parallel.
A second asks that the provisions of Proposition 2 1/2, which limits property tax increases, be applied to any borrowing for the streetscape project.
A pair of articles sponsored by the select board would shift the laws governing the authority and powers of the police and fire chiefs, moving from the current so-called strong chief statute to a weak chief statute that aligns them with other town department heads in the control of budgeting, staffing and other administrative matters.
If approved, the changes would not take effect until after the current chiefs’ tenures.
Harbor master Todd Alexander is requesting $35,000 from the waterways account — where local boat excise taxes are deposited — for harbor, pier, piling and float maintenance. An appropriation of $120,000 would go toward permitting, engineering, design and bid document work on the harbor jetties repair and reconstruction project, part of the town capital improvement project.
The article requires a two thirds majority to authorize borrowing for the project, which also will draw funds from the marina fuel account.
Voters will also be asked to add June 19 as the declared holiday of Juneteenth, and to approve a new compensation schedule for town employees who do not have full-time, year-round jobs, including library pages and aides, harbor attendants, parking and traffic officers, and other seasonal positions.
A nonbinding pledge to adopt Islandwide sustainability goals asks Oak Bluffs to reduce fossil fuel use by half over the next decade and increase renewable electricity use to 100 per cent by 2040, while working to capture carbon through preserving wetlands and woodlands and encouraging regenerative land practices. The measure has already been approved by voters in the other five towns,
Much of the warrant concerns transfers and housekeeping.
The wastewater commission is requesting a transfer of $100,000 from the wastewater retained earnings (surplus) account, to pay for unforeseen breakdowns and cemetery commissioners are seeking $35,000 from the sale of cemetery lots to make water line improvements in Oak Grove Cemetery.
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