The African American Heritage Trail site at Memorial Wharf will add a small sculpture to go with the current plaque honoring Nancy Michael once the wharf reconstruction project is complete, the Edgartown select board agreed on Monday.

In November the select board authorized an expansion of the plaque dedicated to Ms. Michael, an enslaved woman who lived on the Island during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Ms. Michael professed to have the power to will good fortune upon sailors during their whaling trips, and many sought her blessing before they went out to sea, according to the African American Heritage Trail’s website.

Elaine Weintraub, founder of the heritage trail, attended the Zoom meeting on Monday. She said the sculpture of Ms. Michael will be 32 inches wide and 42 inches high and placed on the rock which holds the plaque.

“The plaque that’s been down at Memorial Wharf for many, many years...we’re going to clean it, and what we’re planning to do with your permission is to place a sculpting [on] the rock,” Ms. Weintraub said.

Town administrator James Hagerty suggested the sculpture be put in place after the ongoing project to raise the Wharf is finished, which he said will be by Memorial Day.

In other business Monday, the select board approved a lodging house license renewal for Edgartown Commons.

Mr. Hagerty also thanked the fire department for its response to house fires in Hidden Cove in Edgartown Saturday and on Main street in Vineyard Haven Monday.

“I would just like to thank them for the hard work,” he said.

Zach Harris