Chilmark voted to install security cameras on the harbor master shack in Menemsha while it forms a committee to figure out the best way to install cameras on the west dock.

The decision by the select board Tuesday comes after weeks of discussion prompted by a letter from 28 Chilmark residents expressing their dismay at a 30-foot pole on the west dock to house the cameras. Voters approved the cameras at the 2021 town meeting, but residents said they were kept in the dark about how the cameras would be installed and disliked the visual impact the pole had on the harbor’s landscape. The pole has since been taken down.

The seven-person committee — which will include selectman Warren Doty, harbor master Ryan Rossi and five members of the public — will recommend a way for the cameras to cover the entire area without the pole.

The three cameras on the harbor master shack will be able to cover the transient dock, the commercial dock and part of the west dock, harbor master Ryan Rossi said. They are meant to deter theft and vandalism from the harbor

“It gives us some coverage of boats coming and going on the west dock and some coverage of automobile traffic in the middle of the night on the west dock,” Mr. Doty said.

The cameras have yet to be installed and will not go live until the select board approves of a policy manual for the cameras. Mr. Rossi aired a draft of the policy to the select board, which the board will formally vote on at its next meeting on April 19.

“Let’s have another two weeks to think about this and to get any comments from anybody,” Mr. Doty said. “We are all concerned about privacy issues and who has access to these cameras and so on.”

In other business Tuesday, the planning board made tweaks to the annual town meeting warrant article for a proposed affordable housing project at town-owned land on Peaked Hill pastures.

“Basically just to keep it simple so that townspeople don’t get bogged down in minutiae regarding design elements,” planning board member Richard Osnoss said.

The select board accepted the changes and formally called the annual town meeting for April 25.

Meet the Fleet, an event support the Island’s commercial fishing community, will make its return for the first time in two years on August 4 from 3 to 7 p.m. on the Menemsha docks.