Regional expenses and human services make up more than a dozen articles on each of Tuesday’s annual town meeting warrants, continuing a trend toward cost-sharing across Island municipalities.
“Every year that seems to be more and more true,” West Tisbury town administrator Jennifer Rand told the Gazette.
“When you look at the total impact on taxpayers, it does feel like more and more we are looking at regional efforts for problem solving,” Ms. Rand said.
The dollar amounts requested range from the low thousands for the countywide First Stop referral service, which connects people with local programs of all kinds, to six-figure sums toward housing for homeless, elderly and autistic Islanders.
Harbor Homes, which operates the winter shelter and two group homes for Islanders at risk of homelessness, stands to raise up to $425,000 toward retiring its $750,000 mortgage for the New York avenue women’s house in Oak Bluffs. West Tisbury voters are looking at a $75,000 contribution, Tisbury at $95,000, Oak Bluffs voters at $105,000 and Edgartown at $150,000.
Island Elderly Housing’s plan to build five income-restricted rental units for seniors in Oak Bluffs, dubbed Aidylberg III, is in line for contributions of $75,000 each from Tisbury and West Tisbury, $100,000 from Oak Bluffs and $150,000 from Edgartown.
Planned affordable housing for autistic Vineyarders, on the Island Autism Group’s West Tisbury property off Lambert’s Cove Road, is up for a boost of $319,600 from Edgartown, $159,800 each from Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury and $100,000 from Tisbury. The Oak Bluffs warrant further commits to a second $159,800 contribution next year.
Intermunicipal agreements with Dukes County determine the dollar amount each town commits to sup
port all-Island programs including homelessness prevention, the Center for Living, First Stop and CORE, which provides counseling and services for Islanders over 55. In some cases, these amounts appear on the warrants and in others they are included in the operating budgets.
The nonprofit Healthy Aging MV appears on all four warrants, with requests for $35,648 from Edgartown, $22,906 from Oak Bluffs, $18,786 from Tisbury and $15,044 from West Tisbury.
ACE MV, the Island’s adult and continuing education program, is seeking $10,000 from Tisbury, $14,240 from West Tisbury, $14,976 from Oak Bluffs and $15,425 from Edgartown.
To help replace the aged roof at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs, the Edgartown warrant proposes a $60,000 contribution while West Tisbury voters will see an amount of $105,850 and those in Tisbury, $74,950.
Two new regional articles, committing funds to the Substance Use Disorder Coalition and to each town’s share of county overhead, will only go into effect if all six Island towns vote in favor.
The same stipulation covers the towns’ contributions to the emergency communications and dispatch system operated by the county sheriff’s department, ranging from about $57,000 on the West Tisbury warrant to nearly $67,000 in Edgartown.
The widest region represented on the Island’s spring legislative slate is Cape Cod Bay, but no costs are involved.
A nonbinding question, appearing on the the Edgartown special town meeting warrant and on the ballots for the Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury elections, asks if voters will request that the owner of the closed Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant abandon plans to discharge the plant’s radioactive water into the bay.
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