Miniature liquor bottles sales could be banned on Martha’s Vineyard, Edgartown could get a new fire station, and the process of revamping the regional high school could gain some steam tonight as town meeting season gets underway.
Voters in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury will kick off the Island’s town meetings this evening. Edgartown town meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the Old Whaling Church, Oak Bluffs starts at 7 p.m. at the high school performing arts center and West Tisbury will get underway at 6 p.m. at the West Tisbury School.
After the push for a housing bank dominated town meetings in 2022, this year is largely concerned with funding requests for projects and everyday government operations.
There are some broader issues, though.
In one of the only Island-wide issues being considered this spring, each of the six towns have been asked to pitch in for a $2 million feasibility study to better understand the potential to replace or reconstruct the 64-year-old regional high school in Oak Bluffs. Getting funding for the study is the first step in the process of overhauling the school, which officials say is in need of a “significant reinvestment.”
Residents in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, the only towns with package stores on the Island, will both decide on a proposed ban on the sale of “nips,” the single-serving liquor bottles that have come under fire statewide out of concern for drunk driving and littering.
In one of the largest funding articles, voters in Edgartown will also be asked to spend $21.5 million on a new fire station.
Oak Bluffs is looking at some other smaller projects, including $250,000 to repair the East Chop bulkhead and $325,000 to pay for culvert work to restore tidal flow at Farm Pond.
West Tisbury residents will consider funding $1.2 million in repairs to the heating, ventilation and air condition system at the West Tisbury Public Library. That warrant was pared down in the months leading up to town meeting, and several other articles are expected to be pulled from town meeting floor.
Chilmark holds its town meeting April 24, Tisbury town meeting is April 25, and Aquinnah town meeting is May 9.
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