West Tisbury voters will head to a special town meeting next week to handle several funding articles. 

The town will host the seven-article meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. at the West Tisbury School. 

One of the most talked about articles in the leadup to town meeting would allocate $120,000 in free cash to install a new water hydrant near the parking lot of Lambert’s Cove Beach. This would add onto the $115,000 that the town already voted for during annual town meeting in 2022. 

“The reason we asked for this [special town meeting] was because I really want to get this hydrant project done,” town administrator Jen Rand said in a select board meeting last month. 

Reaching quorum is a concern, though the projects and issues on the warrant aren’t urgent and could be added onto next year’s town meeting warrant should the meeting not reach quorum, according to Ms. Rand. Quorum is 5 per cent of registered town voters, which is 139 people. 

“I think we should do our best to try and achieve a quorum during this meeting so that we can take care of these housekeeping items,” select board chair Jessica Miller said at the Sept. 18 meeting. 

Residents will also vote on spending $298,000 on a new water rescue truck for the fire department, and $492 to pay outstanding bills for office supplies. 

The town will consider cutting $5,000 from the overall budget, as member Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter has elected to not collect the stipend that select board members receive. 

Other matters of business include town bylaw changes. The town is proposing  to amend the appointment process for trustees of the town’s affordable housing trust fund and require criminal offender record information checks for all employees and volunteers of the town.  

Rounding out the warrant is rescinding articles from a special town meeting held in November last year, which created an opioid stabilization fund and dedicated all related revenue to this fund.  

“The towns, working with the county, determined that the best use of the collective money would be to have an inter-municipal agreement for all six towns, to clump all the money together to use it for one purpose,” Ms. Rand said. “We are going to uncreate the stabilization fund so that the money is available to go all towards this shared purpose.” 

New town moderator and attorney Caroline Flanders will moderate her first town meeting.