Aquinnah has decided to postpone a special town meeting originally scheduled for Oct. 8 due to the Jewish high holiday Yom Kippur as well as a Cranberry Day potluck set for that night. Yom Kippur is generally regarded as the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, while Cranberry Day is a cultural celebration organized by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).

Town administrator Jeffrey Madison took responsibility for the snafu. “I scheduled the meeting without knowing that was the date of those events,” he said on the phone after the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday. “We are rescheduling the meeting so people can celebrate the holidays.”

The meeting is now set for Oct. 22. The town will convene the Oct. 8 meeting as a formality (no quorum is required), and reschedule.

Also this week, selectmen agreed unanimously that the town should contribute a third of the cost of the new the new Tri-town ambulance building proposed for land in Chilmark.

A plan is in the works to relocate the Tri-town ambulance from the West Tisbury public safety building to Chilmark, once the new facility is built.

Selectman Jim Newman reported that Chilmark has already invested close to $1 million in the project, including buying the land and hiring engineers for the building. He said he supports the idea of the three up-Island towns splitting the cost of the new building. He estimated the town share of construction costs would be roughly $65,000 for Aquinnah, and said the town finance committee had signed off on the increased expenditure, which would be added to the 2021 town budget. Mr. Newman emphasized the importance of having emergency service vehicles closer to the town.

“It’s really important,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the [EMS) call time . . . I think it’s essential that we support this. And I’m sorry that these costs are going up. The health and welfare of the community is paramount.”

Selectman Juli Vanderhoop and police chief Randhi Belain concurred. “If [Tri-town] would be centrally located in the middle that would help Aquinnah . . . we would cut down response time in half. That would help us tremendously,” Chief Belain said.

And while he cautioned that the increased expenditure will be a financial squeeze for the town, selectman Gary Haley agreed.

“It’s needed for sure, but it’s going to be a huge increase for the next fiscal year,” he said.

In other business, selectmen appointed Harald Scheid to the board of assessors. Mr. Schied is president of Regional Resource Group, a Leominster firm that the town now uses for its assessing services after voting to outsource its assessor’s department earlier this summer.

Mr. Schied said he has spent time in the last month preparing for tax bills that will go out Jan. 1.

“I’m really delighted now to be here in Aquinnah,” Mr. Schied said. “Touring around the town, following up on building permits and new taxable permits — and have been met by some very delightful people who, believe it or not, are happy to see the tax guy.”

Mr. Schied joins Kayla Manning and Howard Goldstein on the new board, which has experienced a complete turnover of its three former members since the outsourcing vote.