Tisbury voters will take up a $39 million budget, a 14.2 per cent hike over the previous year, when they meet April 25 for the annual and special town meetings.
Contractual obligations to Tisbury employees make up the largest share of the increase, said town administrator Jay Grande.
Other factors in the year-over-year increase include a $1.5 million contribution to the town’s stabilization fund and Tisbury’s share of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s budget, now $228,595, among other regional obligations, Mr. Grande said.
“They add up,” he said.
Tisbury’s town meetings begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center in Oak Bluffs, rented for the occasion due to construction at the Tisbury School. The quorum is 100 people.
The operating budget includes funding four new positions: a planning board administrator at $10,279 a year, an executive assistant for the police department at $18,395 a year, a part-time assistant for the housing committee at $40,000, a paramedic supervisor at $93,084.
Voters also will be asked to establish the position of assistant town clerk, which Mr. Grande said would not be funded until a future annual town meeting.
While the assistant town clerk’s pay is not specified, the article lists the position at a salary grade that starts at $75,627 annually under the 2024 pay schedule appearing on next week’s warrant.
The town’s finance and advisory committee has unanimously backed every article on both warrants, including a request for $14,000 for the process of developing a new, consolidated town hall.
Added to $66,000 already approved for town hall work in previous years, Mr. Grande said the total of $80,000 will cover preliminary technical and design services for the long-sought government center, once a location has been identified.
Like the rest of the Island towns, Tisbury is also being asked to approve a new funding agreement for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and the town’s share of a $2 million feasibility study looking at renovating or replacing the high school.
An $800,000 request to upgrade Tisbury’s library building would come out of the town’s unreserved fund, if approved.
The town also is requesting $60,000 for legal services related to amending and re-codifying the zoning bylaws, a process Mr. Grande said is expected to begin after the planning board has finished developing its master plan.
“We want to secure the money now, anticipating they’ll be in a position to update and revise the zoning bylaw in response to the land use and policy regulations [in the] master plan,” he said.
In the meantime, the planning board has placed several zoning bylaw updates on the special town meeting warrant for voters to decide next week.
One proposed change would allow home business owners to store materials outside if they are properly screened, while limiting the number of business vehicles that can be parked on the property.
Another bylaw update seeks to prohibit so-called fractional ownership of homes, a type of time-share in which multiple unrelated parties split a single property. The ban would be for residential districts.
A two-thirds supermajority is required to pass any zoning bylaw changes.
Tuesday’s town meetings will be the last for longtime Tisbury moderator Deborah Medders, who announced her retirement earlier this year.
Donald Rose, who ran unsuccessfully for the select board in January, is the only candidate to replace Ms. Medders.
Tisbury town clerk Hillary Conklin said she expects no trouble assembling the required quorum of 100 voters Tuesday night.
“It has been years since we had to make calls for a quorum,” Ms. Conklin said.
The Tisbury election takes place two weeks after town meeting, on May 9, under state rules for legislative meetings held outside town borders.
While most of the candidates for town office are unopposed, there’s a three-way race for the select board seat formerly held by Larry Gomez.
After Mr. Gomez stepped down for health reasons last fall, voters at a special election in January chose Abbe Burt to finish his term.
Ms. Burt now is running for a full three-year term, opposed for the second time by Christina Colarusso, a narrow second in the January race, and MacAleer Schilcher.
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