West Tisbury will hold a special town meeting this fall to deal with rising costs and bylaw changes. 

The select board voted Wednesday to set the warrant for the Oct. 15 meeting.

The largest item of business of the seven-article town warrant is the installation of a new water hydrant near the parking lot for Lambert’s Cove Beach. Voters will decide on using $120,000 of free cash for the project, adding onto $115,000 that was already approved at annual town meeting in April 2022.

According to town administrator Jennifer Rand, the delay comes from a later than anticipated call for bids and those bids being more than the town originally appropriated.  

“We appropriated money in 2022 for a hydrant at Lambert’s Cove Beach, and it took until now to get out to bid for [various] reasons,” she said at a select board meeting last month. “As you might imagine, the bids came in notably higher than we have money for.” 

Voters will also be asked to dedicate $298,000 for a new water rescue truck for the fire department, and $492 from free cash to pay the prior year’s bills for office supplies.

The town will consider cutting $5,000 from the select board. 

Rounding out the warrant are proposed changes to the town bylaws. One will change the appointment process for trustees of the town’s affordable housing trust fund. Another would require criminal record checks for all employees and volunteers. 

The special town meeting will be held at West Tisbury Elementary School at 6 p.m. Quorum is 5 per cent of the registered voter.