Aquinnah voters will be asked to set aside money for repairs to Gay Head Light, new town vehicles and the town’s grant writer at next week’s special town meeting.
The town has scheduled a town meeting for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Aquinnah town hall. There are seven articles on the warrant. Quorum is 39 people.
Though the town is seeking to allocate more than $400,000 at the town meeting, Aquinnah town administrator Jeffrey Madison said none of the articles will have an impact on resident taxes.
“This is kind of a housekeeping meeting,” he said.
The town is seeking to spend $200,000 in community preservation funds for the ongoing lighthouse renovations. This week the town embarked on a sixth-month renovation to fix the lighthouse’s curtain wall, lantern deck and replace the existing lantern with an LED bulb.
The town expects to have the funding reimbursed by a state tourism grant.
The town will ask permission to spend $65,000 on a new police cruiser, and another $65,000 on a dump truck for the highway department. The department has two trucks that could use an upgrade, Mr. Madison said.
“The dump trucks are used by our highway department and our town maintenance department to plow our roads during snowstorms and the roads during the winter months,” Mr. Madison said.
“We’re not adding to the fleet. We’re just upgrading the fleet, so to speak, because the old ones [are] wearing out,” he said.
Voters will also decide Tuesday whether to allocate $22,000 to keep the town’s grant writer, Gisele Gauthier.
“[Ms. Gauthier] has been instrumental in keeping track of the wind farm monies that we have successfully lobbied for [and] also other town grants,” Mr. Madison said.
Other items include $25,000 in community preservation money for the pre-development of affordable housing in town and $10,000 for the shellfish hatchery in Oak Bluffs, which houses the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group.
Other towns have already contributed $40,000 to rehab the facility.
“Other towns have approved the funding, so long as some portion of the funding is contributed from each member town…” Mr. Madison said. “This is holding up our commitment to funding that program.”
Mr. Madison expected the special town meeting to be a short one, and urged people to come out and vote.
“I hope that it takes 10 minutes,” Mr. Madison said. “There’s nothing controversial … so I hope that people come out, vote and approve the warrant articles, and then go home and get warm.”
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