They decided almost three years ago that replacing a yellow blinker beacon with a roundabout was the safest solution for a notoriously dangerous intersection, but just weeks before hiring an engineer to design it, Oak Bluffs selectmen are thinking it over - one more time.

"There's some concern about whether this is the direction the town really wants to go," Oak Bluffs highway superintendent Richard Combra Jr. told selectmen this week.

"I'm not advocating for anything other than a roundabout but we should decide right now," he added.

Under pressure to tap into $330,000 of state funding before year's end, selectmen quickly agreed, saying they would contact Bill Scully, the traffic planner from Natick who was commissioned in 2000 to study the intersection of Edgartown-Vineyard Haven and Barnes Roads.

Additionally, selectmen said they will consult county engineer Steve Berlucchi and the Martha's Vineyard Commission one more time before committing to the roundabout project. Different from the rotaries in Bourne, a roundabout is a single-lane traffic circle that forces vehicles to slow down to about 15 miles per hour before entering.

Signs of second-guessing from selectmen come 14 months after town leaders opted for a stop-gap measure - a four-way stop at the crossroads. Oak Bluffs police credited that simple step this summer with a sharp decline in the number of accidents at the site.

But the four-way stop has had another ripple effect, working so well that some people are questioning whether a roundabout is even necessary.

"We've heard grumblings, people saying, ‘When are you going to get it done? It seems to work well now. Why change it?'"selectman Michael Dutton said at Tuesday's regular board meeting.

"We need one last look to make sure we're headed down the right track," he added.

But far from indicating a waffling resolve, town administrator Casey Sharpe told the Gazette Wednesday that the board of selectmen is committed to building a roundabout. Ms. Sharpe has already spoken with Mr. Scully, the traffic planner, and with Mark London, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

"I'm confident from our discussions that we will proceed the way we have been so far," she told the Gazette.

Still, there's not unanimity on the board. Articulating some of the grumbles Mr. Dutton referred to, selectman Kerry Scott said, "I don't think we need to spend $330,00 to solve a two-month problem when the four-way stop is working."

Selectmen chairman Roger Wey disagrees. "If we back off now, we lose the funding," said the chairman. "It's alright now with the four-way stop but who knows what happens in five to ten years, and where would we get the money?"

While the state will cover the construction costs of a roundabout, Oak Bluffs must pay an engineer between $25,000 and $50,000 to design the traffic circle .

Mr. London believes the project should be viewed as a longterm solution. "Inevitably, population and traffic will grow, and the back-ups are going to get worse and worse," he said. "We could add a few turning lanes, but it's a slippery slope of widening a road, then a traffic light, and you end up with an un-Vineyard solution."

Selectmen received a letter from Deer Run resident Donna Maurice last month, urging the construction of extra turning lanes on the grounds that it would take up less room than a roundabout.

Mr. London this week argued for an education campaign as a way to dispel Islanders' deep-seated skepticism about roundabouts.

"The confusion is that everybody has gone through rotaries on the Cape, and everybody hates them - with good reason," he said.

The key is raising awareness, reading about roundabouts on the Internet, paying a visit to the roundabout in Marstons Mills on the Cape. "Other than being circular, it bears no relation to that circle in Bourne," said Mr. London.

State transportation officials are planning to abolish rotaries statewide, but MassHighway has funded a handful of roundabouts in the state - in Duxbury and North Andover as well as in Oak Bluffs.

The traffic study completed by Mr. Scully in 2000 concluded that the blinker light intersection was bad enough - from both traffic and accident data - to warrant erecting the Vineyard's first full-fledged traffic light.

Police embraced the idea, but selectmen balked at the recommendation, knowing it would trigger protests from people who viewed a traffic signal as too suburban for the Island.

Selectmen discussed installing rumble strips to slow down traffic on that stretch of Vineyard highway.

But besides speed, volume of traffic has been a major issue. Mr. Scully's study found that during peak summer mornings, a total of 1,485 vehicles traveled through the intersection in an hour. His study concluded that the "intersection will continue to deteriorate." Projected traffic numbers could rise to 1,800 cars an hour in the next decade, according to the report.