Funding for improvements to the Gay Head Cliffs lookout, upgrades to the town computer system and the potential purchase of land for affordable housing are all slated to come before Aquinnah voters at a special town meeting tonight.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the old town hall, with moderator Mike Hebert presiding. There are 11 articles on the warrant; 37 voters are needed for a quorum.

Town administrator Jeffrey Madison said the meeting was called partly in anticipation of a large grant for improvements to the Cliffs lookout. In order to receive the $128,000 grant, the town had to schedule a special town meeting before the new year.

“The town meeting is necessary for another town grant,” Mr. Madison said. “We have applied for $128,000 to make repairs at the Aquinnah lookout, but there’s some housekeeping that’s required for that, and we need to vote on the housekeeping before the end of the year.”

The first article asks voters to authorize the town treasurer to appropriate $64,000 from the Aquinnah Community Preservation Fund to make improvements to the lookout, as well as for the town administrator to file grant applications under the town park and recreation committee for the other funds.

“We have made a design to put an elevated platform up there that will cover about two-thirds of the area,” Mr. Madison said. “Some of it is blacktop. It’s uneven. Folks with disabilities have trouble standing. We can improve that area out there, and at the same time improve the sightlines.”

Another article asks voters to transfer $46,000 from free cash to replace an existing truck used by the town highway department. The 2007 truck has approximately 80,000 miles and has been in the repair shop for the better part of 2018.

“It’s been out of commission all summer long,” town highway superintendent Jay Smalley said at a selectmen’s meeting last month. “It’s messing up the firing of the injectors and stuff. It’s time, we need to replace it.”

Voters will also be asked to spend $21,000 to upgrade and replace computers, as well as to get all town employees on the same operating and cloud-based data storage system.

A $20,000 transfer from free cash aims to pay for the design of a maintenance department building at the town landfill. Mr. Madison said the amount can be amended downward on the town meeting floor, but that the landfill would need to be surveyed to move forward with construction. He said the $20,000 was a rough estimate for the potential surveying and design costs for the structure.

A $10,000 transfer from free cash would be used to construct a shed for the shellfish constable and harbor master on town land at West Basin. The shellfish constable currently holds regular hours on Tuesday mornings.

“Him here one day a week to meet the demand is not acceptable anymore,” Mr. Madison said, speaking of shellfish constable Brian (Chip) Vanderhoop. “He’s got to have a place where he can be. We can make him work more for his money too.”

Voters will also be asked to transfer $20,000 from free cash for the design and construction of sun and weather protection at the Gay Head Lighthouse. For the last two seasons, umbrellas for lighthouse employees and tour guides have had to undergo weeklong repairs.

“[The umbrella] is no longer operable. It’s beyond fixing,” Mr. Madison said. “So we can buy a new umbrella that will break in a year, or we can build something there that will actually work.”

He said he has not yet spoken with the lighthouse committee about the warrant item.

Other requested free cash transfers include $5,500 to pay for a vehicle the town keeps in Falmouth for employees to conduct off-Island business and $6,000 to construct and install an audio system for the town hall.

Two articles deal with the purchase and sale of town properties.

One asks voters to appropriate $42,000 from the Community Preservation Housing Reserve for the purchase of an 8.5 per cent ownership stake in a 3.8-acre parcel of developable property off Moshup Trail for the purpose of creating permanently affordable housing.

The town also wants to sell a 3.6-acre landlocked property, identified as assessor’s map 5, parcel 59. According to the property record card, the town has owned the land since 1986 and it has an assessed value of $171,900. The property is located off Sea Horse Lane south of Lighthouse Road.

“This is a property that we’ve tried to sell in the past,” selectman Jim Newman said at a selectmen’s meeting last month. “It’s a very desirable piece of landlocked property that would only be of interest to the abutters. We had actually agreed to sell it on town floor last year, and agreed that half the proceeds would go to affordable housing for rentals. So that’s a win-win for affordable housing and for us.”

The final article on the warrant asks voters to transfer $12,000 from free cash to pay for grant writing services and related activities.

“It’ll all get hashed out on the town meeting floor,” Mr. Madison said.