Edgartown voters made short work of the town’s business Tuesday night, easily approving every spending article on the warrant, passing a bylaw that requires buildings in the historic district to be kept up and voting to take ownership of the Edgartown lighthouse — all in under two hours.
Medical marijuana dispensaries could become a reality in Oak Bluffs and Tisbury after an effort to place a one-year moratorium on the dispensaries failed to win the backing of voters on Tuesday night. And the countywide pest control program is also in a state of uncertainty after voters in West Tisbury turned down their share of funding for the program.
Medical marijuana questions were on the warrants for three of four town meetings held Tuesday night. The outcome was slightly different in each town.
Aquinnah Voters Face Town Meeting Vote On $2 Million Budget
By JOSHUA SABATINI
The last town meeting of the Island's political season takes
place in Aquinnah on Tuesday, when residents will gather in the town
hall at 7 p.m. to vote on a $2,056,058 operating budget and 14 warrant
articles.
Although predicting the need for a Proposition 2 1/2 override,
selectmen are in the dark as to the exact status of the town's
free cash.
In a marathon annual town meeting, Edgartown residents voted down
the Martha's Vineyard Commission's designation of
Chappaquiddick as a district of critical planning concern (DCPC).
Voting 195 to 134 not to establish the boundaries of the
Chappaquiddick district, the town eliminated the district designation in
one fell swoop.
At Aquinnah Town Meeting, the Emotions Frame Museum Debate
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The subject was a plan for a cultural museum in a historic homestead
high on a windswept bluff in the town of Aquinnah. But the discussion
that swirled for more than an hour and a half at a special town meeting
Tuesday night was layered with the emotion of a town torn down the
middle.
Underneath it all lay the central topic of the day: the recent court
ruling on sovereign immunity for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah).
Seven minutes before midnight Tuesday, Edgartown town meeting voters
wrapped up a long list of business - supporting a $19 million
operating budget and killing proposed house-size caps on Chappaquiddick.
But the night's liveliest debates for those in the crowded
pews at the Old Whaling Church, and perhaps the most interesting result
of the week, centered around a funding request to hire a housing
inspector to license the town's 1,500 rental properties.
Controversial Road Plan Wins Approval in Edgartown Meeting
By IAN FEIN
Edgartown voters last night continued to back the Pennywise Path
affordable housing project, turning a deaf ear to pleas that called for
postponing the controversial taking of a second access road to the
development.
Residents approved all 12 articles on the special town meeting
warrant, including a $310,000 appropriation to bring water, sewerage and
electricity to the project.
Aquinnah voters this week will pick up where they left off one month
ago and reconvene their annual town meeting to try to adopt a balanced
town budget.
The original town meeting adjourned early on May 9 when it became
clear that a large contingent of voters were unhappy with the budget as
presented. This week's meeting, a continuation of the chaotic
first installment, will be held on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the old town
hall.
Voters at the Oak Bluffs annual town meeting next week will consider
a number of articles that could radically alter the design and layout of
the town for generations to come.
The annual town meeting in Oak Bluffs this week was at times testy and decidedly prolonged — so much so that two nights and seven hours of spirited debate were not nearly enough, forcing the meeting to spill into next week.
After a grueling second night that focused almost entirely on the town budget and finances, voters agreed to adjourn until Monday at 7 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs School.
