A busy week in Chilmark began Monday with voters moving briskly through the annual town meeting, continued Wednesday with high turnout at the ballot box and ends today with another bit of important business - the reopening of the Chilmark Store.

And so goes the short and relatively quiet political season in the small up-Island town.

Chilmark voters breezed through their annual town meeting on Monday
night without batting an eye, approved a $5.7 million budget and voted
in favor of the Martha's Vineyard Housing Bank and two versions of a
renewable energy resolution along the way.

But when they came to the final vote of the evening -- whether to use
$23,000 from the community preservation committee's open space reserve
fund to fight an invasive reed in Chilmark Pond -- the debate began over
how to vanquish the mighty phragmite.

School costs are driving budget increases across the Island, but in Chilmark, one expense forcing voters to dig into their wallets for education spending may come as a shock.

The Menemsha School, barely four years old, already needs $100,000 in repairs that include replacing moldy floors and rotten doors. Voters will be asked Monday night at annual town meeting to foot the bill. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Chilmark Community Center.

The annual town election takes place Wednesday and will feature five override questions, but no contested races.

Chilmark voters, at a special town meeting on Tuesday, indefinitely
postponed requests to fund major expansion projects at both the town
hall and the public library.