Selectmen will sound out voters on Mill Pond dredging

Posted October 25, 2007

West Tisbury selectmen met last Oct. 17, to fine tune the special town meeting warrant to be considered by voters on Nov. 27. Absent from the draft warrant was a request to spend $50,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money to hire a consultant to come up with a design and get the necessary permits to dredge Mill Pond.

In its place, selectmen propose a nonbinding referendum question that asks if town voters support the selectmen's efforts to permit and design a dredge project for Mill Pond, the cost of which would not exceed $175,000.

The switch was made necessary because the Community Preservation (CP) committee, which must approve any use of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money, rejected the selectmen's request in a 3-2 vote last week.

Al DeVito, a member of the CP committee, told the selectmen the fact that the committee rejected the spending request at this time did not mean that it would not accept it for inclusion on the annual town meeting warrant. Mr. DeVito said the CP committee did not see the urgency, was uncertain as to the total costs, and the project had yet to be reviewed by the capital improvements committee.