Tisbury voters made quick work of a nine-article special town meeting warrant Tuesday night, approving all measures in about 30 minutes. A total of 113 voters, or slightly over 3 percent of the town’s 3,306 registered voters, turned out to attend to town business.
The warrant included emergency vehicle repairs, money for waterway infrastructure improvements, and transferring and appropriating funds for various town departments.
A request by the Department of Public Works (DPW) to spend $61,138 to purchase two new pickup trucks spurred a debate that originated with a request from DPW employee Ken Maciel for an amendment.
Mr. Maciel asked that the money be used to purchase one woodchipper and one pickup truck. Mr. Maciel said that in the case of a bad storm, the DPW needed a woodchipper to aid in the cleanup of debris from the sides of the road.
Interim DPW director Paul Wohler said that a woodchipper was already in the capital improvement plan for the annual town meeting in April.
“We need basic transportation,” he said. “We don’t have enough to get people around to work.”
Town administrator Jay Grande said he had received complaints from employees about their inability to get to job sites due to lack of transportation. He urged voters to support the recommendations of Mr. Wohler, who had done a “comprehensive review of the DPW operations,” Mr. Grande said.
Voters rejected the opinion of their DPW director and town administrator, and supported the amendment by a vote of 51 to 41 majority, choosing to use the money for a woodchipper instead of a second pickup truck.
A $110,000 transfer from the unreserved fund balance for repairs to the town’s 2007 Ford E-450 ambulance passed unanimously. The money will go toward a new chassis for the ambulance, instead of buying a new vehicle, which ambulance coordinator Tracey Jones said could cost as much as $250,000.
Voters approved three expenditures of Waterways Improvement funds, totaling $7,600, for repairs to the town’s piers and for the design of a pump-out facility. Voters approved the transfer of $8,622 from various accounts to pay bills from multiple town departments. They also approved the use of $22,000 left from the information technology director salary budget line, unused due to a later hiring than anticipated, to go toward improvements to the town’s networks and systems. All three votes were unanimous.
The town approved $30,000 worth of spending to seal and treat the concrete floors in the lower level of the Vineyard Haven Public Library, which is necessary prior to the installation of new carpeting, chairman of the library trustees George Balco said.
Approved by majority, $40,000 will be spent on contracting for wastewater collection and treatment-system professional services.
Per the recommendation of the selectmen, voters took no action on two articles regarding the town employee compensation and classification plan and personnel policy. At a selectmen’s meeting on Jan. 5, Mr. Grande said the plan is not yet ready for adoption, due to a number of steps that still need to be taken, and meetings with stakeholders that still need to be held. He said the plan will be on the annual town meeting warrant in the spring.
