In keeping with a Massachusetts meeting tradition that dates to the mid-1600s, Oak Bluffs voters will gather in the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center at 7 pm, Tuesday to take action on 35 warrant articles and a $28,440,355 operating budget for fiscal year 2017 (FY17), a 7 percent increase and more than double the 3 percent budget increase approved for FY16.
Two days later, on Thursday, April 14, Oak Bluffs elects town officers. The polls are located in the Oak Bluffs library meeting room, and will be open from 10 am to 7 pm.
FinCom gives thumbs up, down
The annual town meeting will be preceded by a special town meeting. Voters will be asked to consider three expenditures that include a request for $37,500 to help fund a pilot project for a permeable barrier to reduce nitrogen loading in Lagoon Pond. The article has the unanimous endorsement of the Finance and Advisory Committee (FInCom).
In the main event, voters will be asked to approve a $28,440,355 operating budget for FY17 that is up roughly $2 million over the FY16 budget of $26,512,523.
“The bulk of that increase is to pay the bond on the new fire station,” FinCom chairman Ray Taylor told The Times. “I think the town has come a long way in our finances in recent years, and this budget is another step in the right direction, with conservative spending and accurate totals of local estimated receipts.”
Most of the 32 articles on the warrant, as per usual, pertain to a broad swath of expenditures.
Some of the big-ticket items which have FinCom majority support are transfers from the Ambulance Reserve Fund — $120,000 for lease payments on three new police cruisers, $55,000 for a new command vehicle for the fire chief, and $39,000 toward replacing two police motorcycles purchased in 2007. A $28,000 outlay from the Ambulance Reserve Fund for a new ambulance billing system received a unanimous FinCom endorsement.
FinCom also endorsed a number of free cash expenditures, including $65,000 for improvements on three town-owned buildings: $20,000 for the Sailing Camp, $15,000 for the Highway Department building, and $30,000 to replace the well-seasoned carpeting in the library. The advisory board also endorsed an outlay of $22,600 for a study that will look at converting the capped town landfill into a solar array and municipal parking lot, and $33,750 for a lease-purchase program for three town vehicles: an SUV for the assessing department, a pickup truck for the shellfish department, and two small dump trucks for the highway department.
FinCom also gave a thumbs-up to an article that will enable a $50,000 outlay for design plans to replace the increasingly porous roof at the Oak Bluffs School. The article also gives the town treasurer the authority to float a bond to pay for the design as well as the construction of the new roof.
FinCom did not look favorably on a number of warrant articles.
In what may be one of the most hotly debated topics of the evening, FinCom voted down, by a large majority (6-1-1), a petition article requesting the town make a $40,000 investment in a beach rake, which would clear town beaches of trash and debris.
“We need the right kind of tractor, and we don’t have that,” FinCom vice chairman Steve Auerbach told The Times. “There’s also no permit from the conservation committee. So what would be the point of buying a beach rake if we don’t have a permit to use it or a tractor to pull it? There has to be more discussion. I’m hoping people can discuss this in a calm manner at town meeting.”
FinCom also voted against allocating $85,000 from the Ambulance Reserve Fund to replace a rescue boat in the Fire-EMS Department.
FinCom was split 4-4 on a $15,500 allocation for emergency preparedness, $10,500 to fund repairs to the emergency management boat and $5,000 to replace emergency management supplies, e.g. cots to be used for emergency shelter.
“We didn’t see the need to spend that much taxpayer money on two boats that are used for essentially the same purpose,” Mr. Taylor said. “We asked for details in how often both boats are used, and we didn’t feel like we got that information.”
FinCom strongly rejected two funding requests from the Healthy Aging Task Force: $16,500 for the town’s share of FirstStop MV, a web-based service that connects the elderly with services and resources; and a request for $1,000 for a program that will enable the six Island Councils on Aging to better communicate with each other, and allow seniors an easier way to sign up for programs.
“We didn’t think these programs provided much more than a simple Google search could do,” Mr. Taylor said. “We felt there is a lot of duplication of services. We already pay for a Council on Aging where people have online services and can contact their own health providers. There are also a number of costs with the new Center for Living building the town will have to pay. We think there’s a need to look at the big picture more closely.”
FinCom approved all but two of the 13 proposed expenditures for $675,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds. In a unanimous vote, it rejected a $148,000 request to fund new “historically accurate” streetlights along Seaview Avenue, and voted to prune a $8,300 outlay to fund the mapping of historic shade trees.
Zoning changes
Townspeople will be asked to vote on a warrant article that is intended to update town zoning bylaws and expand economic opportunity, by giving the Oak Bluffs planning board (OBPB) the ability to issue special permits for light manufacturing in commercially zoned areas.
The OBPB voted 3-1 to put the measure on the town meeting warrant, noting that all applicants would be under strict environmental-performance standards already on the books.
In another zoning matter, voters will be asked to accept the recently revised Floodplain Overlay District maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The vote is somewhat symbolic. If the town rejects the maps, Oak Bluffs residents will not be able to buy flood insurance through the federally subsidized National Flood Insurance Program. Furthermore, the town would also be ineligible for federal disaster relief funding in the wake of a catastrophe. Individual homeowners can still appeal their flood risk assessment at any time with a process spelled out on the FEMA website. The OBPB unanimously voted, 4-0, to accept the FEMA maps.
Three articles on the warrant are intended to put an end to a long-running and at times acrimonious battle that has pitted Windemere Road residents against Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (MVH) and Oak Bluffs town officials.
The conflict began when Windemere Road residents lost legal public access to their cul-de-sac when the new hospital was built in 2007. The expanded hospital went over the old Hospital Road boundary line, thus making the new Hospital Road, a private way, the only access to Windemere Road. While the new Hospital Road is functional, without access via a public way, Windemere Road residents claim, they are legally unable to sell their property. In addition, some Windemere Road homeowners said the new Hospital Road created drainage problems, and that light and noise from the hospital was not adequately mitigated.
Pursuant to an extensive series of public meetings, the OBPB voted 3-0 to recommend the adoption of the three articles, which in essence create a swap between the town of Oak Bluffs and MVH. The town will absorb the new Hospital Road (29,000 square feet) as a public way and maintain the road surface, and MVH will take ownership of the land upon which it now sits (28,000 square feet).
“In essence, the Hospital Road would be relocated to its present condition,” the executive summary states.
The OBPB also states that the hospital has addressed concerns about drainage, curb cuts, and sound and lightning mitigation, and also thinks that, per the feedback received at public meetings, the majority of Windemere Road residents want to put the conflict with the hospital put to bed.
