Updated 4 pm, Thursday
Tisbury voters returned Wednesday night to the Tisbury School gymnasium to take up where they left off after wading through 27 of 65 warrant articles on Tuesday night. Annual town meeting ended just before 11 pm Wednesday.
Voters approved an amended $25,465,226 operating budget for fiscal year 2017. The town also voted to transfer an amended amount — $775,000 instead of $500,000 — from the unreserved fund balance to reduce the tax rate, which will avoid the need for an override vote at the ballot box on April 26.
“I’m very pleased that town meeting did a good job this year,” Tisbury finance manager Jon Snyder said Wednesday morning. “We took a couple of articles off the table, and that made all the difference.”
One of the larger questions voters faced was a request by the school committee and school building committee to borrow $825,000 in order to proceed in the Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA) grant program. The money is needed to fund a number of studies and the creation of a schematic design for a new or renovated school. It required a two-thirds majority to pass.
Tisbury School principal John Custer gave a roughly 15-minute presentation on the MSBA grant process and the need for a new or improved school.
“If I was going to a build a $1 million house and the bank was going to give me back $400,000, I’d be an idiot not to take it,” builder and Tisbury resident Rick Brew said, in reference to the 41.26 percent minimum that the MSBA has already certified to reimburse for the project.
Tisbury resident Tony Peak proposed an amendment to slightly change the article language. Tisbury town counsel David Doneski said the change was acceptable and would reduce the town’s borrowing exposure. Mr. Doneski also suggested the article be amended to include the schematic design services and relative costs, in addition to the feasibility study. After much back-and-forth discussion, people clapped as they stood for a counted vote. The standing vote proved unnecessary. The article passed by 155 to 1, and must now be approved at the polls on April 26.
A request for $300,000 to fund the design and engineering needed to place utilities underground along Beach Road generated some discussion. “I think we all agree that placing the utilities underground is more aesthetically pleasing; there are a lot of pros involved in undergrounding the utilities, including maintenance,” town administrator Jay Grande said.
Voters questioned what would also be done on Main and Union Streets, alluding to money already spent to place utilities underground. Incoming Department of Public Works director Ray Tattersall said the town is working with the utility companies to move those projects forward.
Some questioned whether there were other, less expensive options to get the utilities out of the way on Beach Road, with undergrounding costing approximately $1.5 million to $4 million per mile. Mr. Grande said additional possibilities are having the poles relocated to the back of the sidewalk, which would be covered by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, or doing a partial undergrounding of just the overhead crosswires, which would be partially funded by the state.
The article failed to receive the needed two-thirds majority by a vote of 98 to 62.
After several questions regarding specific salary classifications, steps (uniformly 3.2 percent raises from one step to the next), and the total cost of implementing the plan on July 1 ($28,000), voters passed an amended town employee compensation and classification plan.
Voters tabled a harbor department request for $25,000 to purchase 20 elastic conservation moorings after the moorings’ effectiveness was questioned. Conservation moorings eliminate ground tackle chains from dragging on the bottom and disturbing the seafloor. “This is something that has been under discussion, and will eventually, I believe, come back to the board of selectmen to determine what the eventual town policy will be on them,” selectman Melinda Loberg said. “For now, this particular warrant article is a part of the plan to replace the moorings in Vineyard Haven Harbor.”
Some voters requested the harbor management committee have more time to look into the rules, regulations, and specifics of conservation moorings prior to any purchases. “I’m not in favor of this because of the arguments I’m hearing … I’d like to see this postponed, and take at least a year,” selectman Larry Gomez said.
