Chilmark selectmen finalized eight warrant articles on Tuesday, Nov. 15. With costs totaling $150,622, they will be voted on at a special town meeting on Dec. 5 at 7:30 pm. Several articles focus on alleviating traffic headaches in Menemsha next summer by improving the satellite parking option on Tabor House Road and upgrading signage.
The two largest requests are $50,000 each for a state-required town property revaluation for fiscal year 2018, and for the relocation of the revetment stones and the installation of pilings to anchor the temporary tie-up floating dock.
Property revaluations used to be required every three years, but state law now requires that the revaluations be done every five years.
Menemsha improvements
The requested amount for the temporary dock was originally $35,000, but selectmen felt that number was too low. “If we find we can do it for less money, we can make an amendment on the town meeting floor to get it back down to $35 [thousand], but tonight we’re going to set it at $50,000,” selectman Warren Doty said.
“We had some leftover grant money, but it’s not going to be enough to get the whole job done,” selectman Bill Rossi told The Times Wednesday afternoon.
“To install the pilings for the temporary dock, there’s a lot of stone there,” Mr. Rossi said.
“There’s some uncertainty as to how difficult it’s going to be to drive the pilings in that area and remove some of the stone. We put that in there to ensure we have enough money to finish the project. The engineers have figured out how many pilings we need, so we need that money to basically finish the project that we’ve been working on for a couple of years now.”
Also on the table is $15,000 to pay for improvements to the Menemsha park-and-ride parking lot at Tabor House Road. Originally this number was $10,000, but selectmen thought it was not enough.
“My back-of-the-envelope estimates, which I seem to be prone to do,” Mr. Doty joked, “indicate that $10,000 is too low.” Mr. Doty thinks that a shelter could cost $3,500, lighting could cost $5,000, and “with $5,000 improvement for the parking lot, it could easily be $15,000, and maybe even that’s too low.”
“Fifteen thousand is a nice number to start with,” executive secretary Tim Carroll said.
“The first order of business is to get a nice, clean, organized parking area, and then we’ll look at the shelter and the lighting and what that’s going to cost,” Mr. Rossi said.
“If we did $15,000 worth of improvements up there, that would be nice,” Mr. Doty said.
In addition, a $3,000 article will go toward better signage, pavement markings, and vegetation management along town roads in Menemsha.
“It’s to improve the signage and to communicate to visitors, to direct them to the park-and-ride, and also there’s some vegetation that can be cut back to improve visibility when entering Basin Road to create a safer situation at that intersection [when making a right to go toward the beach],” Mr. Rossi said.
A stop sign on North Road at the bottom of the hill is proposed.
There is a $9,600 article for the purchase of a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) for the police department’s use in Menemsha.
“[The police department] wanted something they could maneuver easily in Menemsha during the busy season, and not take up a lot of space,” Mr. Rossi said. “Originally it was going to be an electric cart type of thing, but it’s evolved into a UTV, which gives us some more options, in the off-season as well.”
Other articles
Also in the public safety realm is a $7,650 article to pay for adding a repeater channel to the public safety radios at Peaked Hill.
“From what I understand from the fire chief, it’s just an extra channel for the emergency services to make it more efficient for everyone and improve communications,” Mr. Rossi said.
The final two items on the special town meeting warrant are $7,372 to pay for the temporary coverage of the youth services position at the library during July and August 2016, and an $8,000 article to pay for the repair or replacement of the chimney on the Chilmark town hall building. If the decision is made to replace the chimney, the work must be authorized by the historical commission.
“We’re hoping we’ll be able to preserve it; if not it will have to be replaced,” Mr. Rossi said.
Other business
Selectmen appointed Mr. Rossi to represent Chilmark as the selectmen in the “one selectman/town accountant formulation” from each of the three towns in the Up-Island working group that will hammer out a revision of the cost-sharing agreement between the three towns for the Chilmark School.
“Mr. Rossi will meet with the former review committee that recommended this path before meeting with the other two towns,” executive secretary Tim Carroll told The Times via email Wednesday.
“I was just appointed last night, and I’m going to be meeting with our group in advance — to get up to speed on the formula, because I was not on the subcommittee,” Mr. Rossi told The Times. He plans to meet with his Chilmark group on Nov. 28.
On the new public-safety building front, selectmen met with Helen Benham and her land planner, Larry Beals, on Friday, Nov. 18. The meeting follows an exchange of letters between selectman Warren Doty and Ms. Benham. Mr. Doty asked Ms. Benham if the town might purchase her land adjacent to the community center or perhaps trade it for a town-owned parcel on Tabor House Road. Ms. Benham responded with an offer to meet and present the town with plan for an alternate location.
The Nov. 18 meeting was open to the public, and Mr. Beals made his presentation to the selectmen. According to Mr. Carroll, no decisions were made, and the public-safety building site committee will continue working on the project.
