West Tisbury selectmen decided last week that there is “no rush” to deal with a report from a study committee they formed to advise on a new allocation of Up-Island Regional School District (UIRSD) costs. Budget talks are underway now for the fiscal year beginning July 1, and consideration of the report and discussions with Chilmark and Aquinnah officials can wait until the completion of the budget season in advance of spring town meetings.
“They’re not in favor,” West Tisbury town administrator Jennifer Rand said of the sentiments in a letter from Chilmark selectmen that her selectmen took up at their Feb. 1 meeting. “That’s the Cliffs Notes version.”
The report and the reaction from Chilmark added up to confusion. “Many people don’t understand this isn’t being proposed for this year, It’s just coincidental that we are having a discussion about the formula when we’re also talking about a formula,” selectman Cynthia Mitchell said. “I don’t feel like there’s a huge rush to come to terms with this before this budget season is over.”
Richard Knabel, chairman of the selectmen, agreed. “It causes a lot of confusing hypothetical conversation — let’s get through the budget season, and decide how we want to proceed at that point. “
“We’ve accepted it; I’m proposing that that’s our work to date. We’ve not agreed with the recommendations, but this is what a subcommittee charged with coming up with a fairer formula came up with, and we take that to the group and get their reaction,” Ms. Mitchell said of the report, to which Susan Silk, chairman of the selectmen’s subcommittee on the cost allocation, said, “Thank you to that, because in essence it shows respect for the work that went into it.”
In other business, selectmen extended the recreational shellfish season to April 30; settled on 32 hours a week in winter and 52 hours in summer for the animal control officer and her assistant; accepted the three-year appointment of Nikolaj Wojtkielo to the West Tisbury police department; and appointed Peyton Wallace to the conservation commission’s one-year alternate position.
Selectmen also agreed to place an article on the spring warrant creating a new bylaw that would outlaw the use of “jake brakes” — loud compression-release engine brakes — within the town boundaries. The proposed bylaw would include a $100 fine for the first offense.