Edgartown voters will not face election choices, except for a five-year term on the planning board. Lucy Chedzoy Morrison and Alan O. Wilson are competing for the open position.
Mr. Wilson is the incumbent chairman of the planning board, and has been on the board for 20 years. Ms. Morrison worked part-time as the planning board clerk for more than three years, and recently left to take a position at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Ms. Morrison said. “The planning board is going through a recodification of the bylaws to make everything consistent, and I really want to be a part of that.”
Ms. Morrison said that because she’s attended a slew of planning board meetings, she would have no trouble acclimating to the new position if she should win.
“I’ve been to every meeting for the past four years, and I had to write down everything that happened,” she said. “I feel pretty confident about jumping in on the big projects like Stop and Shop, but there’s definitely some homework involved in the job.”
Ms. Morrison, 29, has lived full-time in Edgartown since September 2013, and was born and raised on the Island. About her opponent, Mr. Wilson, Ms. Morrison said, “Alan and I are actually similar, and I have a lot of respect for him. I think Edgartown is going to be in good hands either way they vote.”
Even though he’s served on the planning board for 20 years, Mr. Wilson said he’s still “learning something new every day.”
A retired civil engineer who’s lived on Chappaquiddick for 21 years, Mr. Wilson has worked in other states where developers were able to leave a mark, something he said he tries to curtail in Edgartown.
“I know what happens when a developer comes in, and I try to keep Martha’s Vineyard as conservation-oriented as possible,” Mr. Wilson told The Times.
As far as the Stop and Shop expansion and its looming set of decisions for planning board members, Mr. Wilson said the grocery chain has been “very cooperative.”
“It’s with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission now,” he said. “They’ve been very accommodating to us.”
Traffic is another issue he sees as a challenge for Edgartown. “It’s hard to come up with ideas to implement in a town with narrow streets,” Mr. Wilson said. “The Chappy Ferry line is a major traffic issue.”
Mr. Wilson said he enjoys the comradery on the current planning board: “We get along so well, and I feel like we try to do the right thing.”
The following Edgartown candidates are running unopposed: Margaret Serpa for re-election to the board of selectmen; Alan C. Gowell for re-election to the assessors; Kathleen M. Case, for re-election to the board of health; Leslie Baynes and Donna Lowell-Bettencourt, both candidates for re-election to two open positions on the financial advisory committee; David Allen Faber and S. Christopher Scott, running for two positions as library trustee; Jane M. Varkonda, a candidate for re-election for park commissioner; Samuel W. Sherman, for a two-year term on the planning board; Kimberly S. Kirk, for school committee; Scott Ellis, for re-election as wastewater treatment commissioner; and David M. Burke, for re-election as water commissioner.
