A little more than a year ago, the Tisbury board of selectmen voted to spend $15,000 to pay for unused vacation time for staff members who couldn’t find the time to get away.
It was striking because there were so many employees who felt that they couldn’t take the vacation time they earned. That’s not a good situation for any employer or employee.
One of those employees was building inspector Ken Barwick. Barwick, a longtime town employee, said if he took the vacation time he had accrued, dozens of inspections and building permits would not get done, which would, in turn, delay projects and frustrate customers.
Selectmen agreed to the onetime expenditure of $15,000 with the promise of looking for a solution.
At the time, selectmen talked about getting together with other towns to see whether they could work something out to share resources.
Meanwhile, Oak Bluffs is having some difficulty of its own finding someone qualified and licensed to take that town’s building commissioner job. They’ve filled in with retirees from Falmouth and Barnstable, and they did hire someone with the thought of helping that person get his certifications, but that didn’t end up working out.
At a recent joint meeting between Oak Bluffs and Tisbury, the two towns talked about some areas where they might be able to help each other out. And the building department is one of the first areas that the two towns have decided to tackle.
Selectmen in the two towns authorized their respective town administrators to get together and look at hiring a building commissioner who would oversee the building departments in the two towns. Local inspectors would be hired to go out and do the various inspections that are required by code.
It was a great first step, with the promise of looking at more ways for the towns to cooperate down the road. Among the things discussed were sharing equipment purchases, grant-writing services, animal control, training for first responders, wastewater management, natural resources, and school programs.
They even talked about the possibility of having one police chief for the two towns, though with Tisbury’s recent hire of Mark Saloio, that seems to be something much farther down the road.
A follow-up meeting between Oak Bluffs and Tisbury leaders is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 4:30 pm in Tisbury. We’re hopeful that these two towns will keep the lines of communication open. And let’s hope it becomes contagious for some of the other Island towns, which could also benefit from shared resources.
Sharing a building commissioner between Tisbury and Oak Bluffs makes a lot of sense, and could go a long way toward improving services to customers, while also allowing employees to take the vacations they earn, deserve, and need.