Oak Bluffs selectmen crossed their t’s and dotted their i’s on the six-article warrant for a special town meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 7 pm at the Oak Bluffs School.
Items include conveying two town-owned parcels of land located at 3 Eastville Ave. and a piece of property abutting 18 Prospect Ave., labeled 0 Prospect Ave. on assessor maps, for the purpose of affordable housing, to be built by Habitat for Humanity.
Affordable housing committee member Jim Bishop told selectmen neither parcel has a clear title, preventing them from getting title insurance and bank financing. The town has held onto the parcels for “pretty much forever,” according to Bishop.
Bishop said only a group like Habitat for Humanity is willing to build on the lots because they don’t need bank financing.
Once built, priority would be for Oak Bluffs families to move into the single-family homes.
Voters will also decide on approving $689,000 to restore the beach and repair and replace the groin system on the beach at the North Bluffs. The funds are a 25 percent match to a $2 million Municipal Vulnerability Program Action Grant. Work is intended to begin next month, and be completed by the beginning of 2020.
Other items include $600,000 to pay for engineering work on the initiation of the wastewater treatment facility conceptual design, layout of sewers, and other planning designs for wastewater infrastructure, $22,500 to fund an assessors clerk position for fiscal year 2020, and $10,000 to the Cemetery Perpetual Care Account for the upkeep of the Oak Grove Cemetery.
Voters will also decide whether to increase elected constables from two to three, starting with the 2020 annual town election.