The town is setting aside $442,000 for a new harbor patrol boat, and to potentially reimburse the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a grant it received on the boat that recently sank.
At a meeting Monday, the board of selectmen began reviewing budgets and town meeting articles. The board only touched on it briefly, but the harbor patrol boat appears to be the biggest ticket item that will go before voters.
“It’s a placeholder amount,” town administrator Jay Grande said, without mentioning the amount. “I assume it will be much less.”
Selectman Jim Rogers added, “It’s quite a boat for $442,000.”
At a meeting earlier this month, the board of selectmen voted to declare the sunken and damaged boat a “constructive total loss” because of the amount of expected repairs. A marine surveyor’s report found that an unsecured hatch led to the sinking of the boat, which cost $225,000 when it was delivered in 2011. The boat was never able to do what it was supposed to do — its firefighting capabilities were suspect in part because the fire department was never consulted in the design.
There was scant discussion of the boat or other proposed warrant articles. With selectman Jeff Kristal absent, Grande said he wants to schedule a full meeting to discuss the budget and warrant articles.
In the brief update he did give the board, Grande said the town is looking to put $1.95 million back into stabilization after agreeing at a special town meeting to spend $450,000 for the emergency at Tisbury School, related to moving students because of lead and asbestos. The $1.5 million set aside for lead and asbestos remediation also came from stabilization, which is essentially the town’s savings account.
Grande said the remediation to date has cost between $400,000 and $500,000, so some of the money approved at special town meeting may be returned.
Meanwhile, in a 2-0 vote, selectmen approved a $240,000 contract for Tappé Architects to design the school addition and renovation. Tappé was to be introduced to town residents Tuesday night.
Selectmen approved $14,600 for teachers who had to work additional hours before the school year started to facilitate moving some Tisbury School students to a wing of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. Some questions were raised about $4,000 being paid to an individual school employee, but rather than hold up the payment, selectmen chair Melinda Loberg and Rogers agreed to approve it with the stipulation that Grande would ask school officials for an explanation.
In other business, Ross Seavey was approved as the conditional building commissioner. Seavey was hired as the local inspector in August, and replaced longtime building inspector Kenneth Barwick. Seavey has passed the necessary tests for the conditional appointment, Loberg said.
Seavey said the process is such that he will now have to pass another series of tests over the next 12 to 18 months to lose the “conditional” status. His salary was set at $80,096.
One of the town meeting articles discussed would provide $70,000 for the building department to fully implement a new computer software program for permitting and inspections. “Everyone is roaring and ready to go,” Seavey said.
The short-term rental task force is looking for about $50,000 to hire a consultant to help implement the registration and inspection process, Grande said. A request for proposals has been issued, seeking competitive bids.
Thus far, the town has been underwhelmed by the returns of the new tax on AirBnB and other short-term rentals. Though it was bundled with hotel and inn taxes, finance director Jon Snyder said the tax on short-term rentals amounted to about $40,000. “It hasn’t been a boon,” he said, though he noted that not everyone had registered, and he expected more returns next summer.
On Monday, the town posted a one-page summary on its website of what people need to do to comply with the law. At town meeting, voters will be asked to establish two stabilization funds — one to collect funds raised through short-term rentals, and the other to collect money from two marijuana facilities proposed on Mechanic’s Street, Grande said.
During the budget discussion, Grande said $18,000 is being set aside in the selectmen’s budget for the school building committee, including about $2,000 for travel, along with other needs. The budget also reflects a desire to add an employee appreciation dinner to acknowledge town workers on an annual basis, he said.
Rogers said selectmen would still like a mechanism to provide a birthday cake for longtime employees, or to send flowers when someone loses a loved one. Grande said the town has run into roadblocks with the law in doing that.
“We talked about that last year, and we were told, ‘No, no, you can’t do that.’ But other towns do it, so I’m sick of hearing, ‘No you can’t do that’,” Rogers said. “I want to see why we can’t do that. If we can’t do that, show me in legal writing why you can’t do that.”
The Town of Tisbury is so out of control, they don’t even realize it. Another $200,000 plus in tax hikes because-we don’t insure our boat for what it’s worth-what was the insurance payment. And another quarter of a million bucks for another school plan. Have we lost our minds and our wallets.
It really is a sad state of affairs in Tisbury, especially when town officials are more concerned about the restrictions around them purchasing cake and flowers….
The most foolish waste of money in my opinion is the $50K in hiring a consultant to implement the short term rental tax. Tisbury already sent out a letter telling homeowners who do short term rentals to register at MA Taxconnect and pay their taxes. It’s not rocket science, why waste another $50K of tax payer money? Especially when the town only made $40K from the short term rental tax this year…. just completely wipe out all the proceeds. Typical Tisbury.
Tizberry, educate yourself before making statements that are inaccurate
Did the town ever get a clear understanding of why the boat sank ,specifically of who was actually responsible. I read that Harbormaster Crocker was on vacation when the results were released at town meeting, but I don’t understand if he left the boat with a storm approaching and the boat is a total loss why he is not being held accountable. This not a small amount of money for the town to absorb for negligence. Did i miss something ?
A really big case of Other People’s Money. A really bad approach to governance – even if “just a placeholder”. I feel like this is a horrible game of chicken where I will be the one who blinks first – as I sell my home and leave this silly place.
J. P. , You have a case of second homeowners syndrome! When you don’t understand governance, such as a placeholder, then take to online social media comments rather than educate yourself, makes you part of the problem. It should not be hard for you to sell your house, your mother is one of the best realtors on the island. Bye
I am very well educated on this matter – you may recall my comment related to the sinking of the boat that was never used. Further, the never used boat consumed rentable dock space. Rather than move forward thoughtfully, e.g., purchase a simple pump based fire hose for the harbormaster’s boat, this is the potential solution?
Well, maybe less focus on cake and more focus on spending would help…
Anyone held accountable for sinking the boat yet? Priorities Tisbury!
I don’t understand how people here can criticize the town for overspending– They just spent 6 months repairing the intersection of Franklin and center street, and then managed to get close to fixing the “repair” in only about 3 weeks..You gotta admit , that’s impressive– And that was in addition to the absolutely essential job of replacing all the perfectly good street signs around town with perfectly good street signs. The town workers seem to be hard working people, but they can’t help the decisions of the administration– the administrators of course get the big bucks to decide the important stuff. What’s a measly half million for a boat when you are spending other people’s money–
Bartender– another round !
I’m sure Jay Wilbur will pay his fair share.
The selectmen are looking for a mechanism to provide a cake for longtime employees like Stevie Nichols before they fire them without due process. Or maybe they get the cake when they are reinstated?
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