West Tisbury select board authorizes warrants

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The West Tisbury select board voted to approve annual and special town meeting warrants on Wednesday. -Rich Saltzberg

At a short meeting Wednesday, the West Tisbury select board unanimously approved a 48-article annual town meeting warrant and a one-article special town meeting warrant. The annual town meeting is slated for May 18 at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs, at 5 pm. The special town meeting will take place 10 minutes earlier at the same location. 

Having done so at previous meetings, the board didn’t deliberate over the contents of the warrants. The annual warrant contains a $300,000 Proposition 2½ override meant to stabilize the budget and preserve free cash. It also contains a $100,000 appropriation for the repair of the Tiah’s Road culvert — the subject of much back and forth in past meetings. In other articles, voters will be asked to amend a personnel bylaw to allow for the annual observance of Juneteenth Independence Day, to appropriate $30,000 for a rope rail and dune barrier project at Lambert’s Cove Beach, and to pay West Tisbury’s share of a $2.2 million roof repair for the Tabernacle: $110,000. 

The special town meeting will ask the sole question of whether voters wish to petition the legislature for a legal name change from West Tisbury selectmen to West Tisbury select board. 

In other business, the board unanimously approved the appointment of library director Alexandra Pratt to the town’s diversity task force, and also unanimously appointed associate conservation commission member Donna Paulnock as a full member. 

Town administrator Jennifer Rand reminded the board that April 9 at 5 pm is the deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the election. The annual town election is set for April 15, from 7 am to 8 pm. A special election for the Proposition 2½ override will take place on May 20 from 11 am to 7 pm.