West Tisbury voters will head to the annual town meeting on Tuesday, May 18, at 5 pm. Once again, the meeting will be held at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs. A special town meeting will take place 10 minutes earlier at the same location. The select board has reduced the voter quorum for the 48-article annual town meeting warrant and a one-article special town meeting warrant. Previously the quorum was “usually around 127,” town clerk Tara Whiting-Wells said Wednesday. The select board shrank that number to 30 (out of 2,675 registered voters).
The annual warrant contains a $300,000 Proposition 2½ override meant to stabilize the budget. Town accountant Bruce Stone said Wednesday the override is meant to provide budgetary flexibility.
“We’re a little unsure what our estimated receipts will be,” Stone said. “The override will help preserve free cash.”
The annual warrant also contains a $100,000 appropriation for the repair of the Tiah’s Road culvert — the subject of much back and forth in select board 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, and $257,600 for West Tisbury’s share of the cost to repair a portion of the West Tisbury School roof. The total cost of the roof repair to the Up-Island Regional School District is $322,000.
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.