Edgartown select board approved 92-article annual and special town meeting warrants on Monday. Voters at the April 12 town meeting will consider the town budget, which reflects a 3.09 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, town administrator James Hagerty told the board. The budget increase is equivalent to only $235,000, due to a maturing debt of about $952,000, he said.
Hagerty reviewed some of the key articles on the warrant, one of which refers to town plans to transform the Meshacket capped landfill into a leased solar field, which is anticipated to generate between $9 million and $12 million within the towns’ two-decade lease period.
Another article considers a permanent easement for recreation offered by an unnamed benefactor in the Bay Road area of Edgartown.
A handful of articles contribute $2.3 million to “various stabilization funds” that will ultimately help in backing future town projects. This includes a $2 million allocation toward Edgartown’s capital stabilization fund, and $350,000 for general stabilization and fire truck funds.
In other business, Hagerty discussed plans to conduct an engineering study of Chappaquiddick, to assess vulnerable areas due to climate change, in order to “implement some sort of change to be sustainable over the next decade.”
Additionally, the select board unanimously appointed lone candidate Kathryn E. Putnam to Martha’s Vineyard Commission as Edgartown’s representative.
“The commission today is as important, if not more important than it’s ever been. We’ve got so many environmental issues that we’re going to have to deal with coming up,” select board member Arthur Smadbeck said of the appointment.
