West Tisbury voters demonstrated their opposition to a synthetic turf field at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) during their special town meeting on Tuesday.
The special meeting was called after three up-Island towns voted down the high school budget earlier this year.
West Tisbury was the first town during the annual town meeting season to reject funding its share of the budget in protest against the lawsuit the high school committee filed against the Oak Bluffs planning board over the board’s decision to reject a proposed synthetic turf field because of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) concerns. The two parties are pursuing a resolution to the litigation.
There was little discussion before voters decided to pass the town’s share of the MVRHS budget on Tuesday night, which was $3.4 million.
However, voters did step up to the mic after amendments to the warrant article were proposed. One requested a commitment that no anonymous donations over $5,000 for “legal action, experts, project design, and permitting related to any and all plastic fields” could be used for the high school campus.
The other asked the high school for a commitment to an “all-grass MVRHS campus with no plastic fields.” These amendments were approved in Chilmark, with a slight modification, and will be voted on during Aquinnah’s special town meeting.
Both votes passed overwhelmingly.
When the amendments were requested, West Tisbury town moderator Dan Waters referred to the town meeting manual, and said amendments needed to stay within the “scope” of the original warrant article. He said this was because anyone who did not come to the meeting would not have had prior knowledge the topics would be covered.
“However, anybody who has a brain and has been listening to this discussion for a while knows full well that it’s going to come up one way or another,” Waters said, pointing out the reason the special town meeting was called in the first place.
While he needs to follow the town meeting rules, Waters proposed having a “sense of the room” vote on these resolutions.
Some voters voiced concern about anonymous donations, including the possibility of unknown bigger donors pushing the direction of the athletic field project without local interests in mind.
“Many of us felt that because those donors were not identified, it was impossible to tell what might be influencing the school committee,” West Tisbury resident Doug Ruskin said.
West Tisbury Select Board chair Skipper Manter, who is also on the high school committee, questioned how the committee would be influenced by anonymous donations if they did not know who the donor was.
A voice opposing this amendment came from Erik Hammarlund, who said the school committee members who were voted in should not be micromanaged, and trusted to do their jobs. He also said blocking this “subset of anonymous donations” for the field could be applied to other donations for different school efforts.
“Once we begin the idea of selectively controlling the school committee and selectively controlling the school, I think that sets a bad precedent for the future,” he said.
Ruskin pointed out the amendment was specifically regarding the athletic field project.
There was a proposed change to the all-grass MVRHS resolution, suggesting an additional commitment to funding the maintenance of the grass fields, but voters shot that down.
Eventually, voters were in support of a commitment to no anonymous donations above $5,000 in a vote of 94-30.
In a similar ratio, 92 voted in support of a commitment to an all-grass MVRHS campus, compared with 31 who were against.
Meanwhile, two articles requesting permission to appropriate funds were passed by majority vote. Article one, which asked to put $13,250 into the reserve fund, did require another vote because a quorum was not present when it was initially approved.
Synthetic turf
Off season I live in PA where there are small colleges with synthetic turf. Eastern University just replace their turf with more turf after about 10 years. The old turf was faded, dirty, and embedded with Goose scat. The old turf is hanging around leaching plastic into the soil. The new turf is now covered with goose scat. It doesn’t dissolve into the soil like it would on real grass. Have the towns considered the cost of maintaining and replacing synthetic turf and the wear it causes on the players bodies as the base is usually harder than a dirt base. I have pictures but don’t know how to post them
So, you had trouble getting a quorum just to have a meeting and then less than 100 people feel that there shouldn’t be anonymous donations and that the campus should be all grass. Yeah, that is definitely how the majority of people feel on MV about the field project (sarcasm noted). These requests are hypocritical at best. So, if someone wishes to donate $10,000.00 to the band program anonymously they can’t now? NO, this is just for the field project. That is ridiculous. So, between the up island towns who had, at most, 200 people vote for these non-binding resolutions the entire island now has to do it, I don’t think so. We already know the request to require an all grass campus is illegal, you can’t restrict the use of public lands, so get off that kick. This is bad politics, Erik Hammarlund is correct, towns can not expect to micromanage the schools “Once we begin the idea of selectively controlling the school committee and selectively controlling the school, I think that sets a bad precedent for the future,”. Doug, I didn’t hear you objecting when the Field Fund wanted to donate all that money to make the fields all grass. Oh, wait, the Field Fund didn’t donate anything to the high school did they? No, they have just cost the taxpayers $500k when they reneged on their promises.
Patrick– In our system it doesn’t matter how many people vote. It matters who gets the most votes. (sometimes) trump only got 62 million votes out of a country of 323 million.
Only 5 people voted for the turf field. Only 2 in O.B voted against, but by the rules, that stopped it.
It’s illegal to request an all grass field ?
Really ?
Please tell me the logic behind that one !
Don you really haven’t been following this that closely then have you? The Field Fund tried to force the school to commit to an agreement of an all grass campus for ten years. This is why they claim they withdrew their money. It was determined that you can not “restrict” the use of public lands. Forcing to commit to an all grass campus, thus restricting its use, is not legal.
Let vote for something 15 times and then 3 yrs later vote against it in a non binding way. Sounds like petulant children who didn’t get their way. If the meeting was about a desperately needed field for our athletes especially the field hockey athletes then the place would have been packed in favor just like 3 yrs ago.
” So, if someone wishes to donate $10,000.00 to the band program anonymously they can’t now? ”
Right.
There should be no anonymous donations to public school projects.
Because all such projects also use public monies.
The books need to be open.
All of this so kids can play silly meaningless games where causing physical injuries is just part of the fun.
That is why in football you always hit as hard as you can.
Thanks to the rabid Conservatives, Liberals, Progressives and their ilk we have the most expensive grass in the world.