It’s that time of year when any registered voter can sit in the West Tisbury School gym, the Old Whaling Church or the PAC to make their voice heard, amend town budgets, or agree to big spending requests that will reshape their town. And it all begins tonight.
Oak Bluffs, West Tisbury, and Edgartown are all having annual town meetings Tuesday evening, and the topics range from banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers to funding sewer projects to mitigate nitrogen pollution.
In West Tisbury, voters could set a new or old course for Mill Pond, deciding on whether to form a committee looking to preserve the iconic landscape. Edgartown will revisit the so-called party bylaw after an attempt last year fell just short and look at funding the design of sewers for a section of town. And Oak Bluffs, the big ticket item could be sewer infrastructure as well.
West Tisbury
5:55 pm at the West Tisbury School. Warrant available here
West Tisbury voters could set the tone for the future of Mill Pond, and they’ll debate a long-discussed event bylaw — those are just a few of the requests among more than 60 town meeting articles up for approval on Tuesday.
A highly anticipated vote will come near the end — article 64 — to form the Mill Pond Preservation Committee. “Mill Pond … is so significant and central to the history, the landscape and the wildlife of West Tisbury,” the citizen’s petition states.
This follows the town’s Mill Brook Watershed Committee, formed in 2014, recommending in February to return the pond to its natural state by removing spillway boards and a dam, noting damage to water quality in the pond.
Voters will decide a long-sought event regulation in articles 31, 32, and 41. These define an event as a gathering for a range of purposes with more than 100 simultaneous guests for over an hour, and restrict a property owner to one such event per calendar year, with further events requiring a special permit.
Voters will also decide a leaf blower bylaw, article 40; this appears in all town meetings except Aquinnah’s.
This phases out gas-powered leaf blowers by June 1, 2028, restricts all blowers to certain hours, and bans them on Sundays.
Voters will also decide on a ballot question for a $1.6 million general budget override in article 3. Officials have pointed to inflationary pressures for the increase in the budget. That will have to be approved at the ballot on Thursday as well.
Oak Bluffs
7 pm at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center. Warrant available here
A bylaw restricting Jet Ski use, banning gas-powered leaf blowers, and proposing hefty borrowing for a new pump station will be coming before Oak Bluffs voters next week at the annual town meeting.
The largest spending project the town is considering is gathering $2.5 million for the replacement of a pump station on Dukes County Avenue. The new pump station would be elevated, to address storm surges. This funding is contingent upon both voters’ approval and passage at the ballot for a Proposition 2.5 debt exclusion.
Oak Bluffs residents are also facing a proposed $42.28 million town budget, a more than 6 percent increase to the current $40.28 million budget. And there are several large-expense warrant articles for voters to consider, such as vehicle purchases and a proposed $335,000 to bid for and hire consultants to develop the Oak Bluffs Coastal Resilience Plan.
There is a series of proposed bylaws for voters to review, including updating the town’s accessory dwelling unit regulations to align with state laws.
The proposed Jet Ski bylaw would restrict personal watercraft to 6 mph in the Oak Bluffs sections of Sengekontacket and Lagoon Ponds. It arose with town officials worried about riders unsafely operating Jet Skis and potentially damaging shellfish beds.
Edgartown
7 pm at the Old Whaling Church. Warrant available here
Edgartown voters are facing potential leaf-blower bans, a $2 million request for sewer designs, and the return of the party bylaw in the upcoming town meeting.
The largest spending request is $2 million to complete the first phase of preliminary design work and state Department of Environmental Protection permitting for a sewer system in Ocean Heights. This is a part of the town’s 20-year effort to curtail the amount of nitrogen that flows into town watersheds like Sengekontacket Pond and Edgartown Great Pond.
Among other spending articles, one that has caught the attention of local beach access activists is a town request to use $27,400 to share half the costs with the Trustees of Reservations for environmental consulting toward bulkhead repairs and reconstruction at Dike Bridge. Covering the costs of Dike Bridge has been stalled by a dispute over ownership and which of the two entities is responsible for maintenance.
Edgartown voters are also facing a proposed $49.35 million budget for fiscal year 2026, an increase of a little over 6 percent from the fiscal year 2025 budget of $46.5 million.
There is a series of proposed bylaw changes as well, such as updating accessory dwelling regulations to align with the state laws, and an events bylaw restricting how and when events can be held — a hotly debated holdover from last year’s town meeting dubbed the “party bylaw.”
There is also a citizens’ petition, Article 87, aimed at blocking a potential affordable-housing project on Chappaquiddick. Opponents of the proposed project have cited environmental concerns during Edgartown affordable-housing committee meetings.
The Edgartown town election will be held at Town Hall on Thursday, April 10, from 10 am to 7 pm.
