Aquinnah residents will gather at 7 pm at town hall on Tuesday to vote on two dozen articles at annual town meeting, including a request to spend over $135,000 to repair town buildings. Officials have noted that town offices need work, while other articles are for $40,000 to resurface town parking lots (article eighteen) and $10,000 to replace electric vehicle chargers (article nine).
Voters can also approve $250,000 for phase two of renovations to the public playground underway behind town hall (article 22), $180,000 of which would be borrowed over 10 years.
For article 21, voters can designate nearly $200,000 from existing community preservation reserves, including to help pay for the town’s Carl Widdiss Way apartments near town hall, for affordable rent subsidy, and for improvements to affordable housing for the Island Autism Group.
For article five, voters can approve a debt exclusion for the up-Island regional school district to borrow $200,000 to pay for repairs to district facilities, which will then appear as a ballot question at the town election on May 15 (Although the question will be on the ballot, an article to consider another debt exclusion for $700,000 to study improvements to the West Tisbury School will be withdrawn, as that measure did not pass West Tisbury’s annual town meeting).
Voters can also accept a seasonal community designation from Massachusetts (article eight), allowing their town to provide a residential tax exemption up to 50 percent and adopt bylaws or ordinances for construction of tiny houses, among other tools.
Voters can also approve $21,000 from community preservation reserves to help the Aquinnah Cultural Center and Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish group to preserve historically significant traits for wampum in quahogs, using breeding and other tools.
Voters will also decide on $15,000 to build a kennel for town animal control (article seven), $15,000 for a handicap wheelchair for town beach access (article 10), and whether to impose a .75-percent tax on restaurant meal sales.
