Compost, override passed in Chilmark

Updated April 28.

Citizens’ petitions were the talk of Chilmark residents at their annual town meeting, from compost initiatives to a stand against federal surveillance. 

Voters filed into the local community center on Monday evening as the sun was setting behind them. Quite a few of the warrant articles they were to decide on had been proposed by residents themselves. 

The fates of public services budgets, food waste recyclers, paid family leave for municipal employees, and additional funding for a historic boat renovation were all decided on, with loud “ayes” and “nays” echoing through the room. There were a few hotly contested warrant articles among the 34 that were proposed to voters, which residents were concerned could skew the town in unintended directions, such as new definitions for wetland setbacks.

A budget override for $368,000 was initially approved by voters, largely encompassing up-Island school district assessment costs, but the item will go before Chilmark townspeople again in ballot form at town elections on April 29, at the Chilmark Community Center from noon to 8 pm. 

Every town on the Vineyard requested a budget override to bypass Proposition 2½, a state limit to the amount that can be collected through property taxes, during this town meeting cycle. Chilmark joined the ranks of three other towns by voting the override through on Monday. 

A citizens’ petition that residents heavily pushed town officials for was a new mode of food-waste recycling. The petition proposed to purchase a $60,000 food-waste recycler for Chilmark’s local drop-off. 

The Chilmark Select Board had declined to add the warrant article itself because board members were concerned that plans for the use and possible contamination of compost were not fleshed out appropriately by Island Grown Initiative (IGI), which led the request. 

“The select board didn’t feel the proposal was concise enough,” select board member Matt Poole said. 

Representatives from IGI approached the select board three times throughout the off-season with plans for the composting machine, but board members said they requested new information that was never provided by the nonprofit. Still, the warrant article ultimately made it before voters, and Chilmark residents were largely in support of it. 

“Trash is, in fact, our Island’s largest export,” Chilmark resident Jessica Mason said. Mason said the amount of methane gas released into the environment by food waste is staggering. “We know that many many people here want access to something that is more environmentally friendly.”

Poole clarified that the select board was in support of the food-waste recycler, but proposed an amendment as an individual and resident of the town that would include a four-month testing period for its efficacy and also the formation of a town subcommittee that would oversee its use. 

The amendment was ultimately voted down, with the two hopefuls for the upcoming open select board seat, Rebecca Haag, the former IGI executive director on the town ballot, and write-in candidate Katie Carroll, who runs Menemsha Texaco, split on the issue. Haag voted against the amendment with the majority of Chilmarkers, and Carroll voted for it. 

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School freshman Emmy Treitman and West Tisbury School eighth grader Violet Simon supported the article. While the pair were too young to vote in favor of the proposed item, they highlighted its importance to the next generation of Islanders. 

“The environment and the way we treat it is very important to me,” Treitman said. “You have the power to vote yes tonight. We don’t, and we are counting on you to vote for us.” 

While much of the town meeting was a chance for the nearly 150 voters to look to the future, they also acknowledged the past. 

Longtime select board member Warren Doty, who died in March, was honored with a moment of silence to start the meeting. Marie Larsen, the chair of the select board, who is not seeking re-election, was also thanked for her service to the town by her colleagues. 

Larsen said her time on the select board gave her a “deeper appreciation for this town and the people who make it what it is.”

Town moderator Janet Weidner and other speakers outlined a comprehensive history of town moderators in the mid-1770s during the American Revolution. Town meetings, with local democratic action, were guiding forces for residents through turbulent times. 

“Town meeting was important then, and it’s important now,” Weidner said.

Individuals from Chilmark families that have been on the Island for generations, like the Mayhews and Tiltons, were town officials back then, leading the Island’s politics forward. On Monday night, their descendants sat in metal-backed chairs to vote on warrant articles that would influence the fabric of the town they lived in 250 years later. 

Two additional citizens’ petitions were proposed on Monday. One was to make Chilmark a Fourth Amendment workplace town, and the other was to protect citizens against surveillance. The proposals were from a new local organization called M.V. 4A, which is made up of about 80 volunteers who have campaigned this winter for immigrant protections on the Vineyard against unlawful searches and seizures by federal immigration enforcers. 

The categorization as a Fourth Amendment workplace is a municipal designation aimed to protect employees from unlawful searches and require federal agents to have warrants to enter businesses. It was passed overwhelmingly by voters on Monday night, as was the proposal to protect citizens from being surveilled through the deployment of license recognition using automated license plate readers. 

“I want Chilmark businesses to understand their Fourth Amendment rights,” Jane Katch, a volunteer for M.V. 4A, said to voters about the designation. Katch said Aquinnah also adopted the designation this year: “It’s the Island way. We take care of ourselves, and we take care of each other.”

Paid family leave for municipal workers was passed by voters, along with an official name change of Columbus Day, which voters replaced with Indigenous People’s Day. They also added Juneteenth to the list of town-recognized holidays. 

Meanwhile, $100,000 was approved for the restoration of Little Lady, a historic fishing vessel that had been transported from Menemsha waters to Island boatbuilders Gannon and Benjamin in Vineyard Haven last spring. The same amount was approved at the Chilmark town meeting last year. While a community campaign to fundraise for the project is underway, the Fishermen’s Preservation Trust said the $1.4 million goal for the project has not been reached. 

Chilmark planning board member Rich Osnoss requested that a bylaw to further regulate short-term rentals be tabled indefinitely after hearing from townspeople. The board feared the amended bylaw could negatively impact year-round homeowners who rely on income from renting out their homes in the summer. 

“We understood from input that many people in town rent their homes for additional income, and we wanted to maintain that tradition,” Osnoss said. 

Funds to go toward town-supported housing initiatives, such as units for veterans on Bellevue Avenue in Oak Bluffs, affordable units for individuals with autism through Island Autism Group in West Tisbury, and the adoption of the Housing Production Plan in Chilmark, were passed unanimously, with resounding “ayes” from the rows of residents in the community center. 

But a proposal to change the setback limits in relation to great ponds was met with scrutiny, with some Chilmarkers wary of extending buffer zones near wetlands. A warrant article to add 100 feet to the buffers between homes and ponds and update an existing related bylaw was passionately debated. 

“We are greatly concerned about the health of the ponds,” Stephen Kass, a Chilmark conservation commissioner, said in support of the warrant article. He cited worsening cyanobacteria blooms and increasing nitrogen loads. Kass said that the proposal “is not a silver bullet … but it is a first step.”

Some residents disagreed, and pointed out that the framing of the bylaw was potentially open to interpretation by the conservation commission, and could affect year-round homeowners financially, such as by being denied building permits. 

“This creates unpredictable costs for the residents,” Marc Natichioni, a Chilmark resident, said. “It’s just another hoop that you have to jump through.”

The warrant article was eventually passed, with setbacks for newly built homes and projects extended to 200 feet from Chilmark ponds. 

An awaited proposal for new cell towers through Verizon will be decided in a few days; the warrant article was postponed by town officials. The item will be on ballots at town elections, where Chilmark residents can cast their votes regarding budget overrides, cell service upgrades, and a new select board member. 

Editor’s note: Updated to reflect that an amendment on a warrant article was made by select board member Matt Poole as an individual, not a representative of the town.