After contentious debate, Aquinnah took a step to transfer ownership of properties near the Cliffs from the town to someone who would create a space for cultural and educational uses. Aquinnah voters crowded inside the town hall Tuesday to review and approve 31 articles for this year’s annual town meeting.
Though there was some heated discussion on the contents of the warrant, especially around ownership and use of town-owned property at Aquinnah Circle North, all of the articles passed in the end. Voters head to the polls on Thursday, between noon and 8 pm, to cast their votes on several uncontested races, as well as three requests by the town to use real estate and property taxes to support school budgets and pay for bonds to repair town facilities.
There were 87 residents checked in to vote, which surpassed the necessary quorum, though some articles had vote counts that were higher.
The session started at 6:30 pm with a moment of silence for Islanders lost in the last year, and included recognition of Roxane Ackerman, who was town constable and a representative on the Up-Island Regional School Committee for the town, and Gabriella Camilleri, who was Aquinnah town clerk. There was also an acknowledgement of several retirements — highway supervisor Jay Smalley from the department of public works, harbormaster and shellfish warden Chip Vanderhoop, and finance committee chair Allen Rugg. Chief of Police for Aquinnah Randhi Belain acknowledged the retirement of Sgt. Paul Manning, who served the police department for 24 years.
The warrant article that brought most debate was introduced by NaDaizja Bolling, director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center, and concerned two parcels at Aquinnah Circle North. The article requested that voters approve the select board to start a process to transfer ownership of that space, excepting the lighthouse, to someone that could create a space for cultural and educational uses near the Cliffs.
An amendment by Bolling to the language in the article that was mostly clerical eventually passed, but only after several people said they wanted to make amendments, and a request to table the whole discussion failed. The parcels, which don’t have a well or septic, were purchased by the town to be used as open space more than a decade ago, but there’s been no progress on that front.
Jamie O’Brien, alternate for the finance committee, said that the properties hold an assessed value of $3.7 million, and that they are taxpayer-owned and town-owned properties. “We are obviously not flush with cash here in this town, and I think we can little afford to gift away these properties,” he said. He asked that the properties not be limited to cultural and educational uses, as stated in the then-proposed article, but be considered for commercial purposes. O’Brien’s proposed amendment wasn’t heard.
Kristina Hook, an Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe elder, made a plea to the crowd: “Please, let us go ahead and make it cultural … There are still those of us who have generationally been here, some of us have been here and gone away and come back. We always come back. Because I am Aquinnah. My circle is complete on this ground. It’s one of the few places to go up to the head of the Cliffs and feel that energy. It’s one of the few places that can be returned to give our people an opportunity to share with everybody what we know about Gay Head.”
Bolling clarified that the article requests that a process to transfer ownership be enabled, and that the Aquinnah Cultural Center would love to put forward a proposal for the space, but approval of the article didn’t ask for or guarantee them as the new owners.
The article passed the required two-thirds vote, 50 to 24.
The town’s budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, passed at $7.67 million. Howard Goldstein, the new chair of the finance committee, said that budgets across the state have seen an increase between eight and 10 percent this year. Aquinnah’s budget, however, only increased 3.7 percent, the lowest of all the Island towns, he said.
“For the average Aquinnah resident in an average home — the average value of a home is $1.55 million — it means $397 a year,” Goldstein said. He added that 95 percent of the budget is nondiscretionary expenses, ones the town can’t really change.
Several expenditure requests were passed quickly, such as funds to improve town buildings; replace technology at the police station and other town offices; pay a grant writer; and complete the playground and make repairs to the basketball court behind the fire station.
Voters also passed the article to establish a bylaw that designates the town of Aquinnah as a “Fourth Amendment Workplace Community,” which recently passed in Chilmark. The designation aims to protect employees from unlawful searches, and requires federal agents to have warrants to enter businesses in town.
Voters passed a “borrowing article” for $300,000 for repairs to the trim and windows at the fire station and town offices. The vote Tuesday authorized the select board to borrow that much money, but is contingent upon a debt exclusion vote, which is one of the questions on the ballot Thursday. If that question passes a majority vote, the select board can borrow the money. The consequence is that taxes would increase to pay the loan for the life of the bond.
The same is true for the question on the ballot about the town parking lot.
Funds to repair the restrooms at the Aquinnah Cliffs also passed, though some members of the audience said that $125,000 was too low a number.
Voters also approved the select board establishing a property tax exemption that would ease the burden on permanent residents. An actual percentage for the tax exemption can now be determined by the select board at a later date.
The rest of the articles, such as $46,300 for a rapid food-waste recycler, authorization of the select board to increase the lease area on the Carl Widdis Way property for development of more units, and a ban on timeshares, passed in the last 30 minutes of the 3½-hour-long session.