West Tisbury selectmen breezed through four agenda items in a 24-minute meeting last Wednesday afternoon. Topping the agenda was approval of a measure that would allow the Martha’s Vineyard Refuse Disposal & Resource Rediscovery District to borrow money for a proposed capital project aimed at improving the Edgartown transfer station.
In 2015, voters in the four towns that make up the refuse district — Edgartown, West Tisbury, Chilmark, and Aquinnah — authorized the issuance of up to $2,500,000 in bonds for capital improvements designed to restructure traffic flow and the residential drop-off section at the district’s Edgartown transfer station.
John Powers, West Tisbury board of health agent, told The Times Thursday that voter approval was not made within the 45-day time period required once the refuse district committee approved the borrowing. “It wasn’t done within that time period, so what we are trying to do is get that corrected so that the borrowing can take place,” Mr. Powers said.
State Rep. Tim Madden, and his Martha’s Vineyard liaison, Kaylea Moore, are attempting to resolve the matter.
Representative Madden will file a bill on behalf of the four towns to correct the error, which is expected to win easy approval. “They believe that it won’t be a problem,” Mr. Powers said.
“Some of our bylaws need to be revised,” Don Hatch, Martha’s Vineyard Refuse District director, told The Times Thursday.
Mr. Hatch said the refuse district board did not push the towns into a meeting at the 45-day mark, but went straight for the annual town meetings, which were all over the 45-day deadline.
“When I went to the bonding company, they went through our bylaws and caught that sentence, and denied us borrowing the money until we corrected that issue,” Mr. Hatch said.
That left two options: Ask lawmakers to approve the borrowing, or go back and revote all four towns again.
Once Representative Madden has heard from all the boards of selectmen in the member towns, he will proceed. Edgartown is next.
Once the bill is passed, Mr. Hatch can go back to his lenders to borrow the project money.
“The reason I’d really like to keep things moving is that asphalt and concrete and oil prices are low, so we can save a lot of money moving forward sooner rather than later,” he said. “When oil prices drop, so does the price of asphalt, and it will save the district and towns a lot of money.”
Mr. Hatch is not sure how long the legislation will take to get through the State House — it depends on schedules — but he is hoping it is passed before the April annual town meetings.
In other business last week, selectmen reviewed cemetery regulations, discussed changes to the town snow policy, and decided to wait on making a new appointment to the facilities maintenance committee.