Tisbury Approves $15.9 Million Budget; School Funds Win Town Meeting
Vote

By JONATHAN BURKE

Tisbury residents kicked off the Island's season of annual
town meetings Tuesday with a bow to education and an endorsement of the
Dukes County Regional Housing Authority.

The police department had the roughest time during the two-night
annual town meeting. Following a narrowly approved request to upgrade
from 45-calibre sidearms to Glocks, voters defeated the
department's $58,000 request for two new cruisers.

A motion to reconsider the police cruiser article on night two did
not achieve the necessary two-thirds vote. Also coming up short
Wednesday night was a $50,000 town infrastructure study sponsored by the
town's cabinet.

Most items on the 22-article warrant passed without debate.

On night one, attended by 271 of the town's 2,531 registered
voters, residents took care of the big money articles. The $15,856,073
fiscal year 2004 budget, with a much anticipated $190,721 amendment to
the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School's $2.5 million
line item, was approved along with $422,900 in capital appropriations.

Money was flowing too freely for some folks.

Bill Nash, arguing against a $25,000 sidewalk along Oak Grove
Cemetery, said voters were being "fast and loose" with town
money.

Nat Benjamin also felt residents should be thriftier. When a request
for a $90,000 street sweeper came up, Mr. Benjamin said, "My
concern is taxes. I think a lot of us here are not willing to see our
taxes rise."

On the police department's request for two new cruisers, Mr.
Benjamin said that during the national oil crisis in the 1970s, police
officers drove VW bugs and rode bikes with no impact on public safety.

The police department's request for new cruisers was defeated
93-67; the cemetery sidewalk was defeated in a voice vote; voters backed
the new street sweeper for the Department of Public Works.

The most discussed item of the annual town meeting was education.
Some two dozen students attended night one in a show of support for the
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School's budget requests.

At the town meeting's outset, Paul Brissette made a motion to
take up the town's budget article, which included the high school
line, first. By bylaw, the order of the warrant articles normally is
determined by drawing numbered beads from a hat. But Mr. Brissette, an
art teacher at the high school, said that the students should not be
required to wait through the lottery system.

Most people agreed.

"Last year, the budget wasn't reached until 10
o'clock at night on the second day. By that time, many people who
had attended the meeting had left," said John Amabile, a town
resident.

Following Deborah Medders' read-through of the $15,856,073
annual budget, Ralph Friedman, high school committee member, moved a
$190,721 amendment to the high school's $2,492,014 line item.

"In the event that Chapter 70 or any other school aid funds
historically paid by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School District are paid in the
first instance to the town rather than the high school district ... then
any such funds so appropriated ... and received by the town (up to the
maximum of $190,721) shall be appropriated by this vote to meet
Tisbury's share of the high school district fiscal 2004 budget (as
approved by a vote of the school committee on Dec. 9, 2002)," read
Mr. Friedman from a prepared statement.

According to a purple leaflet being handed out prior to the meeting,
if the high school does not get additional funding from the towns,
"class sizes will balloon, and programs and electives will be
cut."

High school officials are appearing before all towns to claim a
portion of so-called transitional mitigation funds from the state. The
TMF funds cannot be entirely counted upon, but are designed to help
towns adjust to a drop in state aid that is expected to continue in
future years.

George Balco, chairman of the Tisbury finance and advisory board,
opposed the amendment.

"We're very disappointed and sad that the high school
committee does not realize the seriousness of the town's financial
picture," he said. He said the town was losing state aid just like
the high school, and that "everybody needs to give a little
bit."

Tom Pachico, selectman, asked whether Tisbury would be obligated to
come up with additional money to pay teachers even if the state does not
come up with the transitional funds.

Kriner Cash, superintendent of Island schools, painted a bleak
picture. "If this doesn't pass we have to go into a full RIF
[reduction in force] procedural mode," he said. In response to
another question, Mr. Cash took a shot at the state house. He said,
"These are governor Romney's ideas to the budget. He's
new to the state."

Mr. Friedman's amendment was accepted. Following a brief
discussion on the selectmen's budget, town voters passed the
budget unanimously.

A request to fund a share of the Dukes County Regional Housing
Authority's administrative expenses, the second most heralded
article on the town meeting warrant, received voter approval on night
two. In attendance were 121 voters, not quite 5 per cent of the voting
populace.

Joanna Jernegan, assistant to the town clerk and personally familiar
with affordable housing needs, spoke against the article.

"The need for affordable housing here on Martha's
Vineyard is only too obvious and too painful for too many people of
which I used to be one - I moved 31 times in eight and a half
years and was homeless with my children more than once," she said,
reading from a prepared statement.

But Ms. Jernegan said the housing authority has failed to prove
itself to the community. "If we start giving them money in spite
of doubts as to their viability and in spite of their failure to become
self-sustaining, we would also be sending our tax dollars to a group
over which we have virtually no control and no oversight," she
said.

Many people, however, spoke in support of the housing authority.

Tony Peak, chairman of the planning board, said the housing
authority exists not just to create affordable housing but also to
handle the administrative hurdles of running affordable housing such as
monitoring apartments, screening applicants and checking leases.
"All of these things are going to take a fair amount of
time," he said.

The article passed.

The town sleeper article this year was the police department's
$10,000 request for new handguns. Chief Theodore Saulnier wanted to
upgrade the department's 45-calibre guns to Glocks. Wear and tear
from roadside euthanizations and target practice had reduced the
dependability of the weapons, he said.

Many voters questioned the need for new firearms in a town where
people cannot remember a time when a weapon was discharged during the
commission of a crime.

"We are not an urban society," said Dennis Lopez.

But arguments for officer safety prevailed. Police officers should
not be required to take the chance that their gun may not discharge when
it is needed. Guns are tools of the trade and should be up to grade,
people reasoned. The article passed 111-74.

A proposed $50,000 infrastructure study was widely criticized. Ray
LaPorte and Tom Pachico, selectmen, were unable to gain voter support
for the item.

For the finance board, Mr. Balco said, "We certainly do agree
that the town's infrastructure needs study. However we have seen
no numbers or estimates as to whether $50,000 is an appropriate number.
Frankly, it seems high."

Mr. Peak said, "We all know what we have in the way of
infrastructure. We know we have a fire station falling down. We know we
have a police department in constant need of repairs."

But he said it was too early for an infrastructure study. He said
the planning is still tabulating results to its master plan survey. The
survey results will help direct an infrastructure study, he said.

Ayes were hard to hear when the article came up for a vote.

Other funding items considered and approved on night one were new
staff positions for the department of public works (DPW), site
remediation of the former DPW garage at 173 Spring St., the
certification of real and personal property, a motorcycle lease for the
police department, training for two new police officers and training for
a intermediate emergency medical technician.

On night two, voters also approved funding for refuse operations,
the Islandwide drug grant, a town hall survey and casualty insurance.
Voters also agreed to accept $38,000 from the Steamship Authority, to
appropriate $1.3 million in free cash to pay prior-year bills, to
increase fire inspection fees for smoke detectors and to establish
residency requirements for certain positions in the DPW.

And after one hot discussion, voters, 63-37, approved a bylaw to set
the hours for public business from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at town hall.
Ms. Jernegan led the charge for the bylaw.

She said a number of times, people have wandered into town hall on
Friday afternoons asking why nobody was in the annex office, across the
street from the Tisbury School playground.