Three Annual Town Meetings Open Tuesday:

West Tisbury

By IAN FEIN

West Tisbury voters will decide next week whether
they want to spend $655,000 to purchase a private home in North
Tisbury for use as a temporary town hall and, possibly, the future
police station.

The home, on the corner of State and Old Stage roads, is
expected to be the center of debate at the annual town meeting
Tuesday night. Town moderator F. Patrick Gregory will open the
37-article warrant at 7 p.m. in the West Tisbury School.

Also up for discussion is a $12.1 million fiscal year 2006
town budget, up $1.2 million or 11 per cent from this year. The
budget will likely be amended on the floor of town meeting down to
$11.9 million to reflect a $180,000 decrease in the Up-Island
Regional School District assessment.

Voters have consistently supported the town's growing budget,
and selectmen are hoping they will be in a similar spending mood next
week. However, selectmen know they might have a tough sell with the
North Tisbury home.

The proposal, which selectmen developed during a series of
closed sessions this winter, has been met with a great deal of
skepticism around town. At their regular weekly meeting on Wednesday,
selectmen struggled to determine which of them would argue in favor
of the proposal on town meeting floor.

"Who gets the short stick on that one?" asked executive
secretary Jennifer Rand.

"If you're going to go down, you might as well go down," said
selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter. Mr. Manter is also a police
sergeant who spearheaded the police station search this winter.

In response to criticism about the plan from voters and the
town finance committee, selectmen amended the request to include a
$25,000 feasibility study that will look at other possible police
station sites across town. If the North Tisbury home is purchased and
turns out not to be the best site, selectmen will consider reselling
it once the town hall renovation is complete and the various town
departments have moved out of the home.

If the North Tisbury site is the recommended location, a
study will determine how much money is needed to renovate the home
for municipal uses. Any further renovation costs will have to go
before a future town meeting. Selectmen do not yet have an estimate
for such costs, although they said they will have a number ready for
next week.

The purchase will require two-thirds approval on town meeting
floor, plus a simple majority as a Proposition 2 1/2 exemption
question on next week's town ballot.

Regardless of the possible future police station, town voters
will be asked in a separate article to spend another $10,000 to fix
air quality and mold issues with the current police station.

The police department is also looking for a $25,000 new Crown
Victoria cruiser - one of a fleet of four new town vehicles voters
will be asked to approve at town meeting. Separate warrant articles
request $270,000 for a fire department brush breaker truck, $41,000
for a highway department plowing truck, and $24,000 for an animal
control officer truck.

Another article asks for a $25,000 transfer to cover
increased legal spending in this year's budget. The board of
assessors is currently defending a costly property tax appeal, which
forced the town to transfer $10,000 from the reserve fund this winter
because the town had already overspent its original $25,000 budget.
If voters approve the latest transfer next week, it will put the
town's legal budget for the year at $60,000.

Two seemingly small appropriations that may inspire debate
are for the county veteran's agent. The county used to include the
agent in its overall assessment to the towns, but broke out the cost
as a separate charge this year. Towns across the Island have been
trying to figure out how - or whether - to pay the two $5,000 bills
for this year and next, and West Tisbury selectmen decided to put the
question to the voters. The finance committee gave a negative
recommendation to both related articles.

The finance committee also weighed in on the town's request
to raise town employee salaries by a cost of living adjustment of 3.8
per cent. The committee recommended a 3.4 per cent increase instead,
removing the so-called "Vineyard factor" that had been added to the
standard cost of living adjustment. Committee members argued that the
Vineyard factor works both ways, with higher wages as well as higher
costs.

West Tisbury voters will also be asked to take action on
three regional initiatives that appear on town meeting warrants in
all six Island towns: two nonbinding resolutions and an increased
transportation assessment to fund a two-year pilot program for the
Martha's Vineyard Regional Transit Authority (VTA). One resolution
asks voters to work toward a renewable energy Island and the other to
create a Martha's Vineyard Housing Bank.

The housing bank, if approved by the state legislature, would
serve as an affordable housing funding agency modeled after the
Martha's Vineyard Land Bank. The housing bank would raise affordable
housing funds through a one per cent fee assessed to the seller in
real estate transactions over $750,000.

For the VTA, West Tisbury residents are being asked for an
additional $57,000 to fund the program that would provide year-round
van service for residents traveling to the Seniors' Day Program in
Edgartown, and also extend some of the summer routes into the off
season.

Also on the warrant is a request from the planning board to
make three small changes to zoning bylaws, two of which are simply
fixing language to make the bylaws more readable. The other amendment
would remove a requirement that owners post a zoning notice on the
inside of unit doors.