A sweeping harbor improvement plan is now in the works for Menemsha thanks to a hefty grant awarded to the town of Chilmark this spring from the Massachusetts Seaport Advisory Council.

Chilmark selectmen discussed the plan at their weekly meeting Tuesday night, which calls for building new concrete and wooden docks throughout the pier system in the historic fishing village.

In the wake of the overwhelming votes this spring in five Island towns against the controversial roundabout project, a longtime member of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission has called for the regional planning agency to revisit its own position on the plan.

At the end of the MVC meeting Thursday night, Leonard Jason Jr. announced his intention to request a new vote on the controversial roundabout planned for the blinker intersection in Oak Bluffs.

The new Tisbury fire station, also known as the emergency services facility (ESF), will open in July according to building committee chairman Joe Tierney. The building was originally slated to open last July, and its opening date has been pushed back a number of times due to construction flaws and ongoing negotiations with the project’s architect and its contractors about payment. In February Mr. Tierney announced that the building would open April 1.

Delayed state approval for 2012 property assessments will force the town of Chilmark to operate on borrowed money for the early part of the fiscal year, the selectmen learned this week. Without certified assessments from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, the town cannot set a tax rate, and without a tax rate it cannot send out property tax bills for the second half of the year. Preliminary tax bills for the first half of the year went out in October.

The Chilmark selectmen endorsed a formal appeal to the U.S. Coast Guard’s rejected insurance claims for the Menemsha boathouse fire Tuesday night.

The selectmen unanimously voted to approve an appeal letter crafted by town counsel Ron Rappaport that questions the outcome of the investigation into the cause of the July 2010 fire and challenges the Coast Guard’s  dismissal of the claim due to the belief the fire started on town property.

Tisbury and Oak Bluffs have signed an agreement to send their solid waste to a New Bedford facility.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen Tuesday gave the go-ahead for a 10-year agreement with the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District for the two towns to dispose of solid waste. Tisbury selectmen approved the proposal two weeks earlier.