At a special town meeting next Tuesday Oak Bluffs selectmen will ask town voters to erase a $238,000 deficit in a single stroke.
Martha’s Vineyard fishermen looking for concrete answers about potential fishing access to wind farms were frustrated yesterday during a meeting with state and federal officials.
After five years of participation in the state Community Preservation Act (CPA), West Tisbury voters will have a chance this spring to decide whether it is time to part ways.
With a special town meeting to cut a quarter million dollars from the current fiscal year budget in Oak Bluffs already scheduled for Feb. 22, on Tuesday selectmen turned their attention to the 2012 budget where the situation is even worse, with a $1.1 million projected deficit.
At the outset selectmen voted to approve a hiring freeze for the coming year, a move that will save the town $300,000.
But whether town leaders will need to ask voters for a Proposition 2 1/2 override remains an unsettled question.
Still reeling from the revelation last week that the West Tisbury School will need over $1.5 million in repairs, on Wednesday the selectmen discussed the town’s next steps.
Selectman Cynthia Mitchell, who also serves on the capital improvements planning committee, said that the group had met on Monday to discuss the news in light of the town’s other major capital projects, including a $5 million library renovation, half of which may be covered by a state grant, and new police station that could cost the town up to $2 million.
The West Tisbury historic district commission agreed this week that it will not allow the demolition of the Old Parsonage house in West Tisbury.
Owners Tara and Daniel Whiting have made a preliminary request to tear down the house which dates to the 1600s and overlooks Parsonage Pond on State Road.
In a meeting on Monday members of the commission urged Ms. Whiting to withdraw her application for a certificate of hardship, intended to buttress the need to raze the house.
