The Island's troubled fishing industry will be a major focus of the Chilmark annual town meeting on Monday night.
In a town meeting warrant otherwise characterized as "very noncontroversial" by the chairman of the Chilmark board of selectmen, J.B. Riggs Parker, "the shellfish articles will obviously get much of the attention on the meeting floor."
The loose ends of Tisbury’s three-day-long town meeting last week will be tied in the ballot box next Tuesday, as voters revisit eight Proposition 2 1/2 override requests. The selectmen put all non-emergency expenditures over $10,000 on override questions this year, but because the bulk of the spending and borrowing items failed on town meeting floor, the main focus for voters next week will be a single contested race for town selectman.
Tisbury voters cheered like they had just landed after a turbulent flight when the last warrant article came up just before the stroke of midnight last night, wrapping up three days and about ten and a half hours of annual town meeting, which began on Tuesday.
Naval reservist Matthew Bradley of West Tisbury returned home Saturday afternoon from a 10-month volunteer tour of duty that included seven months in Iraq, serving as a medical corpsman with a U.S. Marines unit.
An in-depth study by an independent consultant says that it would cost West Tisbury more money to operate its elementary school independently than remain part of the Up-Island Regional School District.
The West Tisbury finance committee believes otherwise - which is why at the April 10 annual town meeting, voters will find an article in the middle of the warrant asking that the town withdraw from the school district.
A proposal to legalize the sale of beer and wine in restaurants and a request to buy a piece of property for $1.65 million for a new emergency services facility top the warrant for Tisbury's annual town meeting on Tuesday, April 10.
The warrant also carries 14 spending requests to override Proposition 2 1/2, the state-mandated tax cap on property tax levy increases.