Government
This year’s election season on the Vineyard is most noticeable for what’s not happening on the Island. There are no campaign signs or tough political debates. Nor has there been a candidate forum to attend, for those so inclined.
As Vineyard towns convene for annual town meetings this spring, most will be grappling with new bylaws in the face of a state law legalizing medical marijuana.
With ongoing discussion about Islandwide coordination over how to address the new law, five of the six Vineyard towns will vote this spring on whether to adopt bylaws prohibiting public marijuana consumption and imposing a one-year moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in all zoning districts. The moratorium is meant to give towns time to come up with their own regulations before marijuana dispensaries can open.
A new $2.8 million police station, several affordable housing initiatives and a watershed study for the much-debated Mill Pond will top the warrant when West Tisbury voters convene for their annual town meeting Tuesday.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of the West Tisbury School. Moderator F. Patrick Gregory will preside over the session; there are 37 articles on the warrant.
The health of Island waterways and fees necessary to protect them will top the list at the annual Tisbury town meeting this Tuesday evening when voters tackle two full warrants. Both the annual and special town meetings are being held on the same night due to problems reaching a quorum last year for the special town meeting agenda. The meetings begin at 7 p.m. in the Tisbury School gymnasium. Deborah Medders will moderate.
It’s been two years since Oak Bluffs residents convened for town meetings focused on cutting the budget, and this year’s annual town meeting agenda represents a turn in a new direction: while the budget is still modest, the town is quietly starting to return to regular business. Paving roads and a new fire engine are on the annual town meeting warrant, as is a hot topic not fiscal in nature: the annual monster shark tournament.
Oak Bluffs voters will gather Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Martha’s Vineyard High School Performing Arts Center for both special and annual town meetings.
A banner announcing next week’s annual town meeting was hanging over Edgartown’s Main street Thursday as the town prepares to debate medical marijuana and new historic district bylaws and decide on spending money on everything from new fire trucks to Fourth of July fireworks.