West Tisbury residents passed several fund transfers and amendments to town bylaws during a special town meeting Tuesday evening. 

A total of 166 voters approved all four articles on the warrant in just under half an hour, the most pressing one dealing with logistical fund transfers to pay various town personnel.  

Voters approved $108,000 to be transferred to the correct budget line to pay an outside consultant who has been working with the town since town treasurer Kathy Logue retired. 

The money was previously in a budget line that could only be spent on employees of the town, forcing the town to get voters’ signoff on the reallocation.  

In another article, money that was originally set aside for the Howes House renovation in the April 2022 town meeting was voted to be put toward clearing 20 invasive grey willow trees by the Mill Pond.

Plans to upgrade the Howes House have been put on hold, and the town has been trying to root out the invasive species. 

Mill Brook watershed committee member Prudy Burt asked to amend the article from around $66,000 to approximately $40,000 and to cut down 15 trees instead. The amendment was passed easily. 

“At the time of the deadline for submitting warrants, we were still working out details of this proposal, so we put the highest possible number as a placeholder, knowing that we would probably be amending it down,” Ms. Burt said. 

The article that spurred the most discussion was a bylaw amendment that requires homes to have their address numbers clearly displayed from the road, standardizing an old requirement. 

Some residents asked for clarifications from fire Chief Gregory Pacheco, who said that for houses that are not visible from a road, the number will have to be put on a tree or post at the front of the driveway as well as the house itself so it is easily identifiable.  

“It’s just for clarity for emergency services coming in to know [where you are],” he said.