The Ship Has Set Sail: West Tisbury Approves Beer and Wine Initial Step, Other Major Issues at Town Meeting

The evening was long and spirited from the start, and only got more so as the clock ticked down and the topic turned to the sale of beer and wine. Yet in the end voters at Tuesday’s three-and-a-half-hour West Tisbury Annual Town Meeting approved nearly every motion before them, including the purchase of the Field Gallery and a call to put forth the sale of beer and wine on the next town ballot.

Voters arrived in droves expecting a headline-making evening and were not left disappointed: 270 residents and a handful of others grabbed every available seat, leaving some standing on the sidelines. Selectmen Cynthia Mitchell, Richard Knabel and Jeffrey "Skipper" Manter joined moderator Pat Gregory on stage, in front of a "Pirates of Penzance" set recently used in the school musical.

Finance committee member Greg Orcutt lead out the first banner issue of the evening, the approval of the $8.6 million Up Island Regional School District Budget (UIRSD). The finance committee and board of selectmen had previously voted to reject that budget, and on Tuesday Orcutt proposed an amendment that would reduce the regional budget by $233,250. The reduction marks the equivalent of $750 less per student, or $167,666 less for the town.

“The staff, the administration and the teachers do a fabulous job. There is no argument about that whatsoever,” said Orcutt. The finance committee is simply concerned, he said, because costs per pupil have skyrocketed over the past 15 years.

“In the big picture, what that really means is, by far, the UIRSD is the most expensive on the Island,” said Orcutt. Only eight other schools in the commonwealth have a higher cost per student than the UIRSD.

“In the face of current conditions, I think the school committee has worked very hard to keep costs down. It’s not as if we’ve been financially irresponsible, yet it really hurts to say that the Up Island budget is [more than] Oak Bluffs, so you must be doing something wrong,” said Dan Cabot, president of the Up Island Regional School Committee and the All-Island School Committee.

“If there was some magic way that we could reduce our costs by $750 per pupil, don’t you think they would have told us what it was?”

Cabot stressed that the quality of the school comes at a price, and that significant cuts to staffing and programs would have to be made to meet the finance committee’s recommended budget.

Town accountant Bruce Stone said that, roughly speaking, the cuts to the school budget would translate to a $51 tax cut for the owner of a $750,000 home. Hearing that, the audience gasped; soon after it voted to reject the finance committee’s budget cuts.

“It’s a good thing, it’s a good thing,” said Superintendent Dr. James Weiss after the meeting. Weiss said that working out a new budget with the other UIRSD towns, Aquinnah and Chilmark, could have proved to be difficult. 

Voters also debated the wisdom of spending $625,000 to purchase the Field Gallery, but ultimately overwhelmingly approved the motion. The town will empty Community Preservation Act open space fund coffers in order to partially fund the purchase.

Two motions regarding plans to expand the West Tisbury Library were warmly received and widely accepted. Voters authorized the expansion, so long as the library receives a grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners that could fund up to 75 percent of the cost. Voters also authorized the selectmen to seek and accept additional grants to defray the costs of construction.

A motion regarding beer and wine was not so easily accepted.

Voters were asked to weigh in on a petitioned article that could allow for the sale of beer and wine in restaurants that serve more than 50 people, provided the motion is approved by the legislature and at a town election next year. Selectmen further added an amendment to that article that would authorize them to issue one-day beer and wine licenses to certain organizations for fundraising functions.

Selectmen opted to propose the amendment following a recent discovery that organizations cannot offer alcohol at ticketed events, as it is tantamount to sale in a dry town.

Voters largely approved of the motion to grant one-day licenses, but were fractured on the issue of serving beer and wine in restaurants. Several spoke against combining the two separate issues into one article, and at one point proposed an amendment to allow for issuance of one-day licenses but disallow selling beer and wine in restaurants.

For a while, it seemed as if that was the action voters would choose to take.

A string of voters took to the microphones to complain that serving beer and wine in West Tisbury restaurants would encourage drunk driving and disrupt the town’s historic character. Others argued that the issue of introducing beer and wine to the community had not been properly discussed. Three hours into the meeting and late into the evening, voters said they were tired and displeased to find themselves in the midst of a lively, important debate.

“It’s totally unfair. We’re being ambushed by this whole scenario,” said Kell Hicklin, one of the owners of Lambert’s Cove Inn, which joined State Road and Plane View restaurants in petitioning the article.

“I feel like I’m being ambushed. We’ve had no real discussion on this issue. . . . I don’t think this is good for the town,” said Virginia Jones.

“At least give us the opportunity to sit down with everybody after tonight and talk about it. We have a year to decide. We’re just asking that it be on the ballot for next year,” said Hicklin.

Amid much confusion, voters ultimately agreed to approve the issuance of one-day licenses and to further the process of bringing beer and wine sales to West Tisbury. If the legislature approves, voters will be given the opportunity to vote on the potential sale next year.

The evening began with the reading of a poem by poet laureate Fan Ogilvie and a warm welcome for the return of West Tisbury School principal Michael Halt, who recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan.