The West Tisbury selectmen and town conservation commission on Wednesday differed briefly over a proposal to create a committee to oversee the cleanup of Mill Pond, the popular 2.5-acre waterway next to the town police station.

After receiving a petition from residents last year urging the appointment of a special committee to study Mill Pond and recommend changes, selectmen pushed for the creation of the panel and even started to recruit potential members, including several residents with backgrounds researching ponds and watersheds.

But the conservation commission on August 26 sent a letter to selectmen stating they have already taken steps to study the pond and its watershed, suggesting that creating a committee is redundant and unnecessary.

The letter notes the town has already hired Aquatic Control Technology to complete a baseline assessment and management plan for the pond; at the conservation commission’s request the company has recommended a budget and scope for the Mill Pond watershed survey.

The letter also notes the town is waiting for a report from the Massachusetts Estuaries Project, a long-delayed initiative by the University of Massachusetts and state Department of Environmental Protection that studies nitrogen loading in 89 southeastern Massachusetts estuaries.

“This is not the time to appoint a Mill Pond Committee,” wrote conservation commission chairman Prudence Burt in the letter. “Once the town has the results of a watershed study and the estuaries report, a volunteer committee would have the tools necessary to make a recommendation to the town with respect to the management of the Mill Pond and its watershed,” she wrote.

Ms. Burt and conservation commission administrator Maria McFarland attended Wednesday’s meeting to explain the letter and answer questions. Although selectmen were initially skeptical, in the end the two sides agreed to a compromise.

Selectmen agreed that executive secretary Jennifer Rand will send out the letter from Ms. Burt to all the residents who signed the petition calling for the creation of the Mill Pond Committee. Ms. Rand will also inform the people who expressed interest in joining the committee that the plans are on hold.

Selectman Richard Knabel opened the discussion by noting the petition submitted to the town included approximately 50 signatures. “I thought the board was being responsive to the citizenry [by creating the committee],” he said.

But Ms. McFarland said there is not much for the committee to do that hasn’t already been done.

“I don’t see what direction the volunteers could take this . . . at this point we are already on a track and we know where we need to go,” she said.

Selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter agreed it may make sense to wait for the results of a watershed study and the estuaries project.

The Mill Pond is a man-made impoundment of Mill Brook, reportedly created prior to the early 1800s to power a small family-owned textile mill. Now the pond is used recreationally for fishing, non-motorized boating and wildlife viewing.

In recent years the pond has become increasingly shallow — its average depth is 1.7 feet — and in the last few years a weed problem has become apparent.

Two years ago, William M. Wilcox, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s water resource planner, warned town officials that unless something is done the pond may turn into a swamp or wetland in the coming years. Around the same time, a biologist from Aquatic Control Technology concluded that dredging is to the first step in addressing the issues facing the pond.

A report said the pond vegetation should later be managed with chemical herbicide treatments or mechanical hydro-raking with a paddle-wheel-driven barge that can operate in water less than two feet deep.