Building, dock and infrastructure improvements, spending on the first steps for a new town school and a request by petition to allow the sale of hard liquor in restaurants top the agenda for the annual town meeting in Tisbury this year.

A special town meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Tisbury School gymnasium, immediately followed by the annual town meeting. Moderator Deborah Medders will preside. There are 21 articles on the special warrant and 44 on the annual warrant.

The annual town election is April 26. A $350,000 general override question may now be averted if two spending articles on the warrant totalling $199,000 are withdrawn, as planned.

“Depending on what else happens at town meeting, I think we can take a little bit more out of free cash to reduce the tax rate and avoid an override entirely,” finance director Jonathan Snyder told the selectmen at a recent meeting.

All spending articles appear on the annual warrant, while nonspending articles appear on the special warrant. The only exception is a petitioned article on the annual warrant to take steps to expand beer and wine licensing at town restaurants to allow all alcohol sales. A first step in a two-vote process, the question is expected to draw debate.

Voters will be asked to approve a $25.5 million town operating budget.

In efforts to avoid overrides, the town asks departments to keep their budget increases close to zero every year, often resulting in deferred spending capital projects and maintenance, selectman Melinda Loberg said this week. Now the need for facility repairs and replacements is coming due.

“We’re telling the town these are our buildings it’s not a good thing if we let them deteriorate,” Mrs. Loberg said.

One major facility need involves the aging town elementary school. School leaders learned recently that the town had qualified for an early phase of the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s grant process, expected to lead to funding and planning assistance for a new school. Next week voters will be asked to approve $825,000 for a feasibility study for the school project. A corresponding question will appear on the town ballot later in the month.

A total of 13 requests for capital improvements and new equipment add up to $540,000. Projects including replacing sections of the town hall roof, buying protective clothing for the fire department, building repairs and renovations at the police station and library.

Voters will also be asked to approve $300,000 for design and engineering to bury the utilities along Beach Road. The article has a corresponding ballot question exempting it from the Proposition 2 1/2.

Voters will be asked to approve $50,000 for a drainage master plan and $50,000 for a cemetery master plan. A request for $2,500 would go toward improvements in the Oak Grove Cemetery, which is running out of space. Voters will be asked to direct the selectmen to petition for special legislation and to create a master plan to protect Tashmoo Overlook as a public park.

In other spending requests, $230,000 would pay for dock repairs at Lake Street landing and Owen Park, and $40,000 would fund a walkway along Lake street. The funds will be added to $23,500 appropriated two years ago.

Voters will be asked to allocate $235,380 in ferry embarkation fees for a variety of projects, including wages for summer police officers and purchase of a new portable pump for the fire boat. The selectmen and dredge committee requested $50,000 for a dredge stabilization fund.

Embarkation fees are disbursed by the Steamship Authority to all port towns and intended to offset the cost of maintaining the port area.

More than $789,000 in Community Preservation Act funding requests are on the annual warrant. Regional requests include Tisbury’s share of funding for the replacement of historic chairs and benches at the Tabernacle, the restoration of about 50 windows at the old marine hospital, money for an affordable housing project at Kuehn’s Way, and funding for the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority’s rental assistance program.

On the special town meeting warrant, articles focus on bylaw amendments, language clarifications and personnel classification changes.

The selectmen want to create a new facilities manager position, as a part of continued efforts to focus attention on town-owned buildings. Mrs. Loberg said if the facilities manager is approved, the town plans not to fill a department of public work assistant director position.

Other requests include a new full-time patrolman, a fish committee and a five-member sewer advisory board.

A zoning bylaw amendment that would create a special permit process for commercial projects that exceed 3,000 square feet in the B-2 business district. The amendment follows a similar one passed last year for the B-1 business district. The amendment grew out of the failed Stop & Shop expansion project two years ago; when the project was reviewed by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, it came to light that Tisbury had no zoning bylaw requiring review at the local level for large-scale commercial projects.

Voters will weigh in on a regional question to ban single-use plastic bags, a Vineyard Conservation Society initiative, and like other towns, they will be asked to adopt new federal flood maps.

The selectmen are proposing an amendment to the waterways bylaw that would allow the town to establish rules and regulations for nontraditional vessels, like floating workshops and houseboats.