Windy Days

From Gazette editions of October, 1985:

The lessons of Hurricane Gloria came into focus this week, with none so clear as the need to make the six Vineyard towns work as one unit under one civil defense bible when disaster threatens. County civil defense director James D. Mitchell told a Tisbury gathering, “The public thinks we did a great job. Those of us who were out there know a little different.” Mr. Mitchell is pushing Vineyard officials to put together a manual, a plan of action for more centralized authority to deal with emergencies.

Ralph Packer said his company keeps a manual for emergencies and maintains a communications “umbrella” that keeps the company in contact with New Bedford, Cuttyhunk, West Falmouth, Woods Hole and Nantucket. Mr. Mitchell said that was more than was available to the Island emergency center at the airport; Cuttyhunk is part of Dukes County, but the county had no contact with that island during the storm.

Closer to home Mr. Mitchell cited a breakdown in coordination between the county and the towns. “Until the county does something, the towns do pretty much what they want to.”

There is an old Chappaquiddick field where we discovered the other day an abundance of Indian blanket, also known as showy gaillardia. The tan grass was bent with a warm October wind which swept in from Katama Bay, and the gaillardia revealed its bright color against the softer greens and browns of the gentle slope. The short-stemmed flowers ranged from deep pink to pale yellow, but the most predominant blooms were fiery orange in the center, each petal paling at the tip to a bright lemon yellow.

It was as though they had escaped from a more formal garden, and indeed this is probably the case. For in this ancient field a house once stood, a summer house with a front porch and a formal flower garden. Today there is only open space; several years ago new owners removed the remains of the house which had stood abandoned for many years. Though the house is gone, the flowers have survived in the wild. And today the Indian blanket holds a special surprise for the October wanderer.

Two questions are raised by the events of last week, which saw the Vineyard land bank bill passed in altered form by the Massachusetts Senate. The first goes to the heart of the democratic process by which the towns overwhelmingly supported the bill as originally drafted, and the decidedly non-democratic process by which Edgartown businessman Robert J. Carroll and his friend, the senator from Fairhaven, sought to change it on Beacon Hill. The second is a question more simply directed to the merits of the case: Is the preservation of open space on the Vineyard a regional issue best served by a regional body, or a local problem best addressed separately by the towns?

Vineyard officials who have worked for the land bank bill said the version passed by the Senate is workable despite the last-minute compromises. The bill originally called for money raised by a tax on real estate sales to be placed in a common pool, wherever on the Vineyard opportunities for preservation might occur.

But then from Mr. Carroll and Sen. William McLean came pressure for change: the money, they argued, should go back to town conservation commissions. Supporters of the bill as originally written were able to hammer out a compromise. The old home-rule arguments die hard. The six towns of the Vineyard have their distinctive characters, and these are to be honored and preserved, but to suggest that a regional land bank commission threatens the individuality of the towns is absurd. Unchecked and unplanned development is the chief threat to the character of this community, and the more closely the Island towns work together against this threat, the better it will be met.

Stop at any town boundary the next time you are abroad on the Vineyard, and notice that the land acknowledges none of the lines so carefully laid down by man. No more should the land bank draw distinctions between dollars put aside for preservation of the Island, be they dollars from Edgartown or dollars from Gay Head. The six towns of Martha’s Vineyard are inseparably joined in this fight for their future. They can hang together, or they will surely hang separately.

Early morning risers were greeted this week with a transient autumn Island, thick with crystalline frost and shrouded on the water with heavy mist. These early morning moments shimmer briefly and then melt away beneath a brilliant October sun. The frost settled thickly onto Island woodlands and farm fields with a special artistry, a herald of winter. But there is still plenty of autumn left before that occurs.

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

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