Aquinnah has opened its heart and its parking spots to derby fishermen.
The Aquinnah selectmen on Friday voted at a hastily called special meeting to open resident-only parking lots to derby fisherman for the duration of the derby after learning that contestants have been avoiding Aquinnah fishing spots for several years because they feared tickets or tows.
As meteorologists yesterday charted a storm creeping inexorably toward the East Coast, in Aquinnah a race was on to get someone behind the wheel of the town snow plow.
Though the retirement of highway surveyor Forest Alley is apparently imminent, town coordinator Jeff Burgoyne said yesterday Mr. Forest will be manning the plow this weekend.
“He is ready, willing and able,” he said.
Yet selectman Jim Newman said that a new hire is waiting in the wings.
Aquinnah selectmen this week raced to prepare language for a new bylaw aimed at regulating wind turbines that is due for review by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission early next month and for voters at the annual town meeting on May 13.
A public hearing is scheduled before the town planning board on May 5; the commission will hold its own public hearing on May 8.
The draft bylaw is aimed at creating regulations for a townwide energy district of critical planning concern (DCPC) which went into effect last December.
In a move which acknowledges almost a year of bureaucratic missteps, Aquinnah selectmen have announced their plan to scrap an energy district of critical planning concern, created to help push through a pioneering bylaw on wind turbines.
But those involved have voiced a determination not to give up on an initiative praised as much for its concept as it was damned for its presentation during multiple appearances on the town meeting floor over the past year.
Bureaucratic black holes, poor communication and a lack of tact that borders on comedic are to blame for a series of recent misunderstandings between the Aquinnah town government and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
The first fiasco began in late July when building inspector Jerry Wiener sent a letter tribal chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais citing the tribe for violating town zoning laws and the state building code on three building projects.
The Aquinnah selectmen voted this week to accept a private donation to help underwrite the town’s participation in the Massachusetts Estuaries Project study of Menemsha and Squibnocket Ponds. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg will contribute up to $15,000 to help pay for the town’s share of the project.
Aquinnah selectmen took disciplinary action this week against a dog owner whose Labrador retriever bit a houseguest in the face.
Selectmen learned that a yellow Lab rescue dog, Mac, belonging to Ariana Feldman, bit Benjamin Higgins in the face on Jan. 6 in a social situation, resulting in 32 stitches. Mr. Higgins was visiting Ms. Feldman for dinner. This was the dog’s second biting incident.
