Concerned about the shuttered state of Alley’s General Store, the West Tisbury select board said this week it will invite spokesmen for the Vineyard Trust to appear at next week’s meeting to discuss the status of the renowned Dealers in Almost Everything.
The iconic general store, which is owned by the Trust and among other things is a stopping off point and one of the few stores on the route up-Island, has been mostly closed for remodeling since spring when its lease was taken over by the owners of Le Roux in Vineyard Haven.
“I would like to hear from the Vineyard Trust about what’s happening with Alley’s,” select board member Cynthia Mitchell said at the meeting Wednesday. “I think we should request their presence. We are now in the high season, and the place is shuttered. We thought it might be open, under new management.”
Town administrator Jen Rand said she had reached out to the Trust because she had similar concerns about the closure, and received a vague response.
“The answer I got back was, ‘we plan to open as soon as possible,’ but that was not a clear answer,” Ms. Rand said. “And so, I said, you may want to plan to come visit with us, because ‘as soon as possible’ for the centerpiece of our town is perhaps not an answer.”
Selectmen agreed to invite the Trust to attend next Wednesday’s board meeting.
The Trust has been under scrutiny in recent weeks following the resignation of executive director Funi Burdick, after altered applications for Community Preservation Act funds were discovered in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs.
CPA funding for the Old Whaling Church and the Flying Horses has since been put on hold and a police investigation is under way into the irregularities in public funding applications.
Trust board member Sally Rorer is the acting executive director.
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