Dylan Thomas
The birds of the winged trees flying my name Above the farms and the white horses I rose in rainy autumn And walked abroad in a shower of all my days. – Dylan Thomas
April 12, 2013
Former Bank President Responds to FDIC Order
The former head of the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, who left last year under circumstances that were never fully explained and now has been permanently barred from banking by federal regulators, said in a statement this week that the allegations against him by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are unfounded and without substance.
Savings Bank CEO Steers New Course
Almost six months into his job as president of Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, Paul Falvey said the bank is on solid financial footing and has restructured its staff to adapt to a tighter regulatory environment. In the last two months, chief operating officer Richard Leonard has retired and the job of senior loan officer, held…
Keys to Staying Strong Include Full Heart, Community Support
Karen Berube was born 63 years ago in Oak Bluffs. She lived with her family in Edgartown and moved to Vineyard Haven after second grade. It was a time when town pride reigned and you only traveled off-Island to pick out school clothes for next fall. Today, Karen lives in Edgartown with her husband of…
Comfort Food For Two Continents
There are two televisions at Tropical restaurant in Vineyard Haven, one tuned to CNN, the other to Brazilian soccer. Construction workers pack the place around noon, load up their plates with veggies from the salad bar and barbecued steak and chicken. Parents bring their kids, who like the idea of deciding what to put on…
Edgartown Speeds Through Spending, Acquires Lighthouse
Edgartown voters made short work of the town’s business Tuesday night, easily approving every spending article on the warrant, passing a bylaw that requires buildings in the historic district to be kept up and voting to take ownership of the Edgartown lighthouse — all in under two hours. With just a handful of questions and…
Oak Bluffs Narrowly Defeats Marijuana Dispensary Moratorium
Oak Bluffs voters came out in favor of making the annual shark tournament catch- and-release only, narrowly turned down a temporary moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and approved extensive repairs for town roads at a lengthy annual town meeting Tuesday.
West Tisbury Backs New Police Station, Nixes County Spending
A light turnout of agreeable West Tisbury voters Tuesday night approved nearly all of the 37 articles at the annual town meeting, including a $2.45 million police station and a $15,000 Mill Pond watershed study. But they would not agree to spend money on two unrelated countywide programs: pest management and an ongoing window replacement…
Tisbury Approves Sewer Plant Upgrade, Rejects Connector Road Again
Tisbury voters spent six and a half hours over two nights Tuesday and Wednesday tackling the 56 articles on their annual and special town meeting warrants, agreeing to fund new dredging projects, construct a new leaching facility and rehabilitate the town standpipe, but rejecting $1.3million to build a connector road between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and…
Restoring Confidence
Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, with assets in excess of a half billion dollars, net earnings approaching four million dollars and a new, experienced community banker firmly at the helm seems to be on a solid course. The bank clearly stumbled last year, but the extent, nature and impact of whatever improprieties occurred are still frustratingly…
Oak Bluffs Voters Have Their Say, Catch and Release Is Humane Way
Monster Shark Tournament organizer and president of the Boston Big Game Fishing Club Steven James will takes steps to control the crowd at the controversial Oak Bluffs event, he told selectmen at a meeting Thursday afternoon. Mr. James’s visit before the board was a condition of approval for the harbor use permit issued by the…
Commission Approves Cell Tower
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last Thursday approved a Verizon cell phone tower in West Tisbury and a harbor fuel facility in Oak Bluffs, two projects that raised objections from residents and abutters. The harbor fuel facility will be the subject of discussion at the Oak Bluffs annual town meeting Tuesday, where an article to fund…
Land Bank Revenues: April 12
The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $65,340 for the business week ending on Friday, April 5, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.
Reality Show Aims to Blend Not Blemish
As spring arrives on the Vineyard, so will the reality TV crews. According to a letter sent to Island town administrators, filming for the ABC Family reality TV show The Vineyard will take place May 5 through June 29. Word came in February that the The Vineyard, announced as a docu-soap-reality show chronicling the lives…
Rape Trial Begins in Superior Court
A bench trial for a Boston man charged with rape adjourned for the weekend Thursday afternoon. The trial, which stems from an incident in Chilmark nearly a year ago involving an alleged assault on an Island woman, will resume Tuesday in Dukes County Superior Court. Bryant K. Brown, 34, is charged with three counts of…
Festival Promoter Travels Around the World for Wine
John Clift has been the sommelier and beverage director at Atria in Edgartown for nine years. For six months of the year he works every single day at the restaurant, and now at Hooked, too. For the rest of the year he travels for both business and pleasure, which in his case amounts to the…
Social Networks
Out in the real world, the ebb and flow of the seasons are nature-based. Mother Nature does her thing and coats are pulled out of storage each winter, shorts and flip-flops resurrected come spring, or summer for those not as itchy to feel the grass beneath their toes.
A Journalist Even a Lawyer Could Love
As recent lengthy obituaries in national newspapers attest, Anthony Lewis was a remarkable journalist. What always struck me most about his writing was the clarity of his thinking, the forcefulness of his prose and the directness of his voice. A legal journalist and columnist for The New York Times, he made the complicated decisions of…
What Will Grow After Roots Are Severed?
I’m a lifelong Chilmarker. Growing up, Nashaquitsa Pond and its surroundings were my world. I consider myself both fortunate and extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to play amongst those hills as a child. This is where I was raised. This is where my father grew up, where my grandfather and great grandfather grew…
My Baby Wrote Me a Letter Is Not Just an Oldies Song
When my mother and father met they were working at the same department store in our town; she on the fourth floor in girdles and bras and he in the mezzanine in sports equipment. She bought a baseball glove for her brother from him and was shocked when on the same bus going home that…
Marks
As we build And repair the harbor I see your hand It comes up Dripping From deep within The sandy bottom
Mill Brook
The valley of the Mill Brook is only as wide as the shadow of a cloud. But many memories have settled here. From Waskosim’s Rock I see the leaves along the frost bottom have changed. Reflecting in the string of ponds along North Road, they blow through another sky, below other clouds — leaves and…
Novel Schifter Solution
The Schifter house move presents a sobering contradiction. The goal is to save a property from the effects of climate change, but the means to this end is leaving a horrendous carbon footprint.
On the Side of Moderation
A big summer home used to be 5,000 square feet. Now a big summer home is 20,000 square feet. Where are we headed?
Growing Appreciation
Regarding All Clear (a Gazette Chronicle), what a fascinating piece of Island (and social) history!I have been a full-time washashore for a year now, and an active member of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club since August.
One More Tick Bite
Regarding the Gazette story of March 22 headlined: “Have Host Will Travel, Ticks And Deer Thrive On Vineyard.”The Vineyard is famous for many things, one being ticks.
Oak Bluffs Town Column: April 12
A remarkable picture of Beach Road (circa 1900) placed on Facebook by Martha’s Vineyard Antique Photos sparked a discussion among Shelley Christiansen, Tom Dunlop, Sam Low and others about erosion at End of the Wall beach in Oak Bluffs. The loss is even more deceptive given the absence of surf on Nantucket Sound and startling…
All Together
From a Feb. 25, 1972 column by Joseph Chase Allen: Town meeting season is at hand and it is a good time to recollect that the annual town meeting is an institution that has been in operation for 303 years, according to available records.
Chappy Town Column: April 12
The next Chappy Community Center potluck supper will be on Wednesday, April 17 and is hosted by Tom Osborn. I hope that Tom will bring a pot of South Dakota mashed potatoes. Once you have a taste you will never be satisfied with any other. Tom’s signature is in the form of a depression on…
Vineyard Haven Town Column: April 12
This is a tale of two cities and a tale of two sons. This is a tale of two mothers, both named Nancy. This is a tale of two very different parenting strategies. One mother lived in New England and had a son challenged by autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The other lived in Florida and…
West Tisbury Town Column: April 12
Today begins a long holiday weekend in the commonwealth. Monday is Patriots Day and the 117th running of the Boston marathon. Town offices will be closed.
Chilmark Town Column: April 12
Chilmark has slipped cheerily into the temperate weather pattern that arrived this week, after the usual blasts of April winds. All of us seem to thrive in this in-between temperature range and the town is showing signs of being out and about and busy at the usual spring errands.
Aquinnah Town Column: April 12
The Aquinnah Public Library continues to provide special programs nearly every day the library is open. Stop by to find the latest in books, movies and CD’s. One of the latest CD’s to watch is Searching for Sugarman. It may take a while to figure out the beginning of the movie but halfway through it…
Tracking Down Life of Whitey Bulger
When news spread quickly on the Internet that legendary Boston crime boss James (Whitey) Bulger had been captured in Santa Monica on June 22, 2011 after 16 years on the lam, it was fitting that Dick Lehr found out the old-fashioned way. He read about it in the Boston Globe, delivered to the doorstep of…
U.S. Senate Candidates
The Martha’s Vineyard Democrats will host a session Saturday morning with spokesmen for Cong. Stephen Lynch and Cong. Ed Markey, candidates for the Massachusetts Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The event will be from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Howes House in West Tisbury. All are welcome. The state primary is April 30.
Vineyard House Board
Lucy Patterson Cox and Leslie J. Stark have been named to the board of directors for Vineyard House, the Island’s only sober living environment for those in early recovery.
Loving Restoration for This Old Boat
An old wooden powerboat from Chilmark named Souvenir is being rebuilt this winter at Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway. Souvenir is a 32-foot wooden Brownell powerboat with a diesel engine that was built in Mattapoissett in 1962. She is getting a whole new bottom: a new keel, below the waterline planks and ribs and a…
A Farmer’s Education Can Sting, But Even the Mistakes Are Tasty
I have had more failures and mishaps learning to farm than most. My tendency to be cheap and, at times, careless has proven costly more often than not. In California, on a winery where we were also raising food, three heritage breed piglets were purchased from a breeder on the coast for more money than…
Winter Squash Transposed for Spring
As we wait for the first crops of the new growing season to appear in school gardens, Island Grown Schools’ Harvest of the Month program celebrates winter squash, one of the best storage crops to help sustain us through the long months between fall’s bounty and the first crops of spring.
Dancing to Canada
Devon Lodge, a second-year dance student at Juilliard School in New York, will participate in the second Assemblée Internationale from April 28 to May 4 in Toronto, Canada. The Assemblée Internationale, hosted by Canada’s National Ballet School, brings together students and staff from 18 international professional ballet schools for intensive classes, performances and forums.
Creative Foundation at Cleaveland House
The Cleaveland House Poetry Group was founded over 40 years ago by Dionis Coffin Riggs, its name arising from her house in West Tisbury where the meetings are held. It is the longest running writers group on Martha’s Vineyard, hosting bi-weekly meetings, year-round. Today Dionis’ daughter, Cynthia Riggs, presides over the group, and the meetings…
Meditate at the YMCA
When one thinks of the YMCA, exercise is usually at the top of the list. Swimming, lifting weights, working out or yoga all take center stage at the Y. Beginning this weekend, though, sitting in place and becoming aware of the present moment gets added to the list of healthful activities.
Digging into Improv Dance
Everybody dance now, no experience necessary. Starting on Wednesday, April 17, and running through May 22, a new modern improvisational dance group is beginning at the Anchors, across from the Chappy ferry. No previous experience is necessary, except life experience, that is — and you must be 21 or older to attend the class.
Book Donations
Just because the West Tisbury Library is in its small-but-beautiful stage at their temporary location doesn’t mean they don’t have a book drop — and it is hungry. To get ready for their spring book sale, the library needs your used books.
Pansy Power
Dorothea Lynde Dix, 19th century crusader for the mentally ill, was also a champion for a special blossom.
Bird Links
The Cochise County of Arizona is a bird watcher’s dream. Located in the southeastern section of Arizona, it has a great mix of national parks, Forest Service property, state parks, Arizona Game and Fish property, BLM (Bureau of Land Management) holdings and the famous Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon property.
Please Adopt Us
The Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard has three cats and one kitten waiting to find homes.The kitten is Miss Moppit, an adorable 15-week-old medium long-haired tortoiseshell who will be ready to go to her new home in a few weeks after she is spayed. She is playful and sweet and loves to be close to…
Tisbury School Announces Second Quarter Honor Roll
The Tisbury School has announced its honor roll for the second quarter of the 2012-2013 academic year. Eighth grade high honors: Elias Fhagen-Smith. Eighth grade honors: Alexandra Barlett, Amanda Bernard, Robson Borges, Monica Carroll, David Caseau, Justine Cassel, Anthony Jackson, Emma Kristal, Colbeck Leuenberger, Benjamin Nadelstein, David Packer and Ashley Wood. Seventh grade high honors:…
High School Honor Roll Announced
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School has announced its honor roll for the second quarter of the 2012-2013 academic year. Twelfth grade high honors: Alan Ciminski, Julia Cooper, Kelsey Dandeneau, Amy Fligor, Charlotte Hall, Fionnuala Howell, Alayna Hutchinson, Kyle Joba-Woodruff, Jennie Lindland, Alexandra Mazza, Sterling Meacham and John Roberts.
Missing Planets
The planets Venus and Mars, once the brightest planets in our night sky, have disappeared from view. They are still out there, but they are appearing so close to the Sun as to be hidden from us. Looking ahead, both will reappear in our sky but at opposite ends of the night. Venus is speeding…
Wind’s Up
Live and rarely ever learn. I complained all week about the wind but went ahead anyway and planted out some teensy seedlings. They had been coming along nicely in a warm cozy greenhouse and, true to my nature, I could not wait to put them into the ground. Needless to say they were pretty much…
Hello, Elliot
Jennifer and Tim Klein of Edgartown announce the birth of a son, Elliot Murphy Klein, born on April 7 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Elliot weighed 6 pounds, 13.9 ounces at birth.
Welcome Lorena
Mirella and Diego Mendes of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a daughter, Lorena Barbosa Mendes, born on April 8 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Lorena weighed 7 pounds, 4.1 ounces at birth.
Look Street Lot 1, Vineyard Haven
Look Street Lot 1 in Vineyard Haven sold for $210,000 on March 28.
Figure Skating Show Dazzles on Silver Anniversary
They can fly, they feel pretty, they’re singing in the rain and on top of all that, they skate in a chorus line. The Martha’s Vineyard Figure Skating Club was on the ice at the Martha’s Vineyard Arena last weekend for its 25th anniversary show, A Skate Down Memory Lane.
