The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has officially broken ground on a long-promised gambling facility in the small up-Island town, unleashing a flurry of concern.
Construction has begun on a large bingo hall planned by the tribe in Aquinnah — and tribal leaders have issued a stern warning to the town and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to not interfere.
The Yellow House will stay gray until the end of next summer, according to a small change in the property’s lease agreement made at the Edgartown selectmen’s meeting last week.
Roughly 200 commuters take the early morning ferry to Martha’s Vineyard each day, many of them construction workers who hail from all over southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Building permits are up this year, and all around the Island the sounds of nail guns, classic rock and pickup trucks unloading supplies provide the backbeat for a flurry of construction activity.
A Rhode Island company was the low bidder on a a $7.3 million contract for a new library. And questions surfaced again about the Edgartown Library Foundation.
The summer crowds and seasonal yachts have left Menemsha and were replaced this week by a 55-by-185-foot barge and crane for construction of the new U.S. Coast Guard boathouse.
The large barge arrived Tuesday night in Menemsha harbor, tugged in by the Jaguar of New Bedford and the Patrick J. Hunt of Narragansett, R.I.
“It’s finally here, which is a great thing,” said Lou Vinciguerra, project manager for the Coast Guard boathouse.
In light of several renovation projects around the downtown area, the Oak Bluffs selectmen Monday reconsidered a longstanding town policy to prohibit downtown construction work from June 1 to Sept. 15.
At a special meeting, the selectmen adopted clarifying regulations to allow construction work inside buildings during the summer with several conditions, including no work on weekends and nights.
