Longstanding tensions between the Dukes County Commission and the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission over who really runs the airport wound up in superior court this week, when airport commissioners filed a complaint against the very body that appoints them.
The Dukes County commission voted Wednesday to appoint two new airport commissioners, ousting longtime commissioner John S. Alley and Benjamin L. Hall Jr.
A Martha's Vineyard Airport employee is at the center of a tangled web of charges and countercharges, including a complaint filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
The Martha’s Vineyard airport commission has the authority to establish salaries for its employees independently of other county employees salaries, an attorney for the Dukes County commission said. In a letter sent by email to county manager Martina Thornton on Dec. 11, Darren Klein, an attorney with Kopelman and Paige wrote: “In my opinion, as long as the airport commission has sufficient funds appropriated through the enterprise fund or otherwise, the airport commission has the authority . . . to fix salaries as it sees fit.”
After first voting unanimously to leave the door open for the
possibility of a jail on airport land, the airport commissioners this
week approved the master plan.
A few of the dozen people in attendance at Wednesday night's
meeting had wanted more. They argued that the airport commission owed
the public more than three weeks time to review a document three years
in the making.
Vineyard Officials Ask Wider Public Role in Deliberations on Airport
Master Plan
By JONATHAN BURKE
Island officials, from the town of Aquinnah to the Dukes County
Commission to the Martha's Vineyard Commission, have requested a
broader public process in connection with the airport commission's
consideration of its 20-year master plan.
The long-awaited master plan for the Martha's Vineyard Airport
envisions longer and wider run-ways, more hangars, a bigger main
terminal and room for retail shopping - all that but no land for a
new jail.
Airport Commission Asks FAA to Move on Jail, Land Transfer
By ELIZABETH BOMZE
Conversations around the airport commission table on Wednesday night
left both the dormitory housing and new jail propositions for further
discussion. Two proposals, however, will be sent to the FAA: to place a
jail behind the Hot Tin Roof in the southwest corner of the airport
property, and to make a land swap between the airport and the state
forest.
Airport manager Bill Weibrecht attributes the continued delay to the
question of how best to use airport land.
Island residency proved the trump card for Sean Flynn, who was
selected as manager of Martha's Vineyard Airport on Wednesday
night in a 4-3 vote of the airport commission.
The sword of Damocles apparently will dangle a while longer over the
finances of Dukes County government.
The county commission tentatively had slated a meeting for tomorrow
with the finance advisory board to discuss strategy in what could be a
major legal judgment against the county. But county manager E. Winn
Davis said yesterday the meeting had been canceled.
