Chilmark selectmen are hoping to provide some relief for drivers looking to park in Menemsha. A free shuttle service between a parking lot on Tabor House Road and Menemsha harbor will begin August 1.
New pilings for Menemsha harbor, a new office for the harbor master and a new wood floor for the Chilmark Community Center are all decisions for voters. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Community Center.
Some came straight from the beach with sandy feet, while others had just emerged from a nighttime bath, but the children who attended the Chilmark selectmen’s meeting Tuesday had a single message: don’t close Crab Corner.
Lines form at the Galley restaurant on warm summer evenings as people of all ages stand shoulder to shoulder for swordfish sandwiches and soft-serve ice cream cones. Around the corner at the Bite, the smell of fried clams hangs in the air. Down on the docks charter fishermen steam in from somewhere off Noman’s, their holds full of freshly caught striped bass and bluefish. And when the sun sinks into the western horizon, crowds form on the beach, as they have for so many years, to gaze across the water, look for the green flash and cheer the end of another day.
Reverend Arlene Bodge of Chilmark Community Church opened the start of the summer boating season with the annual blessing of the fleet ceremony on the Menemsha waterfront.
A vast harbor improvement plan in Menemsha is largely complete after five months of work in the harbor. Chilmark executive secretary Tim Carroll said minor adjustments still need to be made, including replacing of some lightbulbs in bombards, finishing electrical work and securing the water line.
“The seagulls are already dropping lobster and crab claws on the docks,” Mr. Carroll said.
Normally, the Coast Guard is on the lookout for mariners in distress. But on Sunday crew members aboard a 270-foot cutter stationed in Portsmouth, Va. spotted a more welcome sight: two right whales swimming northwest of Menemsha in Vineyard Sound.
If you had walked the shoreline of the Vineyard between roughly 1870 and the middle 1930s — especially the muscular, rocky north shore from Lambert’s Cove west to Gay Head — you would have seen something there’s absolutely no sign of today: row after row of wooden stakes stretching up to 100 feet outward from the beach into Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds.
The character of Menemsha is expected to be a topic for debate at a Chilmark special town meeting on Monday, when voters will be asked to approve an extensive new dock and pier system in the historic fishing village.
The meeting begins at 8 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center. Longtime moderator Everett Poole will preside over the two-article warrant.
Now that Labor Day has come and gone, Islanders are reclaiming Circuit avenue parking spots, swimming at Squibnocket and finally savoring the Menemsha sunset. Brad Tucker, front man for the Island band Ballyhoo, the sleeper hit of the summer music scene, is thrilled Vineyarders are taking back the Island. Mr. Tucker and his band mates have spent Sunday evenings since June playing free music down at the docks in Menemsha. The seasonal slowdown allows them to get back to what they really love doing — playing low-key music for their friends and family, the Islanders.
