Blood Drive

The Red Cross has put out word this week that blood donors are needed: There is a critical need for type O negative and B negative blood.

A blood drive will be held this coming week on Tuesday, April 26, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Portuguese-American Club on Vineyard avenue in Oak Bluffs. Please come and give blood if you are able.

Trainings for Islanders who want to learn more about becoming a volunteer for Red Cross disaster services — and become a member of the Vineyard’s disaster assistance team — will be offered by the Red Cross on Friday, April 29, from 6 to 9 p,m, and Saturday, April 30, beginning at 8:30 a.m. They will take place at the Oak Bluffs Council on Aging located at 21 Wamsutta avenue. Beverages and snacks will be provided.

Chilmark voters acted with dispatch on a 37-article annual town meeting warrant on Monday night, approving a $7 million town budget that includes a 2.6 per cent cost of living increase for town employees, overhauling the town personnel bylaw and approving a new set of rules for swimming pools in town.

A Community Preservation Act spending article for the Tea Lane Farm restoration project, and two articles that would funnel CPA money to Martha’s Vineyard Museum projects were indefinitely postponed.

Greg Fligor won the slalom gold medal at the National Snowboard Championship in Copper Mountain, Colo., in a dramatic week of competition. Greg is the son of Leslye and Andy Fligor of Weston and Edgartown, and the grandson of Carol and Dick Fligor of Edgartown.

The Vineyard Tennis Center women tennis players traveled to Falmouth for an interclub match in March. Both Falmouth Sports Center and the Vineyard Tennis Center played first time women’s doubles team pairings.

Doreen Rezendez and Susan Stevens hosted the longest rallies of any team, taking one hour to play, and narrowly lost their first set 6-7. They came back in their second set to a 5-4 score before time ended their match.

After a slow spring break week, the regional high school teams will get things started up again this Tuesday with home games, meets and matches for softball, girls’ lacrosse, girls’ tennis, and track. The baseball team will play at home on Monday.

The restoration of Farm Pond in Oak Bluffs is underway as last week engineers from two firms began initial survey work on what is hoped will become a widened culvert and a revitalized pond.

A property owner at Sweetened Water Farm in Edgartown has appealed a recent planning board decision not to allow him to subdivide his property under the Form A (approval not required) process.

Dwight W. Arundale claims the planning board decision contravenes the law. The appeal was filed in Massachusetts Land Court.

Sengekontacket Pond will be closed to shellfishing for another summer, Edgartown selectmen announced at their weekly meeting on Monday.

In a letter to the selectmen, shellfish constable Paul Bagnall said he was told by the state Division of Marine Fisheries of the closure at a meeting in New Bedford last week. Mr. Bagnall said the state ordered the closure in order to gather more data to determine whether rainfall closures will be necessary for the pond. The pond has been closed on and off to summer shellfishing since 2007 due to fluctuating bacteria levels.

Chilmark selectmen began reviewing rental agreements and guidelines for the Middle Line Road affordable housing project this week, and if all goes as planned, families may move in as soon as Sept. 1.