Housing Fund Initiative Advances Up-Island

Chilmark Voters Face Decision

By KATHERINE WILEY

Over the past few years, members of Chilmark's affordable
housing committee have had the hunch that citizens feel their town could
use more affordable housing.

After distributing a survey on housing approaches this winter, they
now have the numbers to back their theory up.

At their spring special town meeting this week, Aquinnah voters spoke with one voice and became the second Island town to approve the Community Preservation Act.

Citizens approved the act with plenty of conviction; the article passed unanimously after a short discussion that included no criticisms of the measure.

"This took 12 years coming out of Beacon Hill. It's a significant act, and I think we need to try it," said Aquinnah selectman Carl Widdis.

Becoming the first Island town to pass the Community Preservation Act, voters in West Tisbury this week proved they could put their money where their mouth was when it came to affordable housing.

Predictions of this week's three-day northeaster were a bit of a reach. Hours before the storm arrived, Marshall Carroll, owner of Menemsha Texaco, said he thought he was going to lose his store. "The forecast was dire," he said, referring to the predictions for hurricane winds and a six-foot-high storm surge. Before the storm, Mr. Carroll said, "I looked at my building and thought of all the good times, and then thought maybe I will get another one. With a new store, I would get a better door." During and after the storm it was business as usual at the up-Island's outermost store.

In 1997, Vineyard House opened its doors for the first time. Last
week the organization added more doors, closing on the purchase of a
third house.

Like its first two homes, the Oak Bluffs house will serve as a place
where Islanders can recover from drug and alcohol addictions and begin
rebuilding their lives on the Vineyard.

By and large, the 40-odd Islanders who came out for last
night's forum on the Steamship Authority's new service model
accepted the logic behind the proposal but questioned the details that
will make it all work.

The noise, dust and torn-up roadways they could tolerate, but not the huge electric panel boxes sprouting up all over downtown Oak Bluffs in the midst of the town sewer construction project.

If you came into gym class at the regional high school looking for Jay Schofield, it might take a minute to find him. He's not out in the center of the floor with the other two gym teachers.

"The Tisbury Police Department environment is dysfunctional, at best, with continual tension between police officers and management," declares a new report made public at the Feb. 27 meeting of the Tisbury board of selectmen. The 22-page report is the product of a four-month study commissioned by selectmen and undertaken by seasonal Island resident Robert Wasserman of the consulting firm PSComm LLC.

"The Tisbury Police Department environment is dysfunctional,
at best, with continual tension between police officers and
management," declares a new report made public at the Feb. 27
meeting of the Tisbury board of selectmen. The 22-page report is the
product of a four-month study commissioned by selectmen and undertaken
by seasonal Island resident Robert Wasserman of the consulting firm
PSComm LLC.