KEEP THE SS-A TEAM

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter is addressed to the Steamship Authority administration:

Martha’s Vineyard is a great place to ride a bicycle. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t live here, and I suspect many other people who love the Island wouldn’t either. Not because we all ride bicycles, but because the things that make the Vineyard a great place to ride are the things that make it a great place, period. The Island is small and mostly flat, with plentiful scenic roads. The downtown areas are congested, but this is because the towns were not designed for car traffic, they were designed for people.

With the summer season un der way, it is again timely to remind people traveling around the Vineyard — visitors and Islanders, alike, whether motorist or bicyclist — of the need for safety among our narrow and often congested roads and shared use paths. For motorists and bicyclists to safely travel about, everyone needs to know the rules of the road and exercise patience.

Today is Philanthropy Day on Martha’s Vineyard. Proclaimed by Dukes County, it’s a day to honor everyone, seasonal and year-round, for the tremendous amount of time and money you donate to keep the Vineyard and its nonprofits running. We salute and thank all of you for giving back. You play a major role in keeping this a special place.

Eat fish, we are told, they’re good for the body and brain. Eat local fish to support the Island economy and limit the use of fossil fuels used to transport food. But eating traditionally local seafood will become a challenge as marine species struggle to adapt to changes in ocean waters due to human-induced global warming. Some species may not be local for long.

NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)

The street fair returns tonight! Therefore, for this one day only, Grace Church lobster rolls will be on sale from 1 to 5 p.m. at the church, so as not to interfere with the fair.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

July 1 80 58 .00

July 2 79 58 .00

July 3 78 62 .00

July 4 77 65 Trace

July 5 81 65 .00

July 6 86 66 .00

July 7 78 68 .00

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 77º F.

RICK HERRICK

508-693-8065

herricklr@verizon.net

East Choppers owe Liz Durkee a big thanks! Liz led the effort to fix Lake Huss, the annoying water problem along Mill Square road that developed following major rain storms. She found the money to solve the problem in a Coastal Pollution Remediation Grant. She worked with the Oak Bluffs highway department to oversee the construction of the gravel and vegetation wetland that filters the rain water safely into the harbor.

BRAD WOODGER

508-627-4216

(ibwsgolf@aol.com)

We used to wait. There was a joy in slowing down. We’d come to Chappy, away from ringing of home phones to the four-digit dialing quiet Island phones. If the phone rang at Grammy’s, someone wanted a ride home or a drink on the porch. Now the ringing (in all its mutations) follows us here. Distance is no longer enough to discourage attachment. The sea does little to abate the connection to that which we leave behind (flee?)

JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

We had excellent hot weather over the long holiday weekend, just the way it should be for the Fourth. Ted Morgan down in Edgartown organized and marched in his 42nd Independence Day parade, and it was well attended, as was Woollcott and Leah Smith’s party the night before, when about 75 people took part in the evening’s festivities. I made an error in last week’s column on the date of the party and I apologize to the Smiths and anyone else for any inconvenience I may have caused.