Our Changing Island

Real estate and personal property values are currently being updated in all Island towns in order that each town’s assessments can be certified by the Department of Revenue later this year for fiscal year 2012.

Facing criminal charges of larceny by embezzlement over $250 and fiduciary embezzlement, Edgartown attorney Edward W. (Peter) Vincent Jr. was arraigned in Edgartown district court yesterday. His lawyer, Robert Jubinville, entered not guilty pleas to both charges. District court Judge H. Gregory Williams presided.

The arraignment had been postponed from April 11.

The charges stem from a civil case filed in March and since resolved, in which Mr. Vincent was sued by the MSPCA for misuse of funds in a real estate transaction.

Island Club Donations

Our Island Club, the consumer savings program that also raises money for local organizations, has distributed its annual donations, more than $43,000.

Included in the distribution are scholarships to the Vineyard Nursing Association, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School vocational programs and the Permanent Endowment Fund. It also donated $1,500 to support the SafeRides program. A complete list of the 180-plus organizations is posted on the Web site ourislandclub.com.

In every community there are people who have different experiences, who are unique and yet similar. We live side by side with each other, but how much do we know about our neighbors? Most of the people I spoke to for this piece are well known to me, and yet I did not know their stories. We all have a story, sometimes known only to ourselves.

He plays the recorder. She plays the piano. They are both retired and inherited the house in which they now live. Fred H.C. Hotchkiss and his wife, Anita, are two members of the new majority: the rapidly growing elderly population on the Vineyard.

Residents of the Leonard Circle neighborhood in Vineyard Haven are lining up and picking sides: They’re either with the rooster or against it.

The itinerant rooster’s name is Rupert. And true to his nature as a rooster, Rupert has a penchant for predawn crowing sessions.

At a Tisbury zoning board of appeals meeting on May 12 residents of the neighborhood called for Rupert to be captured.

This week neighbors appeared before the town selectmen to show their support for Rupert.

With summer fast approaching and the time-honored tradition of jumping off the big bridge at Sengekontacket set to resume, town and county officials are once again calling on the state to remedy what has become a dangerous situation along the rebuilt bridge walkway.

“If there’s a kid sitting down on that railing any truck mirror that comes by is going to take their head off,” county manager Russell Smith said on Wednesday.

Martha’s Vineyard is growing rapidly more populous, older and more diverse according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Overall, the population of Dukes County grew 10.3 per cent in the decade 2000-2010, well down on the 29 per cent growth of the previous decade, but still the highest by far of any county in Massachusetts.

With a list of 90 itemized faults in the construction of Chilmark’s first affordable housing development, frustrated town officials this week demanded that Seaver Construction president Scott Seaver take personal control of the project.