Exercise Caution Over Blind Trust, Commission Told
By MANDY LOCKE
Pleas to the Martha's Vineyard Commission to slow plans for
creating a blind trust came from every possible side last night -
supporters, critics and even the agency's own members.
Three of the commission's newest members opposed the formation
of such a charitable trust, and several other members demanded further
investigation before accepting gifts from the trust.
Land Bank's Chappaquiddick ‘Prize' Will Bring
Island Trail to Pond's Edge
By JULIA WELLS
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank announced this week that it
will buy the Wasey property on Chappaquiddick, a grassy, windblown
four-acre crest that embraces the unspoiled inner shore of Cape Pogue
Pond.
For Steamship Governor, Heated Questions About Direction,
Accountability
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
Amid fresh eddies of controversy swirling around the Steamship
Authority, Vineyard boat line governor Kathryn A. Roessel came under
heavy fire this week from an array of county officials - including
members of the Dukes County Commission, her appointing authority -
who demanded better communication and more accountability.
Oak Bluffs Sign Off Didn't Follow Rules
By CHRIS BURRELL
An elected Oak Bluffs town official who is employed as operator of
two municipal sewage treatment plants on the Island may have violated
state environmental and ethics laws in the process of securing a septic
permit this winter for his new house in Oak Bluffs.
Joseph N. Alosso, member of the board of health and operator of the
wastewater treatment plants in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, denies any
wrongdoing.
Draft Report Eyes Airport
An Early Look at Project Plans Sees No Environmental Hurdle to
Runway Improvements, New Terminal, Jail
By ALEXIS TONTI
The Martha's Vineyard Airport commissioners this week
previewed a document that will be critical to the approval, by both
state and federal officials, of long-range plans for development at the
airport and on its surrounding property.
No Standbys: At SSA Docks, Winter Season Brings a Hush
By C.K. WOLFSON
Early morning: The landscape has turned to gauze; the snow, white
static in wind-driven billows, erases the harbor, leaving only the
illusion of distant masts - faint vertical slivers among the flows
of harbor ice.
As their town grows, Chilmark municipal employees are playing a game of musical chairs at the old Menemsha School.
In November of 2001, when the town library staff needed a place to work while their building underwent $2.4 million in renovations and expansion, the Menemsha School became their temporary home.
No sooner was the library done last June than town hall employees moved in, as their own building went through a $1.5 million upgrade. They expect to be in the school until mid March.
Finances Improve at Windemere, Hospital
By JULIA WELLS
The Windemere Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center ended the year
in the red once again, but senior managers said this week that the
$200,000 operating deficit is a big improvement over last year and a
step in a better direction for the Island's only nursing home.
Martha's Vineyard Hospital chief executive officer Tim Walsh
said yesterday that some hard-won rate relief from Medicaid played a big
role in cutting the numbers at Windemere this year.
Gone is the 02568 zip code above the door announcing the building's identity. Gone, too, are the mail slots marked Tisbury, on-Island and off-Island. Now Vineyard Haven post office customers will drop their mail into bins labeled with two generic classifications, local and out of town. The sleek eagle emblem of the United States post office hangs above the new corner entrance.
Chilmark and Commission Will File Briefs in Sovereignty Case
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
The town of Chilmark and the Martha's Vineyard Commission will
add their voices to the Aquinnah court appeal over sovereign immunity,
which is now expected to come before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court this year.
