MVC Balks at Offer from Field Club; Commission Votes for a Hearing

A plan to allow the developers of the upscale Field Club in Katama to pay $1.8 million to the Edgartown affordable housing committee instead of designating three lots on their property for the housing, as required by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, hit a snag this past week.

Although the plan has the backing of the town affordable housing committee, the commission at its regular meeting on Thursday decided the plan needed further discussion, voting 6-4 to schedule a public hearing on the matter.

Housing Telethon Smashes Record; Fundraiser Nets Over $1 Million

The Island Affordable Housing Fund raised more than $1 million this weekend with its Housing on the Tube telethon, breaking all Vineyard records for money banked from a single event.

Volunteers has expected to greet each other with hugs and tears Sunday night as the three-day fundraiser drew to a close. They did not expect to find they had tallied nearly double the goal the fund had set: $1,037,800.

Cape League Game is a Huge Hit

In every sense, last Tuesday was a perfect day for baseball on the Vineyard.

The sun shone brightly over the new baseball diamond at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, as a tangle of wispy clouds stubbornly refused to give way fully to the brilliant blue behind. The smell of hot dogs and hamburgers hung thick in the air, while dust kicked up on the infield floated by on a slight ocean breeze.

Last Tuesday marked the first-ever Cape Cod League baseball league played on the Vineyard. By any measure, the game was a runaway success.

fireman

Edgartown Firemen Take Home the Gold

Edgartown firefighters won Sunday’s annual Dukes County Firefighters’ Muster held in Oak Bluffs. Close to 100 firefighters and their friends participated in four competitive events that demonstrated skill and speed.

This is the second year in a row that Edgartown won. All Vineyard towns participated in the muster, and were joined by teams from Carver and Swansea in the muster’s firefighting event.

couple

Says Who? Encyclopedic Couple Paula Lyons and Arnie Reisman, That’s Who

So a Jew and a Catholic go into a sushi restaurant . . . It sounds like the setup for a joke, but the first date for Arnie Reisman and Paula Lyons was not much fun. On the second date, though, he made her laugh. Now his jokes and her laugh have been features on the NPR program Says You for 12 years. They own a home in Menemsha.

Interviews by Mike Seccombe

Arnie: We met in at Channel Five in Boston. Paula started in there in 1978 and I got there in ’79. She was a consumer reporter — and remained one for 25 years — until 2003.

Trustees’ Lease of Norton Point Generates Revenue for County

In its management of Norton Point Beach, which is owned by Dukes County, the Trustees of Reservations produced a net surplus of $16,785 in the last fiscal year.

The county will receive more than $3,000 of that money through an agreement with the conservation group. Two years ago, the county enlisted the help of the Trustees to manage Norton Point beach with an agreement that the county would receive 20 per cent of what the group earned at the public beach.

Grand Jury Indicts Man for Cocaine Trafficking

An empty Cheetos bag and a baby’s diaper found during a routine traffic stop in West Tisbury earlier this year led to a grand jury indictment this week for an Island man suspected of trafficking cocaine.

David A. Perez, 27, of West Tisbury, was indicted in Dukes County Superior Court last Tuesday. He is being held in the Edgartown house of correction on $100,000 bail.

Corrections

Corrections

A story in Friday’s Gazette misreported the amount of money raised last year during the first annual Housing on the Tube telethon. The correct figure is $526,000.

An story in last Tuesday’s Gazette mistakenly reported the type of tick which carries tularemia. It is the dog tick.

The Gazette regrets the errors.

Receives Degree

Receives Degree

Parthenia H. Kiersted of Edgartown received a degree in English in May at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. She minored in film studies.

Lauren Martin

Gazette Names Lauren Martin as Newspaper Managing Editor

Vineyard Gazette editor Julia Wells announced this week that Lauren Martin has been named managing editor of the weekly newspaper. Ms. Martin, who is 41, came to the Gazette two and a half years ago from Canberra, Australia, where she was a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Originally from Ohio, Ms. Martin received her degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989.

She began her career as a Washington-based political correspondent for Institutional Investor publications before heading off to sail into Australia.

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