On New Year’s Day a destructive house fire in Oak Bluffs threatened the life of Island resident Paola Ayala Fuller. Everything she owned was destroyed. Now, a group of Ms. Fuller’s friends is seeking to help her regain her footing with a fundraiser at Season’s Restaurant & Pub on Saturday, Jan. 21 from 5 to 8 p.m.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen this week got a look at the fiscal year 2013 budget, which totals $24.35 million and emphasizes sustainability and steering the town out of tough financial straits that include a free cash deficit of more than $800,000.

In creating the budget, “we went through the budget bottom up,” said interim town administrator Robert Whritenour. “We looked at every dollar.”

The new budget represents an increase of less than 1.5 per cent, Mr. Whritenour said.

Tisbury selectmen joined the chorus calling for cable television service to Chappaquiddick on Tuesday, voting to pull out of the Islandwide contract talks with Comcast.

“With Edgartown pulling out because of the Chappaquiddick piece not being addressed, I’d like us to send our marching orders to our representative [Fred LaPiana] to stop talks as well,” said selectman Jeffrey Kristal.

The gibbous moon appears near the bright red planet Mars tonight, and tomorrow night. Both are in the zodiacal constellation Virgo.

Days after a heated debate on whether the town of Chilmark should take on the issue of regulating large houses, the Chilmark planning board this week said they felt the support to move ahead with changing existing zoning bylaws.

The board narrowed possible restrictions at Monday’s meeting and focused on capping house sizes in relation to neighborhoods or lot sizes, regulating the amount of energy used and expanding existing district of critical planning concerns (DCPCs) to incorporate rules to regulate house size.

As waistlines have expanded, the Island’s ferry lines have had to keep up, and new rules about more massive passengers that went into effect in December have some Island lines – though not the Steamship Authority – cutting back capacity.

Mill Pond Findings

The West Tisbury Mill Pond Committee will present the findings of recent ESS Group, Inc. environmental and engineering study at a public information meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 18. The meeting, held at the Howes House, will feature a PowerPoint presentation and a question and answer period. The goal of the West Tisbury Mill Pond Committee is to create a longterm management plan for Mill Pond to address issues such as shoaling, invasive species and wildlife habitat improvements.

Corrections

A story in Friday’s Gazette about the Chilmark planning board discussion on large houses reported the wrong square footage for a house owned by Adam Zoia on Quitsa Pond. The size of the house is 8,238 square feet.

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Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Jan. 6 40 27 .00

Jan. 7 53 39 .00

Jan. 8 56 39 .00

Jan. 9 45 29 .00

Jan. 10 41 27 .07

Jan. 11 45 28 .00

Jan. 12 44 33 .71

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 45º F.

Final plans for the new U.S. Coast Guard boathouse in Menemsha are ready to go to the state historical commission for review, but they will go without the blessing of the Chilmark selectmen.

At a final public hearing held on Wednesday the Coast Guard design team presented few changes from the last design presented in December, save the window patterns, which now more closely match the original structure. The entrance has also been changed to a more simple design.