High seas and gusting winds over the weekend prevented the safe
removal of a 71-foot fishing boat that washed onto Norton Point Beach
Saturday morning.
As summer moves into high gear on the Island, the Martha's Vineyard Hospital will launch the final push to raise the rest of the money for the construction of a new building.
Hospital chief executive officer Timothy Walsh said the building campaign has raised about $33 million of the $42 million required to rebuild the hospital at its Linton Lane campus in the Eastville section of Oak Bluffs.
Chilmark town beaches Lucy Vincent and Squibnocket remain closed to
swimming after droves of Portuguese man-of-war began washing up on the
southern shore of the Island Monday, stinging five swimmers within
minutes at Lucy Vincent. Two of the swimmers were hospitalized and
released for wounds from the jellyfish-like creatures.
Island residents and visitors have been warned about the high
prevalence of tick-borne diseases and skin cancer on the Vineyard. But
meanwhile, another medical malady has been quietly eating away at the
health of the Island population.
For reasons that still remain unclear, people on Martha's
Vineyard suffer from fractures of the fifth metatarsal - the small
bone that runs along the outer edge of the foot - in unprecedented
numbers.
Robert Brustein loves a good fight. His production of Samuel
Beckett's Endgame so enraged the Irish Nobel laureate, he demanded
it be shut down; Mr. Brustein refused, but allowed the playwright a
program note informing audiences they should be disgusted.
Then there was the New York town hall run-in with African-American
Pulitzer winner August Wilson, who called Mr. Brustein "a sniper,
a naysayer and a cultural imperialist."
State Appellate Tax Board Upholds Town Assessors in William Graham
Case
By IAN FEIN
In a highly anticipated decision that reverberated across the
commonwealth, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board ruled unanimously
this week that the values West Tisbury assessors placed on the North
Shore estate owned by William W. Graham were largely correct.
To protect a large group of coastal birds nesting on Norton Point Beach, The Trustees of Reservations have closed the stretch of barrier beach between Chappaquiddick and Katama to off-road vehicles. The closure came Friday when a number of birds hatched, and will remain in place until further notice.
Fishermen, sunbathers and swimmers, however, will find that much of the two-and-a half-mile beach remains open to passive recreation. Access by foot is available from the Left Fork in Katama and from the beach on the Chappaquiddick side.
Public school came to a screeching halt last week - tests and
final projects one day, sweet freedom the next. But at least 16 Island
youths will merely slow their studies, instead of stopping altogether.
Some may not even acknowledge the two-and-half-month academic bump in
the road called summer vacation.
Decision Set for Today in Graham Tax Case
By IAN FEIN
The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board is expected to rule this
morning in favor of the town of West Tisbury and against resident
William W. Graham in a property tax appeal that began three years ago
and has attracted attention across the commonwealth and beyond.
