The Last Heath Hen

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of March, 1933:

Chilmark fifty years ago was a different place. Well, of course it was. There weren’t so many people. There weren’t so many summer people. And there weren’t so many people who lived there year-round. Islanders, we called them.

As most on the Vineyard now have learned, this past Sunday we lost a prominent member of our community, Herb Putnam. I write today to share with the readers of this paper a brief note about my twenty-year friendship with Herb. I am certain that Vineyarders all over have many great stories to share about Herb and, as difficult it is to write at this time, I am truly happy to share the following. Candidly, it also is a means to express my grief for this terrible loss.

The heartburn in West Tisbury over the tri ennial real estate revaluation, which hit riparian owners on the north and south shore with increased assessments of two, three, and four times their previous values, is not likely to quiet down any time soon.

Our three elected assessors, who bear the major responsibility for this gut-wrenching mess, don’t seem to understand that 107 applications for abatements in one year signals a level of discontent and political turmoil they must confront in ways beyond the abatement process itself.

As our town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport pointed out at a recent Oak Bluffs selectmen’s meeting, access and use of a town park is not a privilege but a citizen’s right. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, town parks were symbolic of a wider commitment to the public good, citizenship and public well-being. Cottage City, which in 1907 became Oak Bluffs, is one of the first planned communities in the United States. The town planners recognized the importance of parks as open spaces for active and passive recreation.

More than 3,200 written submissions have been received in response to the draft environmental impact statement on the Cape Wind project, and the federal Minerals Management Service has been forced to extend the deadline for comment by a month so yet more can be made.

The original 60-day period for comment was to have ended on March 20, but now will run until April 21.

Cape Wind has proposed building 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. The company has said that the wind farm could generate up to 420 megawatts of power.

At a special town meeting Monday night, Chilmark voters approved a $500,000 purchase of two lots for the Middle Line Road affordable housing project, further voting to shift the entrance to Middle Line Road.

The town will construct roadway over the lots to create an improved sight line at the junction of Middle Line and Tabor House roads.

The move addresses concerns of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and the town planning board that the current turn-in to Tabor House Road poses a safety risk in the face of development plans.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Feb. 29 32 15 .00

March 1 39 21 .35

March 2 42 28 .05

March 3 42 21 .00

March 4 49 41 .00

March 5 56 44 .34

March 6 55 32 .03

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 44º F.

Town officials gathered Wednesday to review plans for the repair and reinforcement of part of the old pay beach, in hopes of preventing a large portion of town waterfront from literally falling into the ocean — perhaps taking sidewalk and state highway along with it.

Frank, Peter and Heidi Dunkl produce Chilmark Spring Water, the Island’s own bottled water. But this winter, the siblings’ attention went beyond water.

They’ve been working on one of the Island’s most revered 19th century buildings, the old bandstand at Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs. From their plant at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Business Park, they’ve worked on five new oak replacement posts.

The new posts are critical pieces for the troubled 19th-century building.