A Vineyard Haven man accused of sexually assaulting a woman after a wedding party three years ago was convicted of rape by a jury last week and sentenced to up to seven years in prison by a Dukes County Superior Court judge.
The Hon. C. Brian McDonald last Friday sentenced Richard Skrzypczyk, 59, to a prison term of no less than five and no more than seven years at MCI Cedar Junction, a maximum security facility located in Walpole. The jury took less than three hours to find him guilty.
Old Houses, Living History
There is something sad about an old house being torn down; it’s like a friendship that suddenly disappears, leaving behind only memories and melancholy.
Wind Futures
At a time when the economic and ecological costs of fossil fuels continue to climb, Vineyarders are growing interested in the power of wind.
Following decades of almost no wind power generation on the Island, proposals are starting to pop up across the Vineyard to generate electricity through wind turbines.
In recent weeks, boards in Chilmark and West Tisbury together have approved three new wind turbines, essentially doubling the number of modern turbines now operating on the Island.
Fall Days
Autumn weather this year has been nonstop Indian summer, with mild temperatures conducive to all the best the Vineyard has to offer: hiking through long woodland trails with the soft crunch of newly fallen leaves underfoot, dip-netting for scallops and hauling a basket home to shuck for early Sunday supper, gathering armfuls of russet and teal hydrangeas from the garden to bring indoors, taking one last sail, one last paddle, one last bracing swim.
STANDOUT TEACHER
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
John Morelli was not the only great teacher I had at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, but he was the one who understood me best. I loved him very much.
During my senior year I discovered Jack Kerouac and begged Mr. Morelli to let our class read On the Road. It was new to me and I was excited about it. He ordered a box of copies and when the box arrived he let me open it.
Correction
A story in last week’s Gazette about the opening of Tilton’s Market in Vineyard Haven reported incorrectly on the location of the market, which is on Cromwell Lane. The story also missnamed Capt. Owen H. Tilton, who is the great-great-grandfather of the owners, as well as Bob Tilton, who is their father, and Tuesday, who is the village cat. The Gazette regrets the errors.
One of the most hallowed of Halloween traditions — the one that makes mere mortals susceptible to vampires because it involves not fake blood but the real stuff — is the carving of the pumpkin.
When my two daughters were young, I would take my life in my hands by taking my knife in my hands and attempting to carve a pumpkin without either: (a) severing a major artery or (b) doing such a horrible job on the face that the girls would giggle and say, “That pumpkin looks just like Dad!”
Last night’s full moon, the Hunter Moon, was the closest full moons of the year. A close full moon always brings extreme high and low tides. This weekend tides are highest near noon and midnight and low around sunrise and sunset. Boaters should be wary when tides are at extreme low tides, especially in inshore waters.
