Police Uncover Clues In Arson Case, But Make No Arrest Yet

Edgartown police have identified a person of interest in the arson and burglary case on Dunham Road; police also have seized cutting tools they believe may have been used in the early morning hours of Sept. 27 when a fire was deliberately set and propane gas lines were cut in the guest house owned by E. Burke Ross.

Police said this week they are focusing on a person who lives on property owned by the Vose family trust at 41 Dunham Road, directly next door to the Ross home. No names have been released and no arrests have been made.

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Vandalism Hobbles Sail MV Program

Vandals have been targeting the boat house at the Sailing Camp Park in Oak Bluffs, leaving a trail of smashed-in doors, broken windows, floats set adrift in the Lagoon Pond — and, in a dangerous turn, the latest offense this week saw gasoline poured around the grounds.

At the receiving end of all this vandalism is Sail Martha’s Vineyard, the community-supported nonprofit program that leases the boathouse on the Lagoon from the town to teach sailing to Island children.

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Nectar’s Aims to Buy Nightclub With Liquor Store Part of Deal

Nectar’s has begun booking musical shows for the coming summer on the Vineyard, and club owners confirmed this week that they are negotiating to lease and eventually buy the building at the airport that formerly housed the Hot Tin Roof and Outerland.

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Annual Drug Sweep Discovers Bumper Pot Crop in Harthaven

State police and federal drug enforcement authorities made their annual helicopter sweep over the Vineyard early this week looking for marijuana plants under cultivation.

Sgt. Jeffrey Stone who works out of the Massachusetts state police barracks in Oak Bluffs, said yesterday that 62 plants were found and removed at six sites in Oak Bluffs, West Tisbury and Edgartown.

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Wind Turbine Moratorium Tops Chilmark Annual Town Meeting

A one-year moratorium on wind turbine applications and an array of housing initiatives, including a bylaw that addresses the thorny issue of inheritance for the children of affordable housing recipients, top the list of business for a double-header special and annual town meeting in Chilmark next week.

The meeting is Monday night in the Chilmark Community Center; longtime moderator Everett H. Poole will preside. The special town meeting begins at 7:30 p.m., immediately followed by the annual town meeting at 8 p.m. There are a total 31 articles on the two warrants.

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Child Care Help is on the Way For Families Struggling to Pay

There was good news this week for Islanders struggling to pay for child care, including preschool: a state grant has come through that will make child care subsidy money available for income-eligible families in five of the six Island towns.

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West Tisbury Finds Compromise on Mill Pond Dredging Dispute

Compromise and congeniality were the hallmarks of the West Tisbury annual town meeting this year, as 210 voters marched through a 48-article warrant in three hours flat, first pausing at the outset to hear the annual reading from the town poet laureate and shower the retiring police chief with accolades and long-stemmed red roses.

“Isn’t this a great town?” beamed moderator F. Patrick Gregory following the reading by Fan Ogilvie.

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Chaos in Menemsha as Fire Destroys Coast Guard Boathouse

A huge fire erupted in the U.S. Coast Guard boathouse in Menemsha yesterday afternoon, completely destroying the 68-year-old building along with an extended wooden pier that leads to the west dock on the Menemsha harbor. Also destroyed in the blaze were at least one truck and an unknown number of small boats nearby. Miraculously there were no injuries save one minor injury to a volunteer fireman, a Coast Guard public affairs spokesman confirmed last night.

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New Hospital Opens to Public on Sunday

One letter at a time. That was the drill on Wednesday morning this week as the nameplate went up over the entrance to the new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. A Columbia Construction worker was perched on a ladder to do the job, while project manager Connie Bulman looked on, standing in an empty parking lot awash in unseasonably warm April sunshine. It was one of a flurry of final touches underway as the hospital prepares for its grand opening on Saturday night and Sunday morning this weekend.

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Bike Accident Claims a Life

A Melrose woman who took a trip to the Vineyard for the day with her husband, friends and young family, was killed in a grisly accident on Tuesday afternoon when she fell from her bike on State Road in Vineyard Haven into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer.

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