In a clean sweep that leaves the 21-member Martha's Vineyard
Commission intact for an intensive development review of the Down
Island Golf Club project, the state ethics commission has cleared
five members of the commission of conflict of interest.
"I've been cleared," said commission member James
Athearn yesterday.
NANTUCKET - Signaling an abrupt shift in direction on the
ambitious new service model, Steamship Authority general manager Armand
Tiberio said yesterday that the boat line will ax two key elements of
the model, including the controversial scheme to replace all three
ferries on the Nantucket run with one multipurpose high-speed ferry.
"If we are not going to be able to use technology - if
the position is that a high-speed vessel is not okay, then so be
it," Mr. Tiberio said.
NANTUCKET - Placing a surprise trump card on the table in the
testy and complicated match over opening up ferry service from New
Bedford, Steamship Authority governors announced yesterday that they
will take immediate steps to buy the ferry Schamonchi, a privatepassenger ferry that operates between New Bedford and the Vineyard.
A house on Starbuck's Neck in Edgartown whose history as a
summer home dates back a full century was sold this week for a record
$21.8 million.
The home, still known to most Vineyard residents as the former Sharp
house, was purchased by a private buyer. This marks the second record
sale for the same house in less than two years.
Vineyard Steamship Authority governor J.B. Riggs Parker said
this week that he will take no formal position on the pending
legislation to dramatically change the boat line governing
board.
"We are servants of the legislature; we are servants of the
state. The legislature is responsible for creating the framework
of the authority and they are entitled to change that framework,
and I don't believe that the authority member needs to take a
particular position," Mr.
The governor's task force that has been studying the
complicated issues surrounding ferry service to the two Islands will
this morning recommend sweeping change on the Steamship Authority board
of governors, including voting seats for New Bedford and Barnstable, the
Gazette has learned.
How many pounds of flour, how many pounds of sugar, how many pounds
of butter have passed through this place in the last 37 years? How many
scones, how many shortbreads, how many jars of beach plum jelly, how
many rhubarb pies?
No one ever counted. And no one ever wrote down the recipes.
Last week's report calling for high-speed ferry service
between New Bedford and the Vineyard was submitted without any financial
information, and the acting general manager of the Steamship Authority
said yesterday that he will now have to step in to finish the crucial
financial piece of the report.
Following a late-night discussion that grew cranky at times,
the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted narrowly last week to
designate a district of critical planning concern for the
shorelines of two shellfish-rich ponds in Chilmark.
The vote was 9-6 to approve the Menemsha and Nashaquitsa
Ponds DCPC.
Jennie Greene, the appointed member of the commission from
Chilmark, fought bitterly to block the DCPC.
"I think this is a slam-dunk that a couple of people put
together.
MASHPEE - A chorus of Cape Cod politicians and residents told
a governor's ferry task force last night that they want relief
from the Island-bound traffic they believe is clogging their roads.
And leaders in the town of Barnstable demanded a full voting seat
for their community on the Steamship Authority board of governors.
"We have been the unintended victims of the growth and
prosperity on the Islands," declared Barnstable town council
president Roy Richardson.
