Contract talks between management and nurses at the Martha's
Vineyard Hospital are now at a bitter standoff, and hospital chief
executive officer Kevin Burchill said this week that he is prepared for
the possibility of a strike.
"Everything is now off the table. We're prepared for the
worst but we expect the best," he said.
Commission Rejects by a Wide Margin Rusczyk Push to Change
Commission On Kupersmith Housing Development
By JULIA WELLS
An Oak Bluffs selectman was rebuffed last week when he urged the
Martha's Vineyard Commission to reverse its decision to go to
court to compel a regional review of Connecticut developer Corey
Kupersmith's affordable housing project.
After listening to more than two hours of bitterly divided testimony
from an overflow crowd, the Martha's Vineyard Commission postponed
a decision last night on a proposal to designate the entire island of
Chappaquiddick as a district of critical planning concern (DCPC).
"I will tell you that Chappy is a finite place, and because of
its size what happens on this island affects everything else - the
beaches, the roads, the ferry," declared Don Crocker, president of
the Chappaquiddick Island Association.
The Herring Creek Farm Trust has filed a new lawsuit against the Martha's Vineyard Commission, appealing a recent decision by the commission to eliminate a private beach association from a development plan for the farm. The 32-lot luxury home development plan for the farm was approved by the commission in November. The approval was accompanied by some 22 conditions. One condition eliminated a 250-member private beach association from the plan.
The jokes and gritty remarks about trophy houses and the Hamptons
have been circulating on the Vineyard for a couple of years, but last
week the Edgartown conservation commission got its first real-life
glimpse of a starter castle now planned for an unspoiled point of land
on the Oyster Pond.
Early summer passenger traffic on the Steamship Authority's
newly acquired New Bedford ferry Schamonchi is down compared
with last year, even though the boat line has launched an
advertising program to boost ridership on the ferry.
"We're off," said boat line treasurer Wayne Lamson
yesterday.
Passenger traffic on the Schamonchi is down 18.6 per cent
for the month of June compared with last year, but Mr.
The company motto is The World On Time, and the phrase was good
fodder for the recent Tom Hanks blockbuster, Cast Away. But there is now
one place in the world where Federal Express is not on time.
In fact, it is more accurate to say that Federal Express is not On
Time, which is coincidentally the name of the Chappaquiddick ferry.
The Falmouth Steamship Authority governor checked the city of New
Bedford in its own game of ferry chess yesterday, refusing to honor an
11th-hour request from the Whaling City to extend a trial high-speed
ferry project, after the city solicitor abruptly pulled the plug on the
project two weeks ago.
County Manager Carol Borer Signs Controversial Agreement with
Hospital Without Knowledge of Commissioners
By JULIA WELLS
At a scrappy meeting that saw plenty of disagreement but little in
the way of accountability for the disordered events of the last two
weeks, the Dukes County Commission this week tried to sort its way
through a jumble of conflicting facts surrounding a contract designed to
funnel $500,000 in taxpayer money into the Martha's Vineyard
Hospital.
A Massachusetts Land Court judge last week dismissed the central claim in a complicated property rights case that centers on an attempt by a group of developers to open up access to a vast area of landlocked lots off Moshup Trail in Aquinnah.
