Town Column : Chilmark
By Jacqueline Sexton
Published: May 1, 2008
Congratulations to Mary and Louis Larsen who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last weekend at a party organized by their children at the community center. We all salute them!
Welcome to Janet Weidner, the new trustee at the library. Ms. Weidner, who has twin sons in the fourth grade, will help shepherd the library into the future. She is also a member of the planning board.
Kristin Maloney, assistant library director, is back from a week of vacation in Alexandria, Virginia where she visited cousins and other relatives and enjoyed the southern clime. "Everything was blooming; it was beautiful!" she said. Not to worry, everything will be blooming on the Island soon. I think.
The Menemsha Fisheries Development Fund Committee will present a program on how one community in Eastern Maine is working to rebuild and sustain its fisheries next Wednesday, May 7, at 5:30 at the library.
Speakers are Robin Alden, executive director of the Penobscot East Resource Center and former commissioner of Maine's marine resources, and Ted Ames, commercial fisherman, scientist, and winner of a MacArthur Fellows Program award. Prompted by concerns over the lack of diversity - 70 percent of Maine's catch is lobster - and the effects on the coastal economy if the lobster industry should crash as it has off Long Island and Southern New England, their research has focused on securing a future for coastal fisheries management where the community directly manages its own marine resources.
The program is free; for more information, call the library at 508-645-3360.
Fifth-graders will join fifth- and sixth-graders from all the Island schools to test their engineering skills in the solar car race to be held at the basketball court behind West Tisbury town hall this Saturday, May 3, at 12 noon. Participants must arrive at 10:15 to register, test their cars, make repairs and talk with judges. Come cheer them on.
Congratulations to Bonnie George who won the needlepoint contest, sponsored by Henley's Needlepoint in Edgartown and the Clark Bed & Breakfast in Vineyard Haven, for the second year in a row. Madison, Wisconsin, is having a show of tapestries she did in Madison and pastels she h as been doing here at the library starting this Saturday. She does abstract city and landscapes. There will be a reception on May 10 from 3 to 5 pm.
Reminder: The 21st Women's Symposium will be this Saturday, May 3, 9 am to noon at the community center. The topic is "Faking It."
The hospital has been kept busy this year caring for victims of a mutant form of flu. For many of us it has been a winter of stops and starts: x-rays, medicines, bronchitis, recovery, followed by repeated relapses. None more so than Bob and Phyllis Conway who were both hospitalized with pneumonia. They recovered but then had recurrences - three times. As of mid-April they are at home and have finally been declared free of infection.
Mrs. Conway, who has been the coordinator of the church flea market for many years, is already organizing this summer's events. The big news is that the flea will be held this year, its 41st, at the West Tisbury School on Old County Road with free parking behind the school. Fifty vendors will display their wares, and volunteers will help with parking and other tasks. Long-time vendors will have first choice at location, second choices to those who have previously sold. New applicants will be put on a standby list to be called when regular vendors are unable to be present. Hours for the public are, as always, 9 am to 2 pm. The first date is Wednesday, June 25, continuing Wednesdays and Saturdays through Saturday, August 30. Please make inquiries to Phyllis Conway at 508-645-9216.
For anyone who missed the Cape Wind hearings, all is not lost. The library has transcripts of the hearings on a CD ROM available for patrons to view on their home computers or at one of the library computers.
Peter Lambos, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Boys and Girls Club, is sending out a call for golfers and sponsors for the 14th annual handicap-adjusted, five-player scramble golf tournament to benefit the club, as well as the Big Brothers, Big Sisters. The tournament will take place, rain or shine, at Farm Neck Golf Club on Sunday, June 1, starting at 8 am. Amenities include continental breakfast at 7:15 am, refreshments on the course, luncheon and prizes. Registration forms are available at the Boys and Girls Club, (behind the Edgartown School,), or at www.mvbgclub.org. For more information, please call Mr. Lambos at 508-627-3303.
I admit I'm not crazy about seeing my face appear every week in the paper, but when it shows up at the bottom of the obituary page as it did last week - isn't that sending the wrong message? It's not that I'm not in excellent company; it's just that I'm not there yet.
In case anyone was wondering....
