Letters to the Editor
Wonderful article
To the Editor:
I can't thank The Martha's Vineyard Times and especially Nelson Sigelman for printing the wonderful article about my brother Edmund.
I have had many telephone calls from people I haven't talked to in years! People stopped me on the street, in stores, and in church saying they remember my brother.
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy past graduates living on the Island called.
It has been a heartwarming experience.
Yvonne Sylvia
Edgartown
Editor's note: The Times Memorial Day issue, published May 21, included two stories about the sacrifice of Navy Corpsman Edmund Berube of Edgartown, a graduate of the Mass College of Pharmacy who was killed on Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945, while serving with the Third Marine Division.
Missing from the debate
To the Editor:
Regarding the moral meltdown we are experiencing as a nation, consider this short list of symptoms:
All kinds of fraud and deception that have caused our economic malaise; the push to dignify same sex "marriage" - next incest will be considered O.K.; allowing ourselves to get involved in Israel's unending injustices in the Middle East. So, now we have our own secret police - homeland security.
My sense of this growing chaos is that the USA is learning to its sorrow how difficult life is when God has been exiled from the public forum.
William McNulty
Edgartown
Great article
To the Editor:
Congratulations to Janet Hefler and Ralph Stewart, the writer and photographer at MV Times, for capturing the spirit of the LPN program here on the Island. Great article. Thanks again.
Ken Chisholm
Administrator
Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Profiling
To the Editor:
Abode in West Tisbury's Island Co-Housing, check.
Prius with an Obama bumper sticker and National Public Radio on, check.
Arugula, check.
Town beach that forbids non-
residents to walk, cycle, or ride a bus to, check.
Doing it all with a feeling of self-righteousness, priceless.
Silence is my validation. End beach apartheid.
Erik Albert
Oak Bluffs
Success
To the Editor:
On May 15, Dukes County and Cape Cod Municipal Health Group (CCMHG) sponsored their annual benefits and wellness fair for all municipal employees of Martha's Vineyard. This year's success was the result of hours of planning and cooperation with CCMHG's Vineyard wellness coordinator, Judie Jardin, along with the town benefit administrators who applied for wellness grants from CCMHG. The grant money was used to purchase large raffle items for those who attended.
Our thanks to health plan representatives Bill Rowbottom of Blue Cross, Ann Marie Chapman of Harvard Pilgrim, Nina Conroy of Delta Dental, Kim Andersen from MyMedication Advisor, and Karen Bannon of EyeMed.
Also available for advice and questions were Kelley McCracken from the Dukes County Contributory Retirement System, Christopher Flanders represented AXA Financial Advisors, Stanley Startzel and Brian Fisher of Lincoln Invest, Ricardo Diaz-Lane of Great West Financial Services, Barbara Alpert from Boston Mutual Life Insurance, and Jane deColgyll from MIIA's employee assistance program.
Services were available onsite by podiatrist Dr. Jay Segel, the Martha's Vineyard Association of EMTs, Vineyard Nursing Association, environmental health consultant Lisa Nagy, Leslie Segal-Pallas from Vineyard Audiology, and Julie Whitehill from the Martha's Vineyard Hospital's rehab and wellness department.
Educational information regarding community-based programs was provided by the Dukes County Sheriff's Department Captain Donald Rose, and Theresa Manning and Jamie Vanderhoop from the Youth Task Force of Martha's Vineyard
There were demonstrations performed by Keren Tonnesen of Hoops, Kris Martin from the Vineyard Tennis Center, Workout, & Spa, and Katie Fuller of Strictly All Contact.
A big thank-you to those who donated door prizes and water - Curves, Vineyard Fitness, B-Strong, The Mansion House, Chilmark Spring Waters and Vineyard Bottled Waters.
Congratulations to our raffle winners Kristina West, Sharon Jackson, Martina Thornton, Bruce Stone, Marge Ditson, and Sharon Willoughby who all won $100 reimbursement of fitness/health equipment or membership. Also Jo Ann Murphy, Carol Grant, Sharon Willoughby, Cindy Krauss, and Randy Ditson guided kayaking tours. And our three big winners - Sharon Jackson, a $500 reimbursement of fitness/health equipment or membership, Bill Veno for a bicycle up to $500 at Cycle Works, and Marguerite Cook a kayak up to $500 from West Marine.
Finally, thank you to the Oak Bluffs School Committee for the use of the space, and Helen Hall and Fred Thornburgh for helping us with everything we needed at the school.
Tammy Deese
Senior Financial Clerk
County of Dukes County
A long, successful affordable housing adventure
To the Editor:
After four years on the Chilmark housing committee and with a success rate of one homesite in those four years, I decided to see if it was possible to privately create housing faster. I found a great piece of land in West Tisbury abutting a sweet path to the school and imagined the generations of families to come that would appreciate the location, and I was empowered by this vision.
The town in its wisdom had created a great bylaw specifically for people to do this sort of thing. One problem, four years ago when we started it hadn't really been used. I found a partner to join me who needed housing and found others who would also like an affordable home, and thus we forged ahead with a dream. Bouncing between the planning board and the West Tisbury housing committee for almost three years, we began to solidify what the town wanted and was willing to accept in allowing someone to use this bylaw (4.4-3 B). Untested as it was, there were undefined boundaries, and in the end the town agreed that they wanted to uphold a minimum acreage rule of one acre per home.
Thinking it would be a good idea, I began the process by approaching every single abutter and sharing my vision of what I hoped to do. The reactions were varied and cautious, but there was little optimism. There was a lot of stress and tension (at least for us) as the abutters mounted a campaign to fight our project. Most of the abutters have long roots on the Vineyard and friends or family that need or use affordable housing, yet still they opposed us. I was perplexed by this paradox. Good local people - the kind you'd choose to have as neighbors. The NIMBY signs were figuratively painted across our land.
We jumped through more hoops over these past four-plus years than I can remember. Potential recipients of our efforts came and went as other opportunities presented themselves. Other housing projects came to the forefront of the news. Some succeeded, and others went down in flames. Finally, after all these years of permutations and negotiation with the town and state, we have been granted a permit to go forward to try to help people who need housing.
These families, part of our year-round community, are partly at risk of leaving the Island because of the high costs of living. We all know that, so why is it that most if not all housing initiatives continue to face such staunch opposition?
It is true that the creation of affordable housing is an imperfect science. This small victory, though sweet, belies the challenges that we as a small year-round population face to preserve our community. We need to foster new housing opportunities for the people who struggle daily against the hardships of Island life and, most importantly, give hope that they one day can have the same security and peace of mind that many of us have and continue to enjoy - a foundation for a happy life on Martha's Vineyard.
I want to offer a warm and heartfelt thank you to David Vigneault, Philippe Jordi, John Abrams, Pat Manning, the West Tisbury housing committee and planning board members and the many people who coached us and continue to pursue ways to create affordable housing for a community that desperately needs it.
Jim Feiner
Feiner Real Estate
Chilmark
