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The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
March 3 - March 9, 2005 Edition
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EDITORIAL That old refrain March 3, 2005 That the private owners around the shore of Ice House Pond are unhappy, as they contemplate the changes that will certainly come with public access to what has been their private preserve, is predictable. It's an old, familiar refrain. Indeed, any Islander, were he a private owner along the pond shore, would share the same regrets that now trouble the longtime private owners and neighbors who have criticized the tactics the Land Bank used to acquire its Ice House Pond interests and now criticize the Land Bank's draft management plan for its holdings. It's natural, expected, and reasonable. But the Land Bank's solemn obligation is to those who have been barred from enjoying the tranquility and seclusion of the pond till the Land Bank bought land along its shore. The Land Bank fulfills this obligation by identifying and acquiring for the benefit of the public Vineyard places that require permanent protection, whether because they are critical to the protection of the ground water or because they are benchmark Island places that ought to be part of the lives of all Islanders, or for other environmentally or historically important reasons. After acquisition, it is the Land Bank's duty to conserve and manage its properties conscientiously. Both as an acquirer and as a manager, the Land Bank's track record on our behalf is superb. There is no reason to believe, despite the concerns of private Ice House Pond neighbors, that in preparing to provide controlled public access to Ice House Pond the Land Bank will fail to measure up to its long record of careful management in the public's interest. We expect the Land Bank's management plan for Ice House Pond to fit the property well and to be implemented rigorously, as is the Land Bank's practice. Don't give an inch We're delighted to see that the Steamship Authority has not backed down from its position regarding the purpose of the embarkation fee imposed on the boatline by the state legislature. Not happy with $265,000 in fee revenue for 2004, Tisbury officials and the police chief insist that the boatline must also fork over about $50,000 for police services at the Vineyard Haven wharf, or they say there may be terrible traffic snarls. Before the embarkation fee, Tisbury got $40,000 or so from the SSA to pay for traffic cops at the terminal. The embarkation fee revenue was intended to replace that sum, plus add lots more that the town could use to further mitigate the effects - troublesome perhaps but certainly, on the whole, hugely beneficial - of having the Island's chief ferry landing in the middle of town. Tisbury's view is insupportable, as is the selectmen's proposal that they be allowed to deploy those significant funds any way they see fit, without telling voters in detail how the money will be spent. The town finance committee balked at that notion this week, but the finance committee should go further and demand that the selectmen get over themselves and apply $50,000 of the fee revenue to traffic control at the dock and along Water Street to Five Corners. |
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