| At
Large Business Briefs Cartoons District Court Report Editorial Gone Fishin' Letters to the Editor Real Estate Transactions Sports Sports Highlights |
| Art Bestsellers Dance Edibles Film In Print Music Theater |
| This
Week's Happenings Save
That Date Ongoing Events Groups Libraries Museums and Tours Children's Resources Hotlines 12-Step Programs Religious Services Volunteer Opportunities |
| Achievements Astrology Birds Births Community Shorts Dean's List Engagements Garden Notes Honor Roll Obituaries Off North Road Short Subjects Town Meetings Visiting Vet Weddings |
| Aquinnah Chilmark Edgartown Oak Bluffs Tisbury West Tisbury |
The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
May 26 - June 1, 2005 Edition
Web
Comments
- Email Submissions
|
News
in Brief The Martha’s Vineyard Times office will be open on Monday, Memorial Day. Normal deadlines will apply. Calendar event listing deadline: Monday, noon by fax (508-693-6000) or e-mail (calendar@mvtimes.com). Bargain box deadline: Monday, 3 pm. Classified ad deadline: Tuesday, 12 noon. Display ad deadline: Monday, 5 pm. Martha’s Vineyard observes Memorial Day The Vineyard’s observance of Memorial Day will begin on Friday with Island schoolchildren. The Oak Bluffs Elementary School has invited veterans from American Legion Post 257 in Vineyard Haven and active duty servicemen to be part of their Memorial Day Ceremonies, which begin at 8:30 am. Weather permitting, Tisbury School students will depart at 12:30 pm for their traditional march to the sea. The children will march up Main Street to Owen Park where they will throw bouquets of flowers into the water. The ceremony ends with the playing of taps. In a similar ceremony, Edgartown School children will depart their school at 1:10 pm and march to Memorial Wharf in Edgartown. On Monday, Memorial Day, the American Legion with the help of volunteers will set up 400 flags beginning at 7:30 am in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven. A Memorial Day Parade will depart American Legion Post 257 opposite the Tisbury School at 9:45 am and proceed to the Oak Grove Cemetery. Ceremonies will include a helicopter fly-by at 10:15 am. At 3 pm Islanders are asked to join in a national moment of silence in honor of the country’s war dead.
Town emergency and health officials responded to a small fuel spill that glazed State Road from the Mansion House to Five Corners with an oily sheen just before noon on Tuesday. John Schilling, Tisbury fire chief, said that less than five gallons of number two fuel oil spilled out of an R.M. Packer Company delivery truck when a hose on the truck split. Chief Schilling said that the driver of the truck was getting ready to make a fuel delivery at the Mansion House when the hose broke. Chief Schilling said that the driver immediately shut off the truck and called the police to report the spill. Tisbury fire and state highway department personnel used special absorbent material to soak up the spilled fuel. They also used sandbags to block off a storm drain to prevent the fuel from flowing into Vineyard Haven Harbor. Chief Schilling said that because the spill was less than 10 gallons the state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not have to be contacted. He said that the town board of health did respond to the scene. While most of the fuel was cleaned up, some of it mixed with the rain-soaked road and caused the colorful and recognizable oil sheen to spread along the side of the road. Chief Schilling said the oily rainbow was less dramatic than it looked. “Unfortunately the driver was parked on hill and there was a lot of water flowing down the hill from the rain, and because the fuel rises to the top it looked very dramatic even though it was a very minor spill,” he said. Jack Law, a manager at the R.M. Packer Company, said he did not know what caused the truck’s rubber hose to split. He commended the quick emergency response to get the fuel cleaned up before it flowed into the harbor. “Fire department and everyone that responded were great. They got their sand and material down very quickly, and the response was greatly needed and greatly appreciated,” said Mr. Law. Tisbury selectmen tackle pre-summer issues At the Tisbury selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, the large audience was a tip-off that it was more than business as usual. After concluding a few items on the agenda, at 6 pm, Derek Cimeno, Tisbury’s shellfish constable, was recognized as state Shellfish Constable of the Year by Gary Sherman, president of the Massachusetts Shellfish Officers’ Association. After his presentation, most of the audience left to attend a party for Mr. Cimeno, and the selectmen turned their attention to Dr. Peter Strock, chairman of the Tashmoo management committee. Dr. Strock distributed a brochure listing alternative boat launch sites on the Island, in anticipation of the closing of the Lagoon Pond ramp and parking lot this summer. The bid process for construction opens June 2, which will likely postpone the earlier announced June closure until after July 4, according to John Bugbee, Tisbury town administrator. In other business, the selectmen reviewed a letter drafted by Mr. Bugbee to the Dukes County Commissioners concerning the ongoing dispute over an additional veterans agent fee assessment. Mr. Bugbee’s letter reaffirms the Tisbury selectmen’s stand against paying the separate assessment for over and above the limits of Prop. 2.5. Another item Mr. Bugbee discussed was the Park and Ride lot located near the Tisbury landfill. He said parking spaces in the three free rows are all in use each day, an indication of the lot’s increased popularity. The selectmen approved adding a fourth free row. Mr. Bugbee also had some good news for Fire Chief John Schilling, telling him that Edgartown’s Board of Fire Engineers offered to give a used special operations vehicle to Tisbury once they receive a letter of interest. The selectmen voted to make their interest known and to convey their gratitude. Mr. Schilling told the selectmen, “I can’t wait to get my hands on it.” A large portion of the evening’s discussion concerned the completion of Main Street construction. Fred LaPiana, DPW director, announced plans to pave the street from the front of Brickman’s to Spring Street from June 6 to 17. Although the selectmen were not pleased with the timing of the work at the start of the summer season, Mr. LaPiana agreed to try to make the repaving the least disruptive to Main Street traffic and businesses as possible. In other town business, selectmen voted to draft a letter supporting legislation to close a property tax law loophole for telecommunications companies. The loophole allows for avoidance of taxes by transferring assets and costs Tisbury $67,000 in revenue per year, according to assistant assessor Patty Blakesley. Yacht Designer Nat Benjamin speaks at Netherlands conference Nat Benjamin, a partner Ross Gannon in the Vineyard boatbuilding and repair business that bears their names, will discuss his passion for traditional wooden boatbuilding and restoration in the Netherlands, at the annual PINC conference today. Mr. Benjamin, the yacht design partner of Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, was invited to speak at PINC—People Ideas Nature Creativity—a unique conference founded by Peter van Lindonk, a Dutch publisher. PINC’s speakers, according to the forum’s literature, are people who “think outside the box and have nothing more in common than a passion for what they do and absolute faith in the power of innovation and creativity.” Among this year’s 17 speakers are a volcano expert, a cartographer, the director of the world’s first science fiction museum, and the biologist and attendant of Alaska’s Kodiak bears. In the 24 years of its existence, Gannon and Benjamin craftsmen have built several dozen boats designed by Mr. Benjamin, ranging from an eight-foot tender to the 65-foot schooner Juno, launched in 2003 for Robert and Melissa Soros. Along the way, Mr. Benjamin’s designs created several new classes of boats, such as the Bellas, Quitsas, and Canvasbacks. Most recently, Mr. Benjamin designed and is now building for a German client a 38-foot sloop, Here and Now, to be launched this fall. For himself and wife Pam, he has designed and also has under construction a 51-foot schooner. More information about the PINC conference and this year’s speakers may be found at www.pinc.nl Lobsters set free in Menemsha Pond Stanley Larsen, Chilmark shellfish constable, said that when he was a youngster roaming over the surface of Menemsha Pond in a small skiff it was not unusual to see lobsters crawling around on the bottom. That was many years ago when the pond was a much more productive source of all variety of shellfish. In an effort to help the ecology of the pond, Mr. Larsen plans to begin releasing female lobsters into the pond throughout the summer with the help of local school children. He hopes the lobsters will feed on the abundance of crabs in the pond and reproduce. The lobsters will be marked by means of a V-shaped notch in their shell. State regulations prohibit the possession of V-notched lobsters. Mr. Larsen said the lobsters would be of a good size to help protect against predation by striped bass, which he considers a contributing factor in the absence of lobsters in the pond. Generous sponsors, including local charter captains Jennifer Clarke and Henry Burkin are helping to underwrite the program. Chilmark School receives energy award Chilmark School took top honors as the Massachusetts Elementary School of the Year in a youth awards program for energy achievement sponsored by the National Energy Education Department (NEED). The NEED project is used by the Cape Light Compact (CLC) as part of its classroom outreach program. Students and teachers set goals at the beginning of the school year and keep a record of their activities. In April, they combine their materials into scrapbooks and submit them to state coordinators for the awards program. Jack Regan teaches the combined class of eight second-graders and 14-third graders that won the award for their energy efficiency project. The children used a Department of Energy booklet on “energy hogs” as the basis for a survey of appliances they gave to their parents, relatives, and neighbors. The survey also offered participants the opportunity to sign up for an energy audit of their homes through Cape Light Compact. Nan Doty, who heads up the Vineyard Energy Education Program in the Island’s elementary schools, helps train teachers and works with them throughout the year on energy projects. The Vineyard Energy Project and CLC fund her program. Mr. Regan credits Mrs. Doty with helping the children create a winning portfolio. “Nan was very instrumental in allowing me to do the project within the constraints of the curriculum,” noted Mr. Regan. “She spent many hours helping the kids with writing and editing.” The children also participated in their school’s February energy expo and sold energy saving light bulbs provided by CLC. The $600 profit they made will help fund transportation for the class and their parents in a luxury motor coach to the State House in Boston in mid June for presentation of their award. Mary Spruill, the Department of Energy’s program director of the NEED Project, will present the award to the class, along with state Rep. Eric Turkington and state Sen. Robert O’Leary. After the ceremony, the group plans a trip to the Boston Science Museum. Corrections In a news in brief report in the May 19 issue of The Times about a single-vehicle truck accident we reported that officer Erica McGrath cited driver Brad Tucker for speeding. According to a copy of the citation provided by Mr. Tuckerıs father, Mr. Tucker received a warning marked with a notation of ³speed greater than reasonable,² signed by Cpl. Matt Mincone. The warning carries no penalty. |
|||
| Send this page to a friend: | |||
|
©The
Martha's Vineyard Times 2005 - www.mvtimes.com
|
|||
