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Letters to the Editor
September 15, 2005
Ignoring safety
To the Editor:
It may interest Tisbury selectman Tom Pachico to know that as a year-round resident of Martha's Vineyard, I have stopped shopping in Vineyard Haven since the controversy with the SSA began. I remember seeing policemen, in previous years, directing traffic off the ferry, allowing people to cross the street and generally keeping order at the terminal. Police now are diligently issuing parking tickets and ignoring safety.
I think the selectmen and police chief are totally irresponsible, and businesses in Vineyard Haven will suffer. How greedy can they be?
Charlotte Ruben
Chilmark
Egregious Oak Bluffs zoning
administration
To the Editor:
Not a little controversy has been aroused on the Vineyard in recent years by the action or lack of action by municipal bodies in allowing violations of zoning laws. The most egregious examples seemed to be in Oak Bluffs, and a number of them involved garages - permitted to be garages - that morphed into residential units - one that even seemed to become a hotel.
It is probably hard to get stirred up about such things - unless it happens next door to you.
Such was our case, when the land next to our family's summer home, which has been ours for 50-plus years, was sold, and new neighbors moved into the small dwelling that had been on that property even longer.
The original dwelling has now disappeared completely and in the process of making it vanish and replacing it with a much larger building, a number of environmental laws were violated and a fine of $10,000 and promises of restoration were agreed upon with the town's conservation commission.
Then, a garage appeared with room on its top floor for a dwelling, for which no permit had been granted.
Now, these are hardly "high crimes and misdemeanors," but in the process, as abutters, in trying to bring these matters to the attention of local officials, an absence of civic responsibility seems to have been the most prevailing reaction to our efforts.
Not to get too technical, we, or our first lawyer, were denied access to the town zoning board of appeals on what could be called a trumped up "technicality." Our petition was hand delivered to the building inspector's office, but the board was told they never received it. On that basis, we were effectively gagged and not allowed to make our case.
End of story? No, that action stung more than anything that was happening next door. We hired a second (and local) lawyer. We went to court. After a year, we got a court order saying the zoning appeals board had to hear us. That they did, on May 17, 2005.
No decision was made that evening. The board asked our lawyer if he would accept a continuance. He said no, he wanted a decision and had presented evidence that no permit had been granted for a dwelling on the garage built next door to us.
A de facto continuance, however, has been in effect since that evening. It is now September. In a few weeks, four months will have passed. Nails are being pounded and work apparently goes on next door.
One really has to ask: will a decision finally be made after the work is completed?
Neil and Carla Rolde
Oak Bluffs
Rely on The Times
To the Editor:
On your web site, the apostrophes are flawed. It is not a big deal, but the mangled punctuation marks are distracting when one reads the Martha's Vineyard Times on-line. Aside from that, I think that the Times is a great newspaper! I live off-Island, and your web site is a lifeline to the Vineyard. As a former employee of the Vineyard Gazette, I still subscribe to that paper, but I rely on the Times to provide a balanced view of Island life. Keep up the good work!
Christine Powers
Waltham
Response from the webmaster: I think that's fixed for this week. Thanks for pointing it out!
Land math
To the Editor:
What is the going rate for 225 acres of waterfront land? Well, let's say that the going rate of a three-acre parcel out in the Tisbury woods goes for $450,000. So, there are 75 units in that 225-acre parcel, and so it is worth roughly $34 million. Now, take that 225 acres and throw in all kinds of waterfront and waterfront views, and I believe it is worth more than $58 million on the open market. A driveway that is more than a half of a mile long. What a chore it must be to go out to the mailbox to pick up your daily dividend checks.
This is just one of many summer homes of Bill Graham, and he inherited it without even having to pay a dime for the acreage. With his vast inherited fortune, he should think of the $262,000 tax bill as his effort to help his fellow neighbors support town government.
If he foolishly thinks that the land is only worth $20 million dollars, let the town buy it. They will turn around and sell it for a $50 million profit in 10 minutes, and then everyone in town can have their taxes reduced.
Michael Bader
Vineyard Haven
Memory of
neighborliness
To the Editor:
Thank you to R. Joanna Wilson from Tennessee for stirring my own pleasant memories of Martha's Vineyard residents.
Some 35 years ago we took our first day trip to MV. Young couple and three small kids, we explored Oak Bluffs and Circuit Avenue. Then we took a bus for a tour of the Island. During the tour, I discovered that I'd mislaid my purse - return ferry tickets and all our vacation cash. What a disaster.
With minimal expectations I retraced my steps around the stores on Circuit Avenue. No luck, until I finally re-entered the bookstore. There was my purse. Safe, sound, intact. A young boy had found it and handed it in. My delight was not just at getting the purse and contents back, but also at gaining a new perspective on human nature. I did correspond with the boy for a while.
Reading Joanna's account, my overactive imagination likes to think that perhaps the person who returned her wallet is perhaps descended from my own little savior of 35 years ago.
Great Island and great inhabitants. We are now frequent visitors.
Audrey Nicol
Waltham
Auto dealership would have helped
To the Editor:
Thank you Edgartown ZBA for your infinite wisdom on stopping the possibility of an auto dealership/garage, with very qualified mechanics, with an on-Island warranty, which means that if someone bought a car from this operation it would have been serviced at the same place of business, without the hassle of dealing with the boat.
And the autos that were to be sold were within a range that some people that work in the labor force on this Island could afford. Not to say that anyone looking for a new auto, it couldn't be acquired. In a building that for some 20 years has been a dealership/garage.
You listened to the neighbors. Granted, the place that I write about was last leased to a grain/animal food store. And granted it is in a residential zoned area. But, were you thinking of what this could have meant to everyone who lives here? The possibility of owning an auto and having it serviced here on-Island. Anyone knows that the downside of living here and owning a warranteed vehicle is trying to get it serviced, which everyone knows means a boat reservation, maybe a tow truck, that we have to pay for because we live on an Island, and that is not in/or covered by the warranty. This action on your behalf has deprived everyone, or at least very many people on this Island of a great service.
For some 20 years, it has been a dealership/garage. For a short time it has been a grain store. The building was built to house a dealership/garage. Now, 20 years of a public service is being denied to the people that need it most, because the people who live in the area do not want it in their back yard. Granted, the rules are the rules. Because the place in question did have to go before you to become a grain store, and it did get your approval to do just that. Why is it that you in your infinite wisdom decided not to approve something that could have benefited the whole Island?
Now what? Another storage facility? All I can say is thanks for nothing. Maybe being residential property, it should be sold to low-income housing. But I'm sure the people next door wouldn't like that either. I'm sorry to think that everyone is so interested in his or her own agenda that they can't see what is going on, and what could benefit all of us.
Keith Linscott
Oak Bluffs
A better hospital site
To the Editor:
This letter was written to Timothy Walsh, chief executive officer, Martha's Vineyard Hospital:
Since we are going to build a new hospital, I believe now would be the time to relocate to a more central location. My choice for a new site would be the Land Bank property near the blinker light in Oak Bluffs. This would put the hospital near enough to the airport and in a central location for all Island towns. The town could sewer the hospital and at the same time sewer all of Barnes Road and eliminate the septic flow to the Lagoon. A win-win situation. The entire Island would benefit from this move, and there is plenty of time to make this happen.
- The congestion from the Five Comers and the bridge would be eliminated.
- The land is free since the Island already owns it.
- The land upon which the present hospital sits could be sold to offset the building costs of the new building.
- All the towns would have to vote for this to be a reality, and the state would have to give its approval.
Richard Coutinho
Oak Bluffs
After all is said and done, it's the nurses
To the Editor:
Let me note that I haven't written and had published a "Letter to the Editor" since the one I wrote following Henry Hough's death. It was the best one I ever wrote, let me modestly say. So if this one falls below that standard, let me say that I'm nearly 25 years older and just out of the hospital. So I hope you'll overlook my infelicities and other mishaps of expression - Lyme does attack the brain most decidedly - and let them pass inspection as contributions to the truthfulness of my deep feeling for the cause I am espousing. All of us Vineyarders, I think it fair to say, have noticed the steady stream of advertisements appearing recently in the Gazette and Times, most of them featuring pictures of individual employees of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital as well. Those ads are all products of the Martha's Vineyard Community Hospital Campaign, "Building for the Next Generation," in the service of raising funds "to build a new Hospital for the 21st century." A worthy cause, we'll all likely agree; but, saturated as all of us have become by the tendency of such self-promoting ads to exaggerate (or, more accurately, distort or even lie), our first response is to ignore their messages and move on to another article or another page.
Well, let me tell you flat out - this series of ads you should not ignore; this series, I can tell you from my own experience, you can trust to be telling you the truth.
How do I know?
Firstly, because I have very recently been discharged (August 26) from our Martha's Vineyard Hospital after spending two months as a patient there (alternating with two more months in the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston - including two round-trips by ambulance - for a total of nearly four straight months altogether, a whole summer) suffering from a rare, difficult-to-diagnose strain of Lyme Disease. And, secondly, because, as a result of my experience of this past summer, lying flat on my back most of the time in the Acute Care Wing of both hospitals, seriously ill, occasionally delirious, from a long-ago tick bite - our Island's deadly disease - I can indeed attest to the quality of care and commitment of the employees - especially of the nurses - in our Island hospital. Indirectly, as well, let me add, to all other employees, because, although I did not see them in action - doctors, technicians, pharmacists, among many other specialists - they must have performed their jobs equally well, for here I am, discharged as cured.
But even though I also had the unstinting and loving support of my family and friends (for which I shall be everlastingly grateful), I don't think I could have made it through this past summer without the constant care and commitment of the nursing staff. To name just a few of them: Bea, Daisy, Pam, Heather, Nina, all from Acute Care; Terrie, from Food and Nutrition, Stephanie and Todd from Rehab and Wellness, and Sandra from Housekeeping - amongst so many more! Believe me, they are the best, as Dr. Charles Silberstein points out too in his letter of August 25 to the Martha's Vineyard Times, and as the Hospital Campaign did in its ad of about the same time featuring the picture of Nurse Betsy VanLandingham.
John Ferguson and his board of trustees have already made an excellent start by raising $20 million before embarking formally on their current building program. They have taken another important initiative by planning an Island hospital with only single rooms for patients - finally ending the barbarous addiction of hospitals in general (at least since the introduction of television) to putting two patients with two television sets in one room to blare uncontrollably at one another day and night. And now they are performing admirably by producing truthful advertisements for the public.
If it wishes, though, to involve Vineyarders in its hope of building a new hospital - true Vineyarders, I mean, like those depicted in Linsey Lee's two volumes on "Vineyard Voices" (not just the visiting summer wealthy) - Mr. Ferguson and his board must, I firmly believe (more firmly since my recent discharge), devote more than one or two ads to its largest, most valuable asset it has yet to fully acknowledge, its nursing staff, the life force of the hospital since its very beginning. And it should recognize it at once by deciding and immediately announcing its decision in advance to dedicate the new Island hospital to "The Nurses, Past and Present, of Martha's Vineyard," who have so long, and largely unacknowledged, nourished and sustained life on our special Island. That is, as true Vineyarders will immediately recognize and applaud - and perhaps even donate again - management will finally be honoring the very women who are (and so long have been) our friends, neighbors, and members of our families too, lifelong residents of Martha's Vineyard.
Thomas Goethals
West Tisbury
Tailoring the
hospital to our needs
To the Editor:
I have had four successful, pleasant, day surgeries at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital (MVH). My grandson was lovingly born there on June 4. I was the first baby in my family born there. I have always loved and trusted that hospital. The hospital is now asking for a huge sum - $42 million - to repair the physical building, but events in the ICU on the night of August 26 revealed to me some cracks in our hospital that need more attention than the physical structure. I, along with the Martha's Vineyard Commission, feel a halt should be called to some future plans. If this is to be the Vineyard residents' community hospital, we had best spell out for some doctors and some planners what we need and what we want because it is our future health and our dollars which are on the line.
On the night mentioned, I did not see in the ICU the hospital that Dr. Charles Silberstein wrote about in Letters to the Editor in The Martha's Vineyard Times on August 25 - one described by him where "Doctors and other staff are far more likely to coordinate care and stay in close communication" and which has "a system characterized by a deep sense of caring." I did see one that makes "People And Predicaments Of Life And Distress On Martha's Vineyard" by Dr. Milton Mazer (1976) pertinent and compulsory reading for all doctors and nurses who work here. Editor Doug Cabral in the August 25 Times started me thinking along important lines just in time for my experience of August 26. His is an important column, and I thank him for writing it, I urge all to read it before donating money for the new hospital.
I live in Island Elderly Housing, whose residents constantly need all kinds of care from the medical profession. Many of us are rather poor, all are over 65, and a lot of us are on Mass Health. Some of us are depressed and have suffered terrible losses. We need to clearly understand the rules for care given in hospital for Mass Health holders. Burn victims, cancer patients, heart patients, orthopedic patients, accident victims, fragile newborns and countless other seriously ill patients are sent to off-Island facilities. The cost of this is phenomenal to our towns and families, both financially and emotionally. If the new hospital cannot cut this expense down, is it worth the investment of $42 million for 19 beds and new doctors' offices?
In the past few years we have lost many fine doctors who did know the meaning of caring but who apparently did not meet the standards of our exacting administrators. In a few days we will lose two more much loved family doctors. They are leaving for family reasons, I understand, but some of our doctors have left because of their working environment. Some of those who left were very much in touch with Vineyarders and often very out of touch with administrators.
As yet we have no gastro-intestinal specialist here. Some of us go off-Island, but in the case of pediatricians and diseases of old age, it is a great inconvenience. Sociologists for years have written about the common, sometimes quirky peculiarities of Island populations around the world. Well, we are an Island population - not easy to know, understand or, perhaps, treat. MVH, in my opinion, would do well to give classes to new and/or prospective staff members - classes about our values, our needs, our personalities, our history, including our Brazilian community. The hospital should start collaborating closely with Martha's Vineyard Community Services because do we have beds at the hospital to treat what has been discussed and disclosed in forums across this Island this year as the No. 1 epidemic on the Island - depression, which is fueled by substance abuse, economic hardship and disparities and the shame of its victims?
The present hospital administrative structure needs to address the public health issues on this Island. I don't know if we need 19 new private rooms and new offices for doctors, but I do know we need help in treating a disease which is causing immense trouble here and lowering our quality of life. The ER is often our first line of contact. We need pro-active follow-up if depression should be an important part of treatment. Has it considered a social worker as part of every evaluation and certainly every admission? Has it considered having a mental health worker as part of every intake team? Has it ever considered combining the hospital and MVCS on one campus? Has it ever developed a plan for stress, which is an important component of most illnesses? MVH of 2005 and the future must consider these and other possible remedies to help our population. Forty-two million spent wisely can mean a great deal to a great many people; spent foolishly it is an absolute crime.
The Health Forums held this year were taped by Channel 13 and they will replay them for you upon request. The Vineyard Gazette of April 29, 2005 summarized clearly what they called "the hidden Illness" meeting. We are very lucky to have Dr. Timothy Tsai as our head of Emergency Medicine. He exposed at forums some of the blunt facts and statistics he keeps. These statistics are invaluable to our children and our future. He, himself, was invaluable to me as a caring and competent doctor on the night of August 26.
FACT: 1. We have the highest rate of suicide of any county in Mass. 2. The number of suicides has tripled in the past year. 3. Our rates of mental illness exceed the national average. 4. The number of cases of diagnosed depression has risen as high as 90 cases over the last two years. I would like to know if the MVH planning board and directors are paying close attention to what he and other mental health workers are finding out about us and our needs. If they do that and sensitize our doctors to Island sociology and family structure and stresses, then we might rightly call the hospital "A Community Hospital" - a hospital that cares about us.
Roberta B. Mendlovitz
Oak Bluffs
What are fuel prices?
To the Editor:
My name is Bradford C. Bailey, and my cousin was the late Barbara Medeiros, an original Martha's Vineyard Islander, whom my wife and I used to see when visiting the Island.
We manage to get to our favorite spot of heaven every so often, but in the meantime we read the MV Times for comfort.
I wish you would post fuel prices high and low for Islanders and vacationers to see on the web. They make up their mind where to buy fuel and place that in their budget before traveling there.
What are the highest and lowest fuel prices on the Island? Here is a thought. Too bad you could not post a little area where Islanders could keep others in touch of that fuel price. It adds to competition and also could lower the price of fuel maybe a few cents from that competition.
B. C. Bailey
Hinsdale, N.H.
A fuel cell suggestion
To the Editor:
Those members of the Vineyard Energy Project should consider and evaluate stationary base load fuel cells in their energy plan. LIPA, the Long Island Power Authority, is currently soliciting bids for 10,000 kW of fuel cells. I am partial to one of the bidders, Fuel Cell Energy, which has a large number of generating units operating throughout the world. It will run on many fuels including biomass gases, propane, biodiesel, natural gas, sewage anaerobic digester gas, and so forth.
Connecticut is also looking into a large fuel cell project.
One of the advantages of the fuel cell is that it is very fuel efficient, and emits less than 1 percent of the toxic pollution of a conventional generator. They come in small sizes, in modules of 250 kW, 1000 kW, and 2000 kW in their field trial models with a 20 percent increase in commercial models. Some aid from the state may offset some of the cost. If a contract with an ESCO for power and energy rather than just a purchase of equipment is entered into, the cost can be lowered by $1,000 per kW because of a tax credit in the new energy bill just enacted.
A fuel cell has an advantage over solar and wind energy because it is good for 24/7 generation, whereas when the sky is overcast and the wind is not blowing, the wind and solar energy is not available. An FCE fuel cell would be excellent for base load, that is to say power that is needed 85 percent of the time or more - for intermediate and peaking power, and reserves, one might want other facilities costing less per kW for the capacity, but these would have a far higher energy cost per kWh. The byproduct heat from an FCE fuel cell can be used to heat the West Tisbury municipal facilities and provide domestic hot water. Chillers are now becoming available so that the byproduct heat can be used to provide air conditioning to nearby facilities. In Bad Berka, Germany, one fuel cell is 90-plus percent efficient - using all of the energy of natural gas except for the squeal, so to speak. It supplies electricity, heat, and air conditioning to a hospital facility.
One can learn more about the FCE fuel cell at www.FCE.com.
I am a retired energy lawyer. You need an engineer skilled in economic feasibility studies to do an economic comparison. One problem with such engineers, however, is they are extremely conservative as they of course should be - they are leery of putting their stamp of approval on new technology which hasn't been proven over many years and fuel cell technology is relatively new. But you can see many such installations at www.FCE.com
Full disclosure - I own some shares in FCE, because I think it will be very successful.
Wallace Edward Brand
Vineyard Haven
and Alexandria, Va.
A Katrina story
To the Editor:
Keith Jackson
Wendy Gibson
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Keith Jackson and Wendy Gibson were off to their second year of college at the University of New Orleans when their car engine seized up just outside of Providence, R.l. This did not stop the two of them; they overcame this hurdle and flew to Louisiana. Keith and Wendy then had to rent a car and and check in to a hotel until they found a place to live. Living on campus was not an option for Keith, who attributed the 4.0 GPA he earned the year prior to his study habits and having a quiet place to live. They found an apartment on Canal Street, near the heart of New Orleans. The apartment seemed to be in a great location, a safe neighborhood with many options for Wendy to use the public transportation system when they didn't have class together or she needed to work. The first week in New Orleans went as well as could have been expected. They had called home to say that a hurricane had struck Florida. At that time, no one suspected what was to come next.
As Katrina began to turn her wrath toward the two of them, their families and friends grew more and more worried. Keith and Wendy were down there last year, and they had evacuated the city because of hurricane Ivan's threat. The evacuation was very costly for them, and when all was said and done the storm didn't affect New Orleans at all. The two of them had decided to take their chances and ride out this current threat.
Three days prior to the storm, the two of them went to school and returned home to find a number of frantic calls from worried family members. Keith and Wendy returned the calls and reassured us all that they would be sure to prepare for the storm. On Sunday, when I had spoken to Keith, he said "We have everything we need and we are ok." I asked if they had flashlights? The answer was yes, and candles. I asked about water and he replied 10 gallons and every kind of canned food you can think of that has a "pop-top." I then told them to be safe and we would talk to each other soon.
I called him back later that day after receiving a call from our mother who was very concerned because the storm's strength had increased and was turning its aim, eyeing New Orleans for a direct hit. She wanted them to evacuate. When I called Keith and warned him of the new projected course of the storm, and the flooding they were predicting, he said that they would be fine and that the city has been hit by hurricanes in the past and fared well. Keith and Wendy didn't yet have access to the tv or news as they were still waiting for utility hook-up. Keith assured me that he lived in a 3 story building and they were on the 2nd floor. I then urged Keith to go to Wal-Mart and purchase a rubber boat or raft, he laughed but agreed that he would. He held the phone up to the passing traffic and didn't understand why everyone up north was so concerned because life seemed normal the day prior to Katrina's arrival. I was sure to get their physical address, and told him that if we didn't hear from him in 12 hours that my mother and myself would come and find them. Keith laughed again and restated that they would be fine and for us not to worry so much.
Keith called and talked to my mother during the hurricane and said he was glad they stayed because the storm was not that bad. After the hurricane passed he called again and said that the only damage they had was a broken window, that had already had a crack in it, and a tiny puddle in front of their house. That was the last time we talked to Keith.
My mother called me frantically at about four am saying that the levee had broken and the city was flooding and that she couldn't contact Keith on the cell phone. I reassured my mother and told her that I would turn on the news and start searching online for more information. I told her to keep watching the news and to call me later. I tried to call their cell phones again with no answer; we continued our efforts with the same results for the next six days. Online I found a New Orleans News station broadcasting over the web. My mother was watching CNN like a hawk. Over the next two days, we were in contact four to five times a day, each of us with no new information.
As time passed, I found a live web site of satellite images of New Orleans that I paired with the kids' physical address I had obtained earlier. All I could see on the image was the roof of the house and nothing more, no cars, no people, no anything except roofs. I called my mother to inform her, very carefully letting her know that I could not tell the depth of the water that surrounded their home. There was still no way of knowing if they were still alive or what their status was. I told my mother, "we just have to wait." Waiting is the worst thing anyone can ever have to do. My mother and I at that time decided that if we didn't hear from the kids by 3 pm on Sunday, Sept. 4, that we would fly to either Baton Rouge or Texas and that we would find them ourselves.
Over the week that Keith and Wendy were missing, we received numerous calls from family, friends, and other concerned members of our community. But it was the call that we received at 9:20 am on September 4 that lifted our spirits. The caller said, "The kids are on a bus headed for some place in Texas!" Keith and Wendy still had no way of contacting home because Keith's phone had been stolen as we later found out. The caller said that they would call as soon as they arrived at their final destination.
Wendy and Keith have their own horrific stories to tell. This summary of the hellish week endured from their families and friends is to reach out for help. They were given five minutes to gather anything left of their lives that they wanted to save, they lost every possession they had. Wendy had surrendered her physical belongings to rescue her beloved cat whom she was later forced to relinquish to the ASPCA, or they would not be allowed on the buses to Texas. To this day the location of her cat will not be disclosed to her by the Jefferson Parrish Animal Shelter on the West Bank of New Orleans, the only thing they tell her is "Your cat should be the least of your problems right now."
Our family has placed collection containers around the towns on the Vineyard, at local stores and businesses. We are asking that this tight community come together once again and help these two get back on their feet. They are currently both attending U-Mass Boston, who received them with open arms. Sam, Diane and myself, their daughter, Sherry Brown would like extend our deepest thanks to this community and everyone who has expressed concern over the passed two weeks, for your love, concern, and support.
A word about family connections: Sherry Brown is Keith Jackson's sister and Wendy Gibson's aunt. Sam and Diane Jackson are Keith Jackson's parents.
Sherry Brown
Falmouth
Sam and Diane Jackson
Edgartown
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