Letters to the Editor
Posted November 17, 2005
No on the Home Port
To the Editor:
Once again we, the voters of Chilmark, are being asked to vote yes to buying a piece of property, namely the Home Port. We do not need this overpriced property. A few years ago, the taxpayers were suckered into buying the Tea Lane Farm property with the Land Bank. When the deal was done, the town had bought the house, barn and a token two acres of land. Then we find out that the resident owner of the property has life rights to it. This means the town bought something it can't use for a number of years.
Next came the Burton Engley property. Again, the Land Bank suckered the big wheels of Chilmark to buy the house, and it was bought. For almost three years it has sat empty and forlorn. Why? Because it is structurally a disaster and will cost $300,000 to $500,000 to restore and put in usable condition.
Next came affordable housing, and I have no fault to find with that concept. My complaint is with the location. Instead of in the Peaked Hill development, which has a decent road, buried electric cable, and perc-tested lots, the powers that be decided to use the land on Middle Line Road, a substandard road at best which backs up to the dump. To place electric, telephone and cable lines on this road will cost $400,000 to $500,000. Who pays for this boner? The taxpayers.
And now they want us to buy the Home Port for the over-inflated price of $3,900,000. Why are the voters being asked to purchase this property? What are we going to receive for our money? A restaurant that nobody will be able to afford to rent at today's inflated prices. A parking lot that will benefit the grocery store and the Galley? The lot of land across the road? It isn't even good enough for a boat ramp, and if a boat ramp was built, who would pay for it? Again, the taxpayers. And how many cars with trailers would fit in the parking lot if it wasn't already filled with employees of the various shops in the area. The town already owns about 60 percent of the Menemsha lots, and they are not controlled in the best interests of the town.
The drive-in dock is now on the agenda to be rebuilt, at a heavy sum of $700,000 to $800,000 and paid by the taxpayers.
Well, Chilmark may be a wealthy town, but all of the people living here are not. There are many of us who are on a fixed income, and increases in taxes caused by incompetence in government are rough.
Vote no to buying the Home Port property.
Basil Welch
Chilmark
The Home Port: Why?
To the Editor:
The voters of Chilmark are being asked to consider buying the Home Port restaurant. It will come for a vote at a special town meeting next week. The $4 million price tag is more than Chilmark has ever voted to spend on anything. The cost to each taxpayer will be at least several thousand dollars. We should all ask why, for what, what are we going to do with it, and how will the town owning it affect the overall goal of maintaining Menemsha as a small fishing community?
Why would the town want to own a restaurant? If it is possible to run it as a restaurant with a $4 million mortgage. I am sure someone will do it, and more power to them, but the town should not be subsidizing them. So, are we buying parking spaces? That is over $100,000 per space. Several people have suggested it become a meeting hall or a senior center: even at today's inflated building costs, that is a stretch. Should we buy the waterfront? The town was offered the Hart/Carlson lot in front of the Home Port before Will [Holtham] bought it, and we turned it down then when it was offered at $100,000. However, looking at the waterfront does bring us back around to the question of where and how we want Menemsha to grow.
Menemsha can never grow big enough to meet the demand for dock space, but part of what makes it the place we all love is its very size. Expanding the public docking area toward the pond is a poor idea and should be discouraged, whether done by a public or private entity.
If the Home Port were to become a single family residence the volume of wastewater it presently pumps into the water table and eventually into the pond would be radically reduced; the town could replace the parking spaces along the North Road side of the property, allowing just a single access driveway; the traffic currently generated by the restaurant would be vastly reduced.
Whether the Home Port stays a restaurant or becomes a home, it should stay in private hands, paying its share of taxes, and not in public hands at public expense and off the tax rolls. Can anyone really think that the purchase price would be the end of the costs to the town?
Chris Murphy
Chilmark
Freedom to disagree
To the Editor:
I take exception to Sue Carr Mclean's statement in last week's Times: "I was very embarrassed and humiliated, as only an American can be."
What does that mean? Is she "embarrassed and humiliated" to live under one of the few forms of government that allow her the freedom of speech? Is she "embarrassed and humiliated" to be able to disagree with those who lead her democracy? Perhaps she would be proud to live under a different form of government, where her opinion would be, at best, ignored. Or perhaps she would prefer a government under which she would be killed for speaking her mind. Our government leaders are far from perfect, but as an American, I'm proud to have the privilege to disagree with them, wherever and whenever I choose.
Carol Borselle
Oak Bluffs
Prefers another fate
To the Editor:
Nelson Sigelman remembers going over to Chappy and shooting a deer with an arrow. But then somehow, he couldn't find the deer he had shot at, for "hours." I would hate to be shot with an arrow. Worse, I would hate to have an expensive (or even a crummy) arrow sticking out of me while I stumbled along for "hours" bleeding to death. I would much rather be herded off a cliff like a buffalo.
Steve Burke
Tisbury
Obey leash law,
save a pet
To the Editor:
In response to "A friend struck down" in the Nov. 10 issue of the MV times, I have only one question for Linda Dickson and the 12-year-old boy who lost his best friend.
Why was friendly, sweet as could be, big black bearish Cisco out in the Edgartown/Vineyard Haven Road?
I don't know if Tisbury needs a full-time animal control officer, but I do know that the town has leash laws. Even at full time, that person could not be everywhere all the time. It is the owner's job to protect their pets, keep them safe and under control. You are going to have to live with that.
Margaret Orlando
Chilmark
Extraordinary care
To the Editor:
My parents first brought me to the Vineyard in the early 1920s, settling on the North Shore where my paternal antecedents had established homesteads between 1860 and 1875. In due course, my wife and I followed with our children. In those early days the berry picking, beach scavenging, and fishing were adequate amusement, but by the mid-1950s the bright lights of down-Island were too attractive for young people, so we sold the old homestead and rented in Edgartown, and continued renting until we retired and bought a home in 1982.
As a young person, I was totally ignorant of any hospital. My parents on one occasion made me visit two under-age drivers who crashed the family car. My only memory of that "cottage hospital" was of cramped quarters and disinfectant.
Fast forward to early summer 2005. At home alone, I fall heavily on my right hip. Crawl to the phone and within 10 minutes the Edgartown rescue van arrives. Fifteen minutes later I'm in the emergency room at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital (no longer the "cottage hospital"), where the professionals advise I do have a fractured hip. Fortunately, Dr. Monto is available, and by early evening I am in the operating room.
Thereafter things get fuzzy but the overall impression of the ER, OR and ICU is extremely favorable. Local, talented people who do care. The names may be lost but my gratitude is there, and in my 20 days in residence.
Having dreaded the worst, I found the best. Floor fully staffed. Individual menu selection. Food good to outstanding. Occupational and physical therapy enthusiastic. Exercise facilities to be proud of. The on-floor nursing staff was all one could ask for. Professional, thorough, and always with a smile. Had my mind not suffered equally with my hip, the list of my benefactors would be long indeed, but Daisy Patterson, Pam Knight, and Todd Lyonnais were memorable in particular. So was my roommate Bob Hathaway, truly one of the Island's pre-eminent citizens. I should be so lucky.
So, to all of us who make this Island our home, please know that we have a facility at our doorstep, manned by extraordinary people.
Robert Berry
Edgartown
No cell towers
To the Editor:
Selling out to the wireless companies is not worth having a tower at Aquinnah's landfill. The selectmen and planning board seem to be losing touch with their country roots. Towers are eyesores, not to mention the light pollution from the flashing lights. We live in Aquinnah not to compete, industrialize or destroy but the opposite. To put a tower in the middle of such a small rural town is sinful.
Residents and visitors, I am sure would agree. They love the Vineyard not for its industry but its natural beauty. Let's keep it that way. Fiberoptics can give the selectmen and the planning board its high-speed video games without destroying the town. If the like towers so much, they can always visit Edgartown's or take a day trip to Falmouth. Just leave our town alone.
Steve Smith
Aquinnah
A business blessing
To the Editor:
The Reliable Market flier this week reads, "Great savings every day - no cards, no gimmicks, no membership fees!" Now that is truth in advertising. For decades this family-run business has been a blessing to the community, providing service and quality at reasonable prices. Reliable meats are unparalleled, the highest quality butchered right on the premises.
We mourn the loss of Mrs. Helen Pacheco, an icon of hard work, integrity, and unbeknownst to many, always a helping hand to a client in need. Her son, Bob, his wife and children now carry the baton. They have our thanks and support.
Peggy McGrath
Oak Bluffs
Good news
To the Editor:
To the hysterical woman on the bike path along Farm Pond on Monday, Nov. 14, the great blue heron is on the mend after a few meals of tuna cat food. It stalks and flies again.
Now imagine what a touch of bravery on your behalf might accomplish.
I believe life to be short and precious. Why not save the screaming and hysteria for your afterlife or the world down under?
D. Dean
Oak Bluffs
Winners at poker
To the Editor:
The Rotary Club of Martha's Vineyard recently held its first poker tournament fundraiser. All money raised supports charities on Island and worldwide, including MV Chapter of the American Red Cross, Vineyard Health Care Access, MV Boys & Girls Club, Big Brother Big Sister, Vineyard Nursing Association, Island Food Pantry, clean water, literacy, wheel chairs for the disabled, and many others.
We would like to thank those who made this event a success and will help us further support important causes.
Thanks to Kathy Domitrovich of Lola's and her attentive staff for hosting the event. Thanks to all the players who came out on a rainy night and contributed to the Rotary Club. The following businesses and individuals were instrumental in this event and all contributed to its success and we are most of appreciative!
Bank of Martha's Vineyard, Chapman Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, Island Propane, Island Inn, The Harbor View Hotel, Lyn Hinds, Farm Neck Golf Club, Mink Meadows Golf Club, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Foxwoods Resort, The Charlotte Inn, Sea Food Shanty, Chesca's, Le Grenier, The Offshore Ale Co., The Oceanview, Island Home Furnishings, Tags Hardware, Stop & Shop, Cronig's Market, WMVY, Adelphia Cable, and Vineyard Express Ferry, Town Car Travel and LeeLees Limo Service of Falmouth.
For more information about the Rotary Club of Martha's Vineyard, visit our web site: http://www.mvrotary.com/
Lori Sue Herman
for the Rotary Club of Martha's Vineyard
Edgartown
Thanks for
haunting
To the Editor:
On behalf of the children and families of Garden Gate Child Development Center, Inc., we would like to extend a tremendous thank you to the Tisbury Business Association for their sponsorship of Trick or Treating on Main Street.
The businesses that participated in this all-day Halloween celebration brought great joy to the children who were able to parade in costume through this familiar and fun neighborhood throughout the day. The merchants, some in spooky or silly Halloween dress, were warm and welcoming, and made all who took part in the town-wide trick or treat feel the delight of this holiday.
Again, thank you to these Tisbury businesses for supporting families in the community, and for providing a way for children to have a safe and memorable celebration with friends and family. Your generosity is appreciated by those who haunted you this Halloween.
Dawn Warner
Leigh Ann Yuen
Directors
Garden Gate Child Development Center
Vineyard Haven
