Letters to the Editor
Posted March 23, 2006
Meager feeling
To the Editor:
Were there any doubt that we live still on Puritanic sands, where busybody-ness can masquerade as a public service message, your Myspace articles blotted that notion out. Holding our children in photographic stock and pillory reflects a cold and meager feeling for the dignity of others.
Your time might be better spent chastising yourselves for this failing in the privacy of your own closets rather than prying voyeuristically into the closets of others.
Maybe it's the editors and writers of The Martha's Vineyard Times who "we thought we knew, but don't know well at all."
William McCarthy
Edgartown
Leprechaun laughs
To the Editor:
I am writing due to something spreading throughout this country due to Janet Hefler's essay about "Why the Leprechauns Left Martha's Vineyard" (I don't know the exact title, because I ripped the article out and passed it on to a friend). Belly laughs.
I almost passed up reading the article but I decided to read it. I haven't laughed like that in a long time. I called my sister in Maryland, my brother in Seattle, friends on the Island, the article is on a plane to Chicago with my mother...I asked someone at a school, "Have you read the article?" "No".... Next I hear roaring laughter...Thank you, Janet, for giving us the lighter side of things. I hope that you win an award for this one.
Mary Ambulos
Chilmark
Give business
a break
To the Editor:
Which is more precarious: ice cream salesmen in Antarctica, or Tisbury business owner? Time. The penguins have it.
Yes, you're on your own in Tisbury. As a business owner, you pay twice the taxes and four times the headaches of the average penguin. (Also, the penguins don't tell you how to run your ice cream stand.)
We can afford to wax philosophical, while in reality, many business owners have one hand on the proverbial life raft. They are in the trenches. Unless you've done it, you are unaware of their sacrifice. We will build two ATV theme parks before we'll throw business a bone. And that bone could be B&W (beer and wine). Yes, for some, it may be time to circle the wagons. Ultimately, B&W would have about the same fallout as the four-corner light change. That is, a flurry of activity and fears, followed by complete boredom. B&W might be the only thing that makes a real difference. Shops might afford to stay open - people have more to do in town - business revitalized. What town planning can achieve in our lifetime.
A volunteer board is collecting info on the potential impact, financially and otherwise. There's an attempt to answer questions we've heard for years. How will B&W affect the quality of life in Vineyard Haven? Will it revitalize business? Is the "slippery slope" a real fear? People will be surveyed. It's the start of a process that could result in a vote for (or against) B&W. I don't see hearts and minds turning on testimonials. The vote would probably be the same today, the debate more recreational than anything else. We never would have gotten around to the sewer if the state didn't mandate it. If we can't agree on a sidewalk, B&W would require an act of Congress. Meanwhile, businesses will come and go quietly. If we actually get to vote on this some day, the real issue will be, who cares? It's never going to be about consensus; it's going to be about giving business a break.
Paul Currier
Vineyard Haven
Ban outdoor
furnaces
To the Editor:
This is a copy of a letter to the Tisbury board of health.
I and my wife, Annette Sandrock, would like to add our voices to the opposition against so-called outdoor woodburning furnaces in the town of Tisbury.
We have the misfortune of living across the street from one of the town's two outdoor furnaces - the one on Greenwood Avenue at Franklin Street. Could there be any more important environmental issue than the quality of the air we breathe? I relocated here in 2001 from Erie, Pa., where smoke from a cast-metal foundry deposited a layer of soot on our outdoor furniture. The acrid fumes were sometimes so bad that we would leave our own neighborhood to escape them.
I don't know what kinds of fuel have been used in the outdoor furnace on Greenwood Avenue, but I do know that the emissions often bear no resemblance to the sweet fragrance of oak or maple logs crackling in a fireplace. They are more reminiscent of that cast-metal foundry in Pennsylvania.
The issue here is two-fold: quality of life and health. Martha's Vineyard is treasured for its fresh maritime air. To pollute that air in the name of home-heating innovation is a crime against our community values. In the matter of health, common sense tells us that smoke blown in our faces is detrimental.
I have lung cancer. People with all forms of cancer are medically advised to avoid environmental pollutants. Other neighbors might have respiratory diseases that are aggravated by breathing smoke from outdoor furnaces, which run 24/7 and 365 days a year to provide heat and hot water. Children are being raised in this atmosphere. Senior citizens are fond of walking and breathing aerobically. The historic houses in this neighborhood tend to be uninsulated and porous. Outdoor fumes can be experienced indoors.
Outdoor furnaces are a bad idea. They need to be prohibited, just as we would prohibit a device that polluted our drinking water or harbor. I also oppose grandfathering existing outdoor furnaces. Assaults on public health can't be grandfathered.
Brian Kinal and
Annette Sandrock
Vineyard Haven
Hard-headed
about housing
To the Editor:
In response to your editorial last week referring to our proposal to build 12 affordable housing units on Middle Line Road:
The plan has strong support from Chilmark voters. It was approved overwhelmingly at a special town meeting last June. The town voted for the Community Preservation Act in 2001 and has supported using close to 80 percent of the CPA funds for affordable housing. These funds have been growing larger each year and will pay for most of the Middle Line project.
While we try to be "good-hearted," as you kindly put it in your editorial, we have also been hard-headed in recognizing difficult realities. This has meant addressing zoning, as you discuss in some detail. The town has voted yes on a series of zoning changes that permit affordable housing in Chilmark. These include the homesite housing bylaw, which bypasses the three-acre minimum by allowing property owners to carve off one acre for purchasers who qualify for affordable housing. The housing created under the bylaw will remain affordable in perpetuity because of reasonable deed restrictions on resale prices.
We are also good-hearted but hard-headed about another issue you raise. We want to help qualified applicants with lower incomes, while at the same time making sure that those applicants can qualify for bank loans and pay for them. This is because we want to preserve the diversity of our community so that we can look around and know that young people, children, fire-fighters and EMTs, farmers and fishermen, artists and writers are living in Chilmark now and will be in future generations.
William Randol
Chilmark Housing Committee
A heavenly favor
To the Editor:
Through the winter grapevine, I just learned that Elise LeBovit was ousted after 14 years from head of Camp Fun in Aquinnah. In my mind, her name is synonymous with that of the camp. Her easy, gentle way allowed both the counselors and campers to thrive in a safe yet spontaneous environment. My daughter, Jess, was a first-time counselor last year and never in her life has she enjoyed such a fun and productive summer. She fell in love with the kids, marveling at their abilities to emerge from their shells as the summer progressed, constantly citing one little boy who came to camp silent as a stone and within a few weeks was talking a blue streak. Elise had faith in the counselor/child relationship, and I know for sure each counselor did his/her best to insure that the kids' needs for safety, spontaneity, affection and (most of all) fun were met. The discipline was gentle yet firm.
This experience prompted Jess to take courses in child development at the University of Vermont. It also enabled her to contribute to the financial avalanche that college can often create. She made a decent wage which seemed fair, as finding just a morning job was difficult. Also the counselors were given a lot of responsibility, in all manner of speaking, and I feel they did their very best.
I don't know what will happen this summer. I have not told my daughter yet about the turn of events since she will be sorely disappointed. Hopefully, the town of Aquinnah can recreate the heavenly haven that those precious kids loved so much. I know Elise's heart was in that camp and I thank her from the bottom of my heart. She did an unbelievable job in an arena where everyone won.
Gina James
Chilmark
Observe the
leash laws
To the Editor:
Attention all dog owners who chose to use Land Bank and other public lands.
FYI, there is a leash law. Your dogs are required to be on a leash at all times when using the Land Bank properties.
My family and I live across from Sepiessa Land Bank in West Tisbury, where many Islanders and visitors enjoy walking and running, often with their dogs. We are a working family farm, and have laying hens we raise for eggs to earn extra income as well as my sons who show the chickens and first-place-winning rooster at the agricultural fair.
We had a couple of very unwelcome dog visitors recently, who were wild and terrorizing the hens and the farm's elderly dog. The dog's owner was nowhere to be found and the dogs happen to be quite large and unruly. I was able to get a collar off of one of the dogs and call the owner, who had no idea why his dog was in West Tisbury and had loaned the dog out for a walk to a friend. Obviously, the friend who had the dogs chose to ignore the leash law hence the arrival of the dogs at our farm. I am scared of large dogs, being bit as a child, and mostly was horrified for my chickens and my old dog who I might add was so brave and tried his best to serve and protect, to only be attacked in all the rumpus.
The West Tisbury Police and the animal control were called, and the owner did eventually find his way to our property. All in all there were no fatalities, except a lot of lost feathers and a very scared dog. Thank you to the West Tisbury police officer who answered the call so promptly and many thanks to Joanie Jenkinson who helped me look for my frightened hens. But, boo to the dog owners who scoff at the importance of the small Island farmers who value their livestock and livelihood. It is imperative to remember that your companionship with your pooch is just as vital as the farmer/livestock relationship. Those dog owners should be thanking their lucky stars the dogs didn't run a few miles in the other direction, or a certain infamous farm owner might have loaded their beloved dogs full of bullet holes. I feel I was quite cordial, but am not so sure I will be the next time. So please, follow the leash law for everyone's safety and the Island will be a better place for everyone - dogs, chickens, and people.
Thurber family
West Tisbury
Save the sharks
To the Editor:
I am writing in support of the recently organized Island-wide initiative (Save Our Sharks) to end the annual Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament. In the Aug. 4, 2005 edition of The Martha's Vineyard Times, award-winning columnist Nelson Sigelman stated, "The weigh-in spectacle also provides an alternative to the Flying Horses Carousel for a throng of bloodthirsty kids who would much prefer to see a big shark than ride a wooden horse in circles."
As the mother of five not-so-bloodthirsty children, I would like to suggest to Mr. Sigelman that, in my humble opinion, riding the carousel is a much more life-affirming experience than witnessing a very disturbing public display of mankind's senseless cruelty to sharks.
It occurs to me that teaching Island children that values of compassion and kindness to sharks is a worthwhile community goal. Perhaps Mr. Sigelman would consider joining our group and working with us cooperatively towards ending this grotesque Island-sponsored abomination.
Joyce Maxner
West Tisbury
High-value
conservation land
To the Editor:
I have just read the Vineyard Gazette article of March 10 on Skipper Manter's re-election bid for selectman in West Tisbury. As regards the suggestion by Mr. Manter that the amount of conservation Iand is in part responsible for the high property taxes in Test Tisbury, I would recommend that he re-read the cost of community services analysis that was completed by Leah Smith in 1998. This report clearly states that while protected open, space may not generate as much tax revenue for a municipality as does developed land, it does not require anywhere near the dollar amount of services that developed land requires, in terms of costs associated with schools, police and fire departments, road maintenance, and other infrastructure.
Aside from the dollar amounts, open space has an intrinsic value. Without any interference from us, it protects our drinking water, protects the water quality of our coastal ponds (and so our shellfish and fisheries as well), shelters a variety of wildlife, and lastly, shelters and nurtures us as well.
Prudence Burt
West Tisbury
On the other side
To the Editor:
I stood alone.
The day, March 18, was sunny and bright, but a bit on the cold side. The wind made it a little uncomfortable. I looked across the road and counted maybe 20 people on the other side of the road at Five Corners. It was the "Peace Now" people.
Should I leave my nice warm car and go out there alone? I struggled with the thought of looking like a fool, but decided to go anyway. I got my American flag out of the back of my car and headed over to stand on the corner.
When I strapped the flag to a signpost I got a few looks, and one little, old man came over to offer me a magazine. I politely declined his offer.
By this time they had grown to about 30 people, and I felt totally alone, but proud. This was reinforced when I got my first thumbs-up from a passing truck. (I had a jacket on that had "US Army" in large letters on it.) To every car and truck that gave me a wave, a salute, a thumbs-up, or said, thank you sir, I want you all to know you made my day. I was no longer alone.
To the wife of an ex-Marine who stood with me for a while, to the father of the Navy Seabee who is over there now, to Mike Fuss, who showed up with his two flags, to the man across the street who pointed at his eyes, then at me and saluted, to all of you, thank you.
Was it worth it? Yes. I don't think I ever felt as proud or stood as tall as today. I was only alone physically. I know many, many people who would be proud to be there if they could. I do not like the fact that our young men are being put in harm's way, I don't know anyone who does, but freedom is not free.
Yes, I want the war to end, but not because we abandoned the very people we have liberated from that monster Saddam Hussein. If we were to just pull out and turn tail and run home, how long would it take before the murderers of women and children take over? How long before they come after us? These people (some call them insurgents, others call them freedom fighters, even patriots) don't want to talk or kiss and make up; they want us dead or at the very least, under their control. The only way to maintain our way of life is to totally eliminate all who would harm us or our allies, with extreme prejudice.
I gave six years to the U.S. Army (including reserve time) and was very proud to do it. If I wasn't so old, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I could almost guarantee that there were no vets on the "feel good" side.
It's not a complicated issue if you study history. Man has had to fight for freedom from the beginning of time. And from the beginning there have been those who would claim the moral high ground by chanting for peace, and putting down the very people who protect them.
We fight for the rights of people to carry signs calling our president a fool. Try that in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Iran, or Red China.
I hope to see more people at the next peace rally who understand that to stay free we must not only walk softly and carry a big stick, but we have to use it.
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading this in English, thank a vet. Peace through superior firepower.
John H. Bunker Sr.
Oak Bluffs
Bring troops home
To the Editor:
On the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, the M.V. Peace Council invited Islanders to express their disapproval about the Iraq War, and bear witness to the demand that our troops and money be immediately redeployed home.
Our government took our country into war in Iraq, and it has used that war to both justify and excuse torture, the removal of constitutional rights and liberties, and other criminal acts. But, if this war is used to justify and excuse lawlessness and violence, it thus destroys the very justice, freedom and life it pretends to be promoting in Iraq. This war defeats its own supposed purpose. It is time for it to end. Bring home the troops.
Sarah Nevin
Edgartown
Jury duty is for
professionals
To the Editor:
Jury duty is no small task. Especially if you, as the juror, are truly committed to rendering the fairest decision based on the evidence presented that honors not only the process of judging our peers, but our peers directly.
To be a juror, you need to listen to everything being said and not said. You need to listen to testimony from experts, non-experts, witnesses, prosecutors, and the accused. You need to synthesize what you hear within your own ability to comprehend the information presented.
You need to rely upon your own experience and knowledge and understanding of a variety of situations that human beings encounter. And you need to have some degree of literacy in a multitude of fields, like psychology, sociology, anthropology, law enforcement, Constitutional and statutory Law, legal procedure, science, criminology, laboratory procedures and tools, just to name a few in order to render the fairest verdict possible.
Now you can see the problem. Many jurors do not come to the courtroom with these skills and knowledge and understanding and sophistication. They come from all walks of life, some which may apply to the current case, some which may not. Some jurors might be inconvenienced and distracted by the time and date they have to appear. Some might have other professional or personal matters pressing on their mind and might have lapses in their attention.
Jury duty should be a profession. There should be juror colleges that offer a broad based education and a juror association that would ensure a level of competence and qualification. This would be a government position much like public service. Judges are trained, educated and paid to judge. Why not jurors?
In this way, jurors would want to be jurors, since they chose this profession. They'll be paying attention. They would be trained and educated people able to comprehend the multitude of cases that go through our court systems every day. They would be able to sift through any level of complexity and be equipped to understand any skilled and savvy attorney - they would be better able to see the truth with more clarity through the trappings of misdirection and manipulation that attorneys offer up. They would have a developed and trained listening [capacity].
We would still be judged by our peers, but within a richer and more equitable meaning of justice.
James D'Ambrosio
West Tisbury
Letter from Nicaragua
To the Editor:
Dear wonderful people of Martha's Vineyard, it has been too long without a letter to let you know what is happening here in Nicaragua. All is well, and we have accomplished so much.
First, we now have 41 women at the maternity clinic. Do you remember when we had only 15? Because of the generosity of so many Islanders, we built an addition to the original maternity clinic in Siuna and now we have 41. Also because of the generosity of an annual donor from MV, we provide food to the women every day.
Each baby and mother is kept 8 days after delivery, and we give vaccinations to each baby and a birth certificate. Our clinic maternal and infant death rate for 2005 was zero! What a difference we have made in this corner of the world, and all with your help!
Our two schools now have more than 100 students enrolled in a morning session and an afternoon session. There are not enough schools to allow children to go for a full day. FAO, an NGO from the United Nations, provides our children with a full hot meal every day: rice, beans, meat and milk.
Save the Children, Canada has been working in our clinic, using it as a base to go into the mountains and issue birth certificates to those children born in the remote areas of Siuna. They have issued more than 10,000 and have done many inoculations too.
In 2005, we had four international medical teams come to work with us. We saw many patients and made a great difference.
Here is a story that made my year! It is stories like this that keep me going:
A frantic woman brought her 10-year-old boy to the eye clinic we held with Ohio State University med school SVOSH. The boy was being beaten severely by his father because the boy could not read and was labeled as stupid. The boy could not see. SVOSH made a special pair of glasses for this child. When the boy put them on, the look on his face was so precious. He could see for the first time. Within a month, with special tutoring, this boy now reads to grade level. He is so happy, and his father does not beat him anymore. Do you see what a huge difference we can make in the lives of so many, for so little? This boy's IQ is quite high, and his aspirations even higher. He is determined to go to college some day.
We also have many 4th year medical students and residents come to stay with us and mentor at the local hospital in Masaya, and also mentor in Siuna in the mountains. What they see changes them forever.
Leaving Martha's Vineyard was difficult, and I do miss all of you and my way of life there, but I made the right decision and even though my life here is so different, I am content and very happy. I am working just as hard as I was before, and I still do not own a hammock, but I do have a palm tree in my yard, and blue skies and ripe mangos and lots of flowers all year-round. I am where I am supposed to be.
We are currently trying to raise $30,000 for another addition to the maternity clinic, a two-story structure with rooms for the patients and a section for visiting medical teams from all over the world. All contributions are welcomed.
Keep the faith. Love.
Muriel Laverty
Siuna, Nicaragua
It's about the pond
To the Editor:
This letter is intended to set the record straight concerning the article you published on Feb. 9. The article purported to set out the facts in the hearing before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) on the Edgartown Wastewater Treatment Facility (EWTF).
1. The permit sought by the EWTF seeks to dump 4,400 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of nitrate per year into Edgartown Great Pond (EGP). The plume will not reach the pond for 10 to 15 years. Four of the six scenarios in the Wilcox report will kill the pond. Friends and Fishers of Edgartown Great Pond have not been allowed to ask questions concerning any scenario that will kill the pond.
2. Friends and Fishers initiated this appeal in 1996. The appeal was supposed to take six months, starting on Dec.16, 1996. It took almost 10 years. Unknown numbers of fish have died in the pond since the start of our appeal.
3. Jay Guest is a Johnny-come-late on this appeal, with no interest in the fish. His only interest is in the EWTF and its operation. The only concern of Friends and Fishers is the long-term health of the pond. Our only interest is to "bring back the fishery."
4. Friends and Fishers have no interest in closing the award-winning Edgartown facility. As a matter of fact, we would like to see all the septic systems in the town of Edgartown and beyond go into the facility. This increase would be possible by simply moving the discharge site into an artificial lagoon, or another alternative is building a bulkhead at the salt water interface at the pond's edge and pump the water back into the facility, thereby recycling! This method would also have the added benefit of cleaning up the contaminated plume that is going into the pond today.
We have been precluded from mentioning these and other solutions. From the very beginning, we have maintained that to discharge nutrients into our pond is not the proper and legal way to dispose of the tourist industry's waste, or any waste for that matter. Town counsel Ron Rappaport has insisted from the beginning that the town will not move the facility; we have never asked the town to move the facility.
5.Putting all septic systems into the facility would serve two benefits: one to clean the water in all the ponds of nutrients and the other to remove nutrients from the groundwater.
6. Nitrogen is produced from the degradation of plant and animal waste, not just animal and human waste, as stated in your article. Therefore the phytoplankton produced from nutrient input also produces nitrogen when it dies. As a consequence, the death of the plankton robs the pond of oxygen, which in turn causes eutrophication (death) of the pond. In recent years, the pond has experienced this event more than once and with the continued discharge of the wastewater plant into the pond the future of the pond is not very bright.
7. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations prohibit the degradation of surface water quality in class SA waters. The town maintains that its discharge of three parts per million of nitrogen is well below the standards set by the DEP, which is ten parts per million. The standard they do meet is the standard set for drinking water, and unfortunately for the fish there are no parts-per-million standards for them. The fish do have the anti-degradation statute (which is very clear) that discharges of any type are not allowed to degrade their habitat. This fact should take the guesswork out of why the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) took this case. One has only to remember when the town brought the Johnson case before the SJC, which they won at a cost of a million dollars. The SJC, in that decision, ordered that the pond must be protected from nutrients discharged from 55 septic systems of the planned development on the eastern shore of the pond. It is absurd to think that the discharge of 4,400 pounds of nitrate per year discharged on the western side of the pond will not degrade the pond.
Our focus has and will continue to be on the health of our pond. We are not concerned about noise or smell from the EWTF. We are not concerned about future development on the pond as long as the byproducts of human development are not dumped in our pond. I myself have four grandchildren and am soon to be a great grandfather: this action is for them as it is too late for my generation to see a healthy vibrant pond. We have been given a prescription by the pond doctors to cure this problem. Please move the discharge and save the future of this wonderful, one-of-a-kind place.
Michael Picciandra
President
Friends and Fishers
of Edgartown Great Pond
Westport Point
Power of talk
To the Editor:
Echoing Bush, Tony Blair says, "God will be his judge on Iraq...." It is time we admitted, from Kings to Presidents on down, that there is no evidence that any of our books were authored by the creator of the universe.
Religious moderates are, in a large part, responsible for the religious conflict in our world, because their beliefs provide the context in which scriptural literalism and religious violence can never be adequately opposed. Nothing that a Christian and a Muslim can say to each other will render their beliefs mutually vulnerable to discourse, because the very tenets of their faith have immunized them against the power of conversation.
Fred Thornbrugh
Vineyard Haven
Enthusiasm for Sail MV plan
To The Editor:
Sail Martha's Vineyard would like to again thank all those who came out to hear our "roll-out" presentation of "The Vineyard Cup Race & Seafaring Festival," our major new summer event. A broad spectrum of the Island community was represented, and we were extremely heartened by that turnout. We were likewise encouraged by the strong enthusiasm expressed by those in attendance for our proposed celebration of Martha's Vineyard maritime heritage. Just as in our many planning meetings, people immediately saw the benefit to the Island, with several bringing up great ways to increase the potential of this event. Similarly, some concerns were also expressed, for which we are equally thankful.
We will of course need to be diligent about addressing all of the key planning points; anticipating more boats in the harbor, health and safety, organizing for traffic flow and extra parking, sizing all of our activities in a way that fits with what's doable and possible for the Island in July. We're working on those event aspects and other fine details now and will continue to do so throughout the spring.
We hope to make the "The Vineyard Cup Race & Seafaring Festival" a three-day all-Island celebration and we are looking forward to partnering and actively working with many Island organizations and town bodies to make a new tradition on Martha's Vineyard. When we succeed, we will be able to pursue our larger goal of creating a true four-season education and recreation program.
Thanks again to everyone who joined us and for all of your thoughts. We were reminded yet again why living and working in our Island community is so fulfilling and the people a source of such never-ending inspiration.
Tom Rancich
Executive Director
Sail Martha's Vineyard
Public access needed
To the Editor:
This letter was sent to Dierdre Buckley, MEPA analyst, state of Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs:
This submittal concerns the lack of public access provisions in the plans for the proposed reconstruction of the Oak Bluffs ferry pier, currently in your office for review. I am writing on behalf of the Martha's Vineyard Surfcasters Association (MVSA).
The MVSA promotes recreational fishing opportunities on Martha's Vineyard. We strive to encourage sportsmanship and an awareness and appreciation of conservation opportunities by promoting sound practices. We sponsor a variety of youth-oriented activities throughout the year. We participate in community-sponsored events such as Earth Day beach clean-up programs and related activities.
One of our primary goals is to seek out and protect public access opportunities as they relate to not only fishing but to coastal access opportunities which would also promote general awareness of the value of coastal resources.
It is with great concern that we note that the proposed reconstruction of the Oak Bluffs ferry pier project lacks provisions for public access. Years ago, this pier was available for public access and even now serves as the site for a children's fishing tournament through the generosity of the Steamship Authority. In the initial planning stages, public access was favorably considered for this project but has unfortunately been eliminated in the final application.
We understand that concerns over cost, liability and security are among the reasons that this approach has been taken. While we do not yet have the benefit of knowing the detail supporting the reasons for these decisions, it is not hard to understand that these are serious issues. We feel it is in the best interest of the public that any evaluation incorporates a thorough review of why public access has been eliminated from this project.
Some general points we would like to be considered include the following:
- There is little public access except from shore or unsafe jetties along a considerable stretch of beach on this part of the Island. Access to fishing opportunities for children, the physically challenged, or the elderly are therefore severely limited.
- Any pier reconstruction which encroaches on existing coastal areas represents a further reduction of even shore-bound fishing access for the general public.
- The project presents an encroachment into public trust waters and therefore mitigation in the form of public access should be considered.
- Liability issues would seem to be addressed by the regulatory provisions of the Chapter 91 permit review process which would suggest that an applicant may not be liable for injuries resulting from public access as long as the applicant is not negligent.
- Security issues would clearly need to be considered by the Steamship Authority but fishing and general access to the pier could be designated for areas apart and separate from those portions of the ferry pier which are intended to serve the vehicles and passengers for which it is designed. Construction of a separate or even detached structure should be considered.
We appreciate this opportunity to offer comments during the review process and we are hopeful that our comments will be favorably considered.
David Nash
Environmental Action Chairman
Martha's Vineyard Surfcasters
Association
