Chilmark selectmen face the Girl Scouts

By Aubrey Gibavic - May 18, 2006

Members of the Martha's Vineyard Girl Scout council trooped resolutely into the meeting of the Chilmark selectman Tuesday to protest the selectmen's previous decision to refer the scouts' renovation project to the Martha's Vineyard Commission (MVC) for review.

Council members, who had been with the Island troop for decades, were irritated by the selectman's position. Meanwhile, neighbors of the camp are concerned about the noise and safety of the new structure.

Plans at the Middle Road site call for replacing the current Girl Scout building with a nearly 2,000 square foot structure, including a semi-industrial kitchen and storage loft.

Abutters are concerned that the increased size of the building, from a mere 700 square feet, will bring increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

"We are not creating a development," Tenney Lantz, a member of the Girl Scouts council, said to the board. "We are simply exchanging an old building for a new one."

The council is considering applying for their renovation project without the education exemption, which would require them to meet officially with neighbors and concerned citizens.

"If they can't accommodate listening to others, then maybe the scouts aren't the same as when I was in the troop," said Chilmark resident Ann Boyer.

Ms. Lantz addressed previous reports that the new building could hold 150 people. The board of health sets the limit at 32, she said.

In other business, the selectmen adopted a policy that will charge vendors an additional five percent fee on all town projects that require a police detail. This commonly includes road construction, or work on the foliage along the roadways. Selectmen chairman Riggs Parker said this is already common practice in surrounding towns.

A clean-up day for the Menemsha area is scheduled for Wednesday, May 24. Trash and other discarded items will be removed to spruce things up before summer.