Edgartown Select Board approves Chappy Ferry license transfer
After months of debate, the Edgartown Select Board unanimously approved to transfer the Chappy Ferry license from longtime operators Peter Wells and Sally Snipes to current captain Brian Scall. The decision allows Scall to officially take ownership of the ferry service, subject to approval of final legal review of documentation by town counsel. This will…
UPDATED: father detained by ICE released
Updated May 27 The father and teenage son who were out fishing together before they were taken into ICE custody were ordered by federal judges to be released from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the past week. The son, 15-year-old Nycolas de Al Varenga Lima, has already returned to the…
Honoring those who gave their all
The Island’s Memorial Day ceremony moved indoors due to heavy rain during the country’s 250th founding anniversary. But veterans from around Martha’s Vineyard said the honoring of their fallen comrades was not diminished. The Island community gathered in the new gymnasium of the Tisbury School on Monday before heading over to the American Legion Post…
Teenager taken by ICE released; hundreds gather in Menemsha rally
Hundreds of Islanders stood and marched in solidarity with Nycolas de Al Varenga Lima, the high school student who was arrested by immigration officials alongside his father, Rogerio da Silva Lima, in the fishing town the pair were detained from earlier this week. The streets of Menemsha were overflowing with an estimated 275 supporters of…
Why does the high school building project cost so much?
The Island is less than two weeks away from voting on its most expensive building project ever. And on the eve of the consequential vote, with only a few more public discussions left on the docket, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) building committee posed a question to themselves, one that many Islanders have…
ISland Life
VOICES bySharisse: Who gets to call Martha’s Vineyard home?
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Environment
Island and Vineyard Wind officials meet
Island town administrators and Vineyard Wind officials finally sat down this past week to take steps to possibly replicate an agreement that Nantucket established last December. “I met with … Vineyard Wind and town administrators yesterday,” Tim Caroll, Chilmark town administrator, said at a select board meeting on Tuesday. “We’re working on a [memorandum of…
Health
Red House moves into new home
One of the gray-shingled buildings on the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) campus is now decorated with red paint, a homage to the name of the peer-run recovery center that recently set up shop inside. Staff at the Red House, the Island’s substance-use peer recovery support center, where more than 100 people attend meetings, meals,…
Housing
Real estate company facilitates $500,000 in donations
Feiner Real Estate, a company based on Martha’s Vineyard that specializes in vacation rentals and real estate sales, officially surpassed $500,000 in donations to Island nonprofits. Ten years ago, principal broker Jim Feiner created the Client’s Choice Program as an “experiment” that allows buyers and sellers to choose to direct 10 percent of the real…
Education
MVRHS students honored
As another school year comes to a close at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, students were recognized for their academics, extracurricular activities, and character. Last week, the high school hosted its Honors Night to celebrate the accomplishments of their students over the school year. Here’s a list of award recipients for the 2025–2026 school…
Politics
Aquinnah voters approve all funding requests
The unofficial results of the Aquinnah annual town election are in. Residents of Aquinnah voted 96–32 in favor of allowing the town to assess an additional $100,000 in real estate and personal property taxes to fund both the department budgets of the Up-Island and Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. They also voted 104–23 to allow…
Cops and Courts
Edgartown man pleads guilty; bomb threat charges dropped
David M. Capato, 58, an Edgartown man charged in 2025 for making a bomb threat at the Vineyard Haven Steamship Authority terminal, pleaded guilty Wednesday, May 21, in Dukes County Superior Court, and was sentenced to five years of probation on multiple counts. At the change-of-plea hearing before Superior Court Judge Elaine M. Buckley, Capato…
Immigration
MVRHS students hold walkout to honor classmate detained by ICE
Students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) were energized Friday as they called for the release of their peer, Nycolas de Al Varenga Lima, from the custody of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE). Roughly 200 students poured out of the school on Friday onto the sidewalk of Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road for a…
Ferry and transportation
Oak Bluffs welcomes first ferry of the summer
In another sign of the upcoming summer season, the Steamship Authority (SSA) brought a little more fanfare to the annual opening of the Oak Bluffs terminal this year. The SSA hosted its inaugural “First Ferry” event on Thursday, with organizers celebrating as the crew of the ferry Martha’s Vineyard brought Oak Bluffs’ first batch of…
