Chilmark meets its candidates
A large crowd packed into the Chilmark library on Monday evening to hear from candidates running for a seat on the town’s select board, just over a week before the town’s annual election. The candidates’ forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard, gave candidates in town a chance to introduce themselves.…
Island Theatre ballot question approved in landside; Miller wins West Tisbury
Oak Bluffs voters have solidified their decision that it’s time their town intervene and take control of the Island Theatre. Throughout the day last Thursday, voters across three towns — Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and West Tisbury — cast their votes for various, mostly uncontested races and ballot questions at annual town elections. In Oak Bluffs,…
M.V. Family Campground acquired by national resort company
The Island’s only family campground, with 180 campsites and dozens of cabins and RV sites that pepper the woods in Tisbury during the summer, was acquired on Wednesday by a holding company that has a wide portfolio of campsites and resorts across the country. Northgate Holdings, a Michigan-based holding company that Northgate Resorts operates under,…
Island family stranded in Canada after visa renewal denial
Updated April 17. An Island family, stranded in Canada for the past six weeks due to a denied visa renewal following a family ski trip, has been forced to seek documentation in order to try to return home. The family’s status continues to remain uncertain after federal border officials rejected Michael Freeze’s work visa renewal…
Extensive mapping of deer population is in
Updated April 17. From dusk to dawn, drones were flown daily this winter from more than 100 spots across the Island to collect and mark the heat signatures of deer, in what is regarded as the most extensive survey of the herd ever done. Now the results are in. The nonprofit Tick Free Martha’s Vineyard…
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Environment
GE threatens to walk out on Vineyard Wind
Updated April 17. Just as Vineyard Wind 1 announced that construction was finally done after a decade of political debates and hard work, the company has filed a lawsuit against the wind farm’s central contractor, GE Vernova, after the energy company threatened to walk away from the project. The issue at the center of this…
Health
Ticks, transportation, access: Top priorities for health officials
Islanders have long grappled with the health implications of living separated from mainland amenities, and hospital officials are eyeing ways to bolster accessibility to care in the place thousands call home. The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital announced earlier this month the release of its “2025 Community Health Implementation Plan,” which lists health issues the organization wants…
Housing
Christian camp’s housing proposal faces pushback from neighbors
Homeowners in West Tisbury are sounding an alarm over a recent workforce housing proposal for what they say is one example of a change in character in residential areas by housing developments and the resulting potential environmental damage to local ponds. The proposal, which went in front of the West Tisbury Zoning Board of Appeals…
Education
High school building costs for year-rounders sharpen into focus
Updated April 21. A new tool for calculating an individual homeowner’s tax increase from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s (MVRHS) building project went live last Friday, clarifying how each town’s differing policies impact the cost burden on year-round residents. The Times published the first look at tax burdens for all property owners in March…
Politics
Oak Bluffs voters approve taking Island Theatre
Oak Bluffs voters will decide at the polls today whether the process of seizing the dilapidated and controversial Island Theatre by eminent domain will be ratified. A major decision was made on Wednesday during the second night of the Oak Bluffs town meeting at the local high school’s Performing Arts Center (PAC). In a 164-31…
Cops and Courts
Island resident sentenced in rape case; one detained by ICE
Two Brazilian nationals accused of child rape were convicted on Tuesday, April 7 at a Dukes County Superior Court hearing at the Edgartown Courthouse. One defendant, whose child rape charge was dismissed but was convicted on a lesser charge, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as she left the…
Immigration
Vineyarders: ‘No Kings’ in America
Around 800 Islanders stood at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven Saturday and overflowed along the sidewalks, as they looked out at traffic and chanted “No Kings, No Kings!” Posters made of paper, Styrofoam, and cardboard boxes read, “I prefer my ICE crushed,” “You can’t bomb your way out of the Epstein files,” “We the People…
