All-Island selectmen met Thursday to discuss a variety of Island issues, chief among them the lack of affordable housing. Those in attendance agreed it is a serious concern that deserves the attention of Island selectmen.
Oak Bluffs selectman Walter Vail cited the imminent departure of Oak Bluffs librarian Sondra Murphy, and the departure in August of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School principal Gil Traverso one year into a three-year contract, as examples of important people who left their jobs partly due to lack of affordable housing.
“Where are they going to go?” Mr. Vail said. “Where do teachers go when the shuffle starts at the end of June? What can we do; can there be some sort of effort by all of us to provide some sort of rental housing that would fit?”
Edgartown selectmen Art Smadbeck said it’s important to look at what each town is doing to address the problem. Edgartown supported and built Morgan Woods, a 60-unit affordable housing unit, and is currently working on another affordable housing project. He said he would like to see the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), the Island’s regional permitting body, stop hindering the process.
“I just mean that they need to recognize how to become enlightened in how they deal with these projects that are coming out from private developers,” he said. As an example, he said, a private developer was interested in building housing in Edgartown, but once it got through the MVC process, there were so many fees that the rents had to be raised significantly to cover the costs.
“The commission wasn’t helping them and providing services to them, they were charging them for this and charging them for that,” he said.
Tisbury selectman Tristan Israel pointed out that the crisis goes beyond affordable housing. He said the focus also needs to be on helping professionals and kids who grew up on the Island.
Oak Bluffs selectman Greg Coogan agreed.
“We spend approximately $55 million a year on education, and right now we’re pretty much losing that investment because our children can’t stay here,” Mr. Coogan, a retired teacher, said.
Island selectmen can’t stick their heads in the sand anymore, he said, and believe that kids can afford it. He proposed Island selectmen start working together to brainstorm ideas and implement solutions.
New MVC executive director Adam Turner attended the meeting, and said he is committed to addressing the housing problem.
“You want these projects in and out the door and to be designed well, but you also don’t want it to be a burden where you’re adding a ton of costs, and that’s something we’ll work out, I believe, with developers and others so we can really get it in and out the door,” he said.
When he lived and worked in Key West, Fla., he said, the city worked with for-profit developers and used its own land to address affordable housing. He said they also made decisions about the process prior to the initiation of projects.
“They made those decisions up front, and when somebody came in and said, Here’s my proposal, they weren’t re-creating the wheel right then; we had already done it and we were ready, so it wasn’t like a long, drawn-out process,” he said. He said the Island has all the necessary resources. “We just have to organize ourselves,” he said.
Mr. Turner, who moved to the Island with his wife and two children, cited his own example. “I’m on a one-year lease,” he said. “What’s going to happen to me when the lease ends? I hope I find another place. But I love it here; the community is great, it’s a really special place. Hopefully we’ll get some projects built.”
Selectmen agreed to begin working together to address the problem.
Tick update
Michael Loberg, chairman of the Medical Education Committee, and Matt Poole, Edgartown health agent, provided an update on a grant-funded tick education program designed to reduce the incidence of tick-borne diseases. The committee has worked on measuring the prevalence of Lyme disease on the Island, educating susceptible populations, and developing new tests.
Mr. Poole said work has been ongoing to identify tick-friendly habitats. He said 99 properties on Chappaquiddick and 76 properties in Chilmark were tested. Testers found about 6.5 ticks per yard in Chilmark and 1 per yard on Chappaquiddick, 25 percent of which were nymphs infected with Lyme. He said property owners were advised to clear back brush around the property perimeter, widen walking trails, relocate children’s toys, and remove leaf litter. Many property owners failed to implement those recommendations, he said.
He said reducing the number of deer, which provide a blood meal for ticks, is the primary means of reducing the number of deer ticks. An aerial infrared deer survey completed in 2014 identified about 39.4 deer per square mile, depending on the area of the Island. “The experts in the field would say that the deer are definitely the problem,” he said.
“It’s going to take more than just making deer-tagging regulations more hunter-friendly,” he said. He said the discovery of the lone star tick, believed to have come on birds, is also a longterm problem. It is confirmed to be established and reproducing in Chilmark and Aquinnah and on Chappaquiddick. Going forward, he said, the focus will be on prevention and public education.
In the county manager’s report, Martina Thornton said the county has not completed the purchase of the new Center for Living building yet. “We are trying to figure out how we can sign a long-term lease for the Center for Living to move into the building,” she said. Legislation now in the Senate would allow that without going through the bidding process, she said.
In other business, Mr. Vail gave an update on a committee working on Island-wide taxi regulations.
“For the past couple of years, we’ve been working on trying to figure out whether or not there’s a better way to operate taxis on this Island,” he said. He said he has been working with MVC senior planner Bill Veno, Ms. Thornton, and many Island taxi owners.
“The all-Island licensing of cabs really did not meet with the approval of the owners, but they did think the all-Island licensing of drivers made a great deal of sense, and that perhaps the VTA could do background checks on drivers to make the process uniform rather than having it just done town by town,” he said. He said they are also looking into uniform taxi regulations that span the six towns.
Tom Hallahan, executive coordinator of the Healthy Aging Task Force, said that in just a few years, one in three Island people will be over age 65. He said they will be sending out just under 5,000 “very detailed” surveys to Island residents over age 65 by bulk mail on Oct. 20. The 48-question survey, covering housing, transportation, health care, and support, will be due back on Nov. 13.
