Tisbury assistant harbormaster John Crocker will be at the helm while Tisbury looks for a new harbormaster to replace Jay Wilbur, who retires next month. Monday, selectman Melinda Loberg said that Mr. Crocker will take over until a new harbormaster is hired.
“I don’t anticipate that we’re going to have one for the beginning of the summer, but hopefully by late summer we will,” Ms. Loberg told The Times. “It’s a tough time to be going through that process, when all the potential harbormasters are probably pretty busy.”
Summer employees will also help with the workload. “We always hire people for the summer, so we’ll be doing that as usual, and hopefully we’ll have some veterans who know the system and can operate without too much training,” she said.
In the meantime, Ms. Loberg said, selectmen and town employees will work on tweaking and updating the harbormaster job description.
“I think the first thing is to get the job description the way we all think that it should be,” she said. “And then we’ll engage in a search committee.”
Goodbye, Jay
On Thursday, a crowd of friends, family, and town employees gathered in the Katharine Cornell Theater at the town hall Thursday for Mr. Wilbur’s retirement party. Mr. Wilbur’s retirement is officially effective June 30.
The small gathering featured a large lunch, with three full tables of food and a cake that read, “New adventures await in part two of your charmed life!” Selectmen Tristan Israel and Melinda Loberg, shellfish constable Danielle Ewert, Police Chief Dan Hanavan, town administrator Jay Grande, town clerk Hillary Conklin, and several Department of Public Works representatives were among those in attendance.
Mr. Israel and Ms. Loberg thanked Mr. Wilbur for his service to the town.
“I have been out on the water a lot with Jay … being taken out to inspect something or going out on an ambulance call on the water,” Ms. Loberg said. “Jay’s been a great partner to work with on conservation matters, and really, really has cared deeply about the quality of our water … We’re definitely going to miss that partnership, and we’re grateful that he’ll still be around on the water, as captain, or this and that.”
Edgartown Harbormaster Charlie Blair spoke fondly of the man he originally attended harbormaster training with. He said Mr. Wilbur’s advice has kept him in the job 22 years.
“I couldn’t have survived without that wisdom — ‘Don’t let stuff bother you. You can’t please everybody. Just try to do the best job you can,’” he said.
He spoke about Mr. Wilbur’s dedication to the Cape and Island Harbormaster’s Association.
“He went to every meeting for years,” Mr. Blair said. “I didn’t. I skipped a lot of meetings. ‘Hey, Jay, what happened?’ Quick phone call to be brought up to date. He was an officer of the association, he was vice president for a number of years, and he kept me in touch.”
Ms. Conklin said Mr. Wilbur welcomed her into his family. “It’s been an absolute joy to work with you, especially for 16 years,” she said, holding back tears. “You welcomed me and my husband into the Wilbur family. Sometimes we think we have an extra last name — that’s Wilbur.”
Finally, Mr. Wilbur stood up and thanked all of his supporters. “I love Vineyard Haven Harbor,” he said. “I have since our family entered in on our cabin cruiser in 1964. I knew it was the place for me.”
He joked that his major accomplishment over the years was learning how to pronounce the name of the former executive assistant to the town administrator, Aase Jones, who retired earlier this year.
“I’ve been through a lot of selectmen, five town administrators, four police chiefs, three treasurers, and the list goes on,” he said. “I’ve been here a while, in other words … I’m grateful to you all. You gave me an opportunity second to none, for me. I’ll always be grateful.”
