It’s smooth sailing on Meetinghouse Way

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Meeting House Way has a fresh coat of long-awaitd asphalt.

Meetinghouse Way in Edgartown has finally been completely paved over with asphalt, after being approved back in 2015.

The project’s completion has been a long time coming for several Meetinghouse homeowners, who have voiced their frustration over the long delay in the project.

“We’re very happy. For a long time there was mixed opinion about whether the road should be paved or not. For those of us who lived here year-round, it was brutal,” Casey said of the newly paved road. Casey said she understood some people liked the rural feel of a dirt road, but she cited the potholes, dust, and general damage to cars as some of the many reasons pavement needed to happen.

“Did my first drive on it, and it was wonderful,” Jeremy Light, a teacher at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and homeowner on Meetinghouse, told the Times. “It was needed. I’ve spent over $1,200 on repairs to my car on shocks and tie rods. It was nearly undrivable after rainstorms.”

While Light said he was happy with the pavement, being a father of two children, he had some reservations about people speeding down the road to get to the beach.

“It’s been a long time coming; I’m very happy. I’ve lived on Meetinghouse since 1989. I’m really happy it’s done. It’s really hard on the cars. In the summer with the dust when it’s dry, there are times you can barely see a car coming at you from the dust blowing from the cars. It is really a joy, I’m just delighted,” Meetinghouse homeowner Chris White said.

White said she was so happy she even took a video on her phone and sent it to her daughter.

Currently the pavement on the road is only a base layer. The highway department is waiting to have several of the telephone poles, some jutting into the road, moved back before putting down a finished coat of pavement, according to Angelo Mariano, a mechanic with the Edgartown highway department.