Friday, November 8, 2024

Editorial

Through the rancor, Chilmark finds compromise 

It’s been quite a week in the news.  The U.S. House of Representatives finally put aside its deep divisions to sign an aid package that will save untold thousands of lives in the grinding war...

Town meetings shouldn’t be a snoozer 

Updated, April 18 Town meeting is one of New England’s proudest traditions, and the most hands-on form of democracy in which Islanders can participate. Unlike voting in presidential elections, which can feel like a fait...

Sounding the alarm: losing volunteer firefighters is an unsettling trend 

Last week’s news that fire departments are having difficulty recruiting volunteer firefighters should not be taken lightly. While maybe not a five-alarm fire, it underscores a troubling trend on the Island. Vineyard fire departments have...

Amid growling and whining, the veterinarian shortage is still a business story

There’s been a lot of growling and some whining around one of the few remaining animal health care providers on the Island, which could be losing its space at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport.  Owners at...

Keeping an eye on the offshore wind industry 

The offshore wind industry moving into waters close to our shores is no longer something in the distant future. It is here, and with it comes a need to keep a watchful eye: Are...

Oak Bluffs zoning proposal considers solutions for real problems

The Oak Bluffs planning board is proposing a solution to a problem that’s been brewing on the Island for some time, and causing consternation among some Island tradespeople and residents who live near their...

Words won’t save us from the next storm surge 

State and local officials have been treading water for too long on how to handle increasingly frequent and destructive flooding at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven.  And it’s hard not to feel like time is...

Our diversity is our strength, especially in schools

Last week we reported on a Feb. 1 Edgartown School committee meeting where more than 200 parents, attending in person and online, fumed about the school’s administration (“Frustrations rising at Edgartown School,” Feb. 8),...

If we want to save the right whale, let’s follow the evidence 

Martha’s Vineyard was the most recent scene of a tragedy that has been playing out up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from Canada to Florida. A dead female North Atlantic right whale, just 3 years...

A sign of the times?

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First came the high winds. They blew hard against the “MV Times” sign above the entry to our newsroom, leaving it hanging by one rusty nail, twisting in the wind.  “A sign of the times,”...

Support body cameras for Island police

George Floyd’s 2020 murder at the hands of Minneapolis police changed the way America thinks about policing. We only know what happened because an iPhone video captured the nearly 8 minutes a police officer...

Build smart in storm aftermath

“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”   That's a line from the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists...

Ballot measure a chance to end the turf wars

What may have been lost in last week’s excitement surrounding the turf field was a vote by the MVRHS School Committee to support a nonbinding ballot question for voters to say whether they would...

Focus on education, not a field

MVRHS Principal Sara Dingledy deserves praise for standing up and speaking her mind in front of the high school committee this week, asking to please find a way to compromise on the turf debate.  She...

Thank you

You’ll read elsewhere in our pages and online this morning that by the first of the year The Times will have been sold to Steve Bernier of West Tisbury. This is astoundingly good news...

Stay focused on Sankaty errors

There are several takeaways from the Steamship Authority’s internal investigation into the untethering of the Sankaty at its Woods Hole slip — one that uncorked a not-so-flattering narrative of the SSA. The response so...

Fun Police alert: Tread carefully when restricting private parties

Leave it to Edgartown to try to pass a bylaw restricting parties. Next they might require everyone’s trim to be the same color, or their nighttime lights dimmed so as not to offend any...

Preserve community while preserving water quality

Island coastal embayments, as have we’ve reported many times before, have issues with water quality.  While not nearly as problematic on the Island as some parts of the state, such as Cape Cod, high nitrogen...

In-law apartments a boost for housing, supporting seniors

America has an infrastructure and housing problem, and the Vineyard is right in the thick of it: Baby boomers are aging, and the infrastructure isn’t there to meet the demand.  The New York Times reports...

Sankaty documents raise concerns of a cover-up

The records obtained by The Times from a Steamship Authority internal investigation into what caused the freight vessel Sankaty to become untethered from its Woods Hole slip certainly do not make the authority look...