Appalling Decision

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Despite widespread grass roots opposition, on Oct. 6, at two minutes to eleven p.m., after three hours of often appalling discussion, a bare majority of one vote on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission approved the flawed and unneeded roundabout project for the intersection of the Vineyard Haven/Edgartown Road with Barnes and Airport Roads. The 13 commissioners present (out of 17) voted in a tie, which was broken by commission chairman Chris Murphy voting in favor.

Leading Lights

From Gazette editions of October, 1961:

Ernest E. Duarte of Makonikey has taken the contract to repair the lighthouse tower at Tarpaulin Cove and to make a general clean-up of the government reservation there. The work will begin as soon as settled weather allows the necessary crossing of the Sound with equipment and material. A building mover among other accomplishments, he anticipates unusual activity in this department during the coming months.

DOING HIS JOB

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I read in today’s morning news a brief announcement of the summons against Jamie Zambrama.

Gone Scalloping

The water was so warm you almost didn’t need waders. The October sun glinted off the water in the pond and at Sengekontacket people congregated in small groups, heads bent over their peep sights, long dip nets tucked beneath their arms. Bert Combra had his signature unlit cigar stuck in his mouth. Who are these creatures, someone might say who had just landed here from the moon.

Living on the Edge

Every week brings new facts to support what our senses already know. The natural environment around us is changing, and the pace of change is quickening.

We listen as we walk and no longer hear the familiar whistle of the northern bobwhite. We gaze on the water and rarely see the quicksilver flash of schooling mackerel. Shore fishermen say the bass are increasingly scarce these days.

Great swathes of beaches and dunes we loved as children are washing away.

My daughter Pickle, age three and half, has been talking a lot about death lately. The other night at dinner she turned to her mother, Cathlin, and said, "Babu and Babshi died." She was referring to the nicknames of my wife's parents who both died before Pickle was born. "Yes," Cathlin said. "They did." "A lot of people die," Pickle said. She pursed her small lips and folded her hands one over the other. "Like eight people," she added.