Government
Oak Bluffs town administrator Michael Dutton resigned on Friday morning, capping weeks of tension and speculation over whether he would remain on the job. And as the dust settled over the weekend, the mood in town was decidedly bleak amid mounting financial problems and a workforce strained by low morale and uncertainty about the future.
The five Oak Bluffs selectmen met behind closed doors for an hour on Friday and then announced in public that they had accepted Mr. Dutton’s resignation, which is effective July 31.
Tisbury selectmen have given the latest site superintendent of the town’s new emergency service building two weeks to show he can rescue the trouble-plagued project or follow his two predecessors out the door.
The board’s decision, taken reluctantly on Tuesday night, was taken despite advice from the town’s project supervisor, recommended against the appointment of Dennis Mason as the permanent site superintendant.
A decade after a seminal study showing the magnitude of the Vineyard’s housing crisis — in facts and figures, resident surveys and census data — a collection of Island affordable housing groups want to do it all again.
The Joint Affordable Housing Group, an informal committee that includes the various town affordable housing committees, nonprofit housing organizations and advocates, is trying to scrabble together approximately $30,000 to replicate a housing needs assessment carried out in 2001 and last updated in 2005.
Out-of-towners leave your dogs at home, the West Tisbury parks and recreation committee has decided, at least if you are going to Lambert’s Cove Beach with your pooch.
On Wednesday the committee agreed to restrict dog privileges to town residents, amid increasing complaints from beachgoers who have watched sunset picnics blemished by uncontrolled canines and unretrieved dog droppings.
West Tisbury selectmen voted to promote police officer Garrison Viera to the rank of corporal on the recommendation of police chief Dan Rossi on Wednesday.
“I’d be honored to have the position and I look forward to the responsibilities,” said Mr. Viera.
Mr. Viera has been a full-time officer in the department for seven years and will now act in a supervisory role to other patrolmen.
A rising tide lifts all boats, they say. But the old aphorism about the economy apparently does not hold true for Vineyard real estate, as the most recent property valuations show.