Chilmark values are exemplified by many things — from the Menemsha sailing races that are open to all boats of any type, to the softball games that are open to all participants.
Chilmark is Snoot City? I don’t think so.
In response to comments in the Gazette online as well as letters and comments elsewhere regarding the report to the selectmen from the town committee on use of town-owned facilities, I’d note that requests for information were sent to all users within the past two years of the community center and the Chilmark School; five open meetings were held and the report was on the agenda of the selectmen’s meeting for July 15. Chilmark values are exemplified by many things — from the Menemsha sailing races that are open to all boats of any type, to the softball games that are open to all participants. Chilmark values are not served by rich people getting better seating and better parking spaces at events at Chilmark facilities. The report recommended a charge for the use of facilities that would be commensurate with the cost of cleaning, repairing and maintaining a building that is a historical site. I am sure the selectmen will take whatever actions they think are in the best interests of the town and all of its citizens.
James Malkin
Chilmark
James Malkin is chairman of a town facilities study committee.
Comments
Rich people getting better
David R White ChilmarkRich people getting better seats and parking is an utterly distorted and uninformed statement, Mr. Malkin, and perhaps dangerous to the culture of giving that powers both social services and cultural community on the Island. Non-profit organizations across the island survive on the individual donations of citizens, sometimes larger, but mostly smaller, the latter from people who care deeply about the content and service that such organizations bring to a relatively isolated rural community. As with WCAI tote bags, all such organizations offer certain modest benefits (including sometimes reserved seating) to those who support this important work so that it can, in fact, extend to many others who can't.
A seat on a couch? Please. The couches at MVFF have been far more an element of the informal collegiality of the Festival environment like the Chilmark-sourced dinners and the family-oriented Cinema Circus. The town provides a facility, but a facility without content, and the independent funding to support that content (notably not provided by the Town), is simply an empty room. To dun the funding, donated or earned by modest ticket prices, of non-profit missions that fill that room, is unconscionable, and possibly illegal. In any case, the Town action threatens the informed citizenship that in fact creates Chilmark values.
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