News
It’s that time of year when seasonal businesses are taking down the shutters and the summer workforce is beginning to arrive.
In recent years Eastern Europeans and Jamaicans have been filling a growing share of summer jobs. Foreign workers wait tables, greet guests, pour beers, make hotel beds, bake peanut brittle and fudge, serve lobster rolls and fry quesadillas. About 5,000 people come to the Island to work each year, according to a recent Martha’s Vineyard Commission report on housing needs.
The West Tisbury selectmen agreed to allow Alpha Taxi this week to double the size of its cab fleet, over the objection of the two other taxi companies in town.
Alpha Taxi owner Benoit Baldwin requested two more taxi permits for his company, bringing the total to four. In a letter to the board, Mr. Baldwin said he needed the additional permits for an anticipated increase in future service, including for specially-chartered events in the coming months.
Oak Bluffs voted in favor of catch-and-release shark tournaments, West Tisbury approved a new police station and Edgartown approved two spending projects during annual town elections last week.
Voter turnout was sparse, between nine and 13 per cent, and few races were contested.
Oak Bluffs voters approved a nonbinding referendum that would make shark tournaments in town catch and release only by a margin of 225 to 186.
The annual Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament, which offers prizes for the largest shark caught, is held at the Oak Bluffs harbor every summer.
A steep rate hike is in the offing for the only home insurance available to many Vineyard residents.
The FAIR Plan has proposed a rate increase of nearly 10 per cent for the Cape and Islands.
According to information released by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association, also known as the FAIR Plan, owner-occupied home insurance rates would increase 9.9 per cent, the maximum increase allowed, on the Cape and Islands. The proposed average increase in the state is seven per cent.
A company that transmits money to foreign countries was temporarily shut down by the state banking commissioner this month after remittances went missing, and a Brazilian businessman on the Vineyard said he will work to help collect refunds for Island residents who were caught unawares by the problem.
On April 10 the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks issued a temporary cease and desist order against Global Money Remittance, a subsidiary of InterTransfers of Miami, Fla. Global Money has been licensed to operate in Massachusetts since April 2006.
On the Vineyard everybody knows somebody in Boston. Over the past week, in the aftermath of Monday’s bombing during the 117th Boston Marathon, flags flew at half-mast across the Island in honor of the victims of the attacks as Vineyarders took time both to reflect and to offer help to those in need.
The Vineyarders who participated in the run were unharmed.