News
With another step completed toward restoring on-Island health care access for veterans, members of the Providence VA hospital are planning an on-Island trip for early October for a town hall meeting with veterans and discussions with Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
This week came word that the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital had signed a new contract for veterans’ health care; the last remaining step is contract approval from the Providence VA Medical Center.
The football team plays its first home game of the season tonight at 6:30 p.m. against Old Rochester. Their next home game will not be until the end of the month.
On Saturday, the cross country teams host the sixth annual Vineyard Invitational meet, featuring 13 teams and over 420 athletes. The first races will be at 11 a.m.
Also on Saturday, boys’ soccer plays visiting Dennis-Yarmouth at 12:30 p.m.
West Tisbury library trustees asked the town selectmen this week for permission to cut down nearly 10 trees to make way for construction of the new library late this fall. The library also needs the money to take the trees down.On Wednesday trustee Linda Hearn asked the selectmen to put an article on the Nov. 13 special town meeting warrant asking for $6,000 for the tree removal. There are four large trees adjacent to the parking lot, two at the rear of Howes House, several small trees around the property and a large maple at the entrance to the parking lot, which Polly Hill Arboretum executive director Tim Boland called “diseased and dangerous,” according to Mrs. Hearn.
‘Tis derby season. In just two days the Vineyard community will undergo a large transformation as the 67th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, the Island’s annual Olympics for fisherman, begins.
As the Island starts to transition from summer crowds to autumn quiet, the Steamship Authority is reporting that traffic was up compared with last year.
“The summer was good; the traffic has been good,” Steamship Authority general manager Wayne Lamson told the Gazette this week.
June passenger traffic to the Vineyard was up by 4.7 per cent; July passenger traffic saw a decrease of 1.9 per cent; and August traffic was up by 7.2 per cent compared with 2011, according to Steamship Authority data. Passenger traffic is up 4.6 per cent for the year to date.
Island Grown Schools coordinator Kaila Binney is especially excited about January.
“I have this crazy idea,” she said. “I want to get conch in the schools. It’s the biggest export on the Vineyard and nobody eats it.”
Ms. Binney, along with IGS director Noli Taylor, is launching a new program called Harvest of the Month designed to introduce Vineyard students to a new locally-grown crop each month.