News
The Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group is holding a shucking and jiving benefit Saturday night at the Chilmark Community Center. Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish will be rocking. The night also features a silent auction, drinks, and snacks; all the fixings, really, for a great party as the off-season gets set to shuck its own shell in time for the summer rush.
A Falmouth-based fuel company was fined $25,000 and sentenced to three years probation in Dukes County superior court this week for charges related to an Oak Bluffs oil spill.
Nectar’s, the popular Island nightclub and current torch holder for the Vineyard music scene, may be gone by the coming summer, as the company pursues plans to transfer the alcohol license it now holds to its partner, Flatbread Pizza Company.
Chilmark voters elected a new selectman, pledged money for studying town ponds and approved a hefty budget hike at the annual town meeting and election this week.
Voters elected real estate agent and Chilmark Store owner Bill Rossi for a three year term to the board of selectmen on Wednesday. Mr. Rossi won with 186 votes. He succeeds longtime selectman Frank Fenner, who did not seek reelection after four terms. A late write-in campaign by Alan Porter earned him 54 votes.
Longtime town finance committee member Jon Snyder is the newest member of the Tisbury board of selectmen after narrowly edging out town health agent and former selectman Tom Pachico in Tuesday’s town election. Mr. Snyder garnered 473 votes, while Mr. Pachico earned 426.
A total of 926 out of 2,930 residents, or just over 31 per cent of eligible voters, cast ballots in the election.
After the results were read at the American Legion Hall in Vineyard Haven, Mr. Snyder shook Mr. Pachico’s hand and thanked him for a hard fought election.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has vowed to go to federal court if necessary to win the right to build a casino, after Gov. Deval Patrick rebuffed the tribe’s attempt to come to the negotiating table last week.
Claiming the state has the right to regulate gambling on Indian lands, an attorney for the governor wrote in a letter that the Vineyard tribe waived its sovereignty more than 20 years ago when it signed a settlement agreement. But the tribe contends that federal Indian gaming law trumps state law.