News
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission will vote next month on a $1.2 million budget for the coming year, a 3.1 per cent increase over this year.
The increase stems mainly from an increase in retirement costs.
In a ceremony of remembrance and appreciation, the trees around the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital were lit for the holiday season late Wednesday afternoon. Fred B. Morgan Jr., 90, of Edgartown was this year’s official lighter for what was billed as the Trees of Lights ceremony. Following a short speech, Mr. Morgan, wearing a green bow tie shaped like a spring of holly, lit the tall tree in the hospital lobby.
Attorney fees for the lawsuit against the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s roundabout decision will not come out of the town’s annual operating budget, West Tisbury selectmen said this week.
“I think it’s better not to try to budget . . . extraordinary legal events,” selectman Cynthia Mitchell said at the board’s meeting, held on Tuesday this week. “It ought to be raised separately not as part of the budget. And in that way you get the opportunity to ask the voters how do you feel about such a lawsuit.”
The Oak Bluffs selectmen voted Tuesday against a request by West Tisbury psychotherapist Julia Kidd to install a “positive message” sign near the Steamship Authority building for two weeks. Town administrator Bob Whritenour said the board objected to the placement of the proposed sign, not to the positive message. Kidd, who has advocated for putting positive signs in various places around the Vineyard, proposed hanging a sign in Oak Bluffs that said “I want to hear every story you have to tell.”
Like most visitors to Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company, Buster the black Labrador was hungry for a snack when he bounded through the doors Wednesday afternoon. But instead of ordering at the bar, Buster earned his treats by showing off the skills for which he’s been trained: sniffing out a small bag of marijuana, intentionally hidden in a curtain at the restaurant. The year-old dog planted himself on the floor by the curtain, placed his nose on the drugs and received treats from his handler, Oak Bluffs police officer Jeffrey Trudel.
A superior court judge has dismissed a political operative’s lawsuit claiming he was libeled by news stories in the Vineyard Gazette and The Boston Globe over his behavior, including his arrest, on the Island during the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign.