News
Democrats Meeting
The Martha’s Vineyard Democrats will hold a meeting at the Howes House on Nov. 12 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The group will discuss recommendations to Senator John Kerry and the Super-Committee on Deficit Reduction, as well as how the Martha’s Vineyard Democrats might support the Occupy Wall Street movement.
When Vineyarders tuned in to FOX yesterday afternoon, they found the familiar, reassuring visage of Dr. Mehmet Oz. Next to him was an even more familiar face, that of Islander Marcy Holmes.
“It was a surprise. I haven’t been groomed for this,” Ms. Holmes said Thursday. “I don’t have the stage experience that Gerry has,” a lighthearted reference to her Vineyard Medical Services colleague and man of the stage Dr. Gerry Yukevich.
The commercial bay scallop season is open in all towns save Aquinnah, and as hardy shellfishermen don their orange and yellow foul weather gear, perhaps hoping for a small hedge against hard economic times, the early reports on the season are mixed.
Edgartown is having an average to healthy year, but the scallops coming out of Cape Pogue are small. Chilmark expects to have a short season this year. Sengekontacket remains mostly the steady domain of family fishermen (no dragging is allowed there). And the Lagoon Pond is hot.
As the Island boards of health begin to engage in a five-year effort to battle tick-borne illnesses on the Vineyard, early field work from a group of medical students on the Island points to serious deficiencies in reporting tick diseases to state public health officials, especially for Lyme disease.
The growing demands of special education classes in the public schools have placed extra demands on the budget for Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss, who is on track to spend $4 million next year, a five per cent increase over this year.
The All-Island School Committee voted 9 to 1 to approve the superintendent’s budget at its monthly meeting on Wednesday. The budget pays for a variety of shared services for the public schools, including special education.
West Tisbury selectmen are preparing for the possibility of life in a wet town, but some townspeople are not quite ready to hop on the wagon.
At a public hearing held Wednesday, selectmen seeking to discuss regulations for the potential sale of beer and wine at town restaurants and fund-raisers instead faced a small crowd who questioned whether the town was acting too quickly and presuming that a vote to approve such sales would pass.