News
After a long, sultry August day in Oak Bluffs, summer residents were doused with a bucket of cold water on Tuesday at the annual summer taxpayers meeting when they learned of the town’s dire financial situation and across-the-board cutbacks in services.
“You call us summer taxpayers but I’m a year-round taxpayer,” said Thelma Baxter. “As a year-round taxpayer I’m concerned about all these cuts.”
Improvements to emergency services, including a new response system at the town beach, challenges facing the town fire department and the ever-present balancing act of managing the town budget were central topics at the Aquinnah summer taxpayers meeting on Wednesday night.
Aquinnah selectmen told a small but inquisitive group of seasonal residents that the town is holding close to a plan to keep spending at a minimum while maintaining top-notch services.
Citing public safety issues and protection of a nearby pond and stream, the Aquinnah zoning board of appeals this week unanimously approved a variance that will allow a portion of Old South Road to be paved.
The variance was allowed with a series of conditions.
Dukes County and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) sought an exception from a town bylaw which protects Old South Road, Old Lobsterville Road and Old Church Road as historic places and prohibits paving on them.
In the beginning, there were 254 runners toiling up and over the hills of Middle Road.
Chilmark firefighters quickly quelled a small fire at Blue Heron Farm early Tuesday morning. Chilmark fire chief David Norton said the call came in at 3:30 a.m. from an automatic fire alarm in the farmhouse. The fire was in the wall of the main house near a porch that had a gas grill on it. Firefighters had the fire out within a matter of minutes, Mr. Norton said. “Very small, very contained, extinguished quickly,” the fire chief said. He said the cause of the fire was the gas grill.
In a final tally of their summer fund-raising effort that begins with Possible Dreams but knows no bounds, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services brought in $465,000.
DiAnn Ray, co-chairman of this year’s Possible Dreams auction, said: “We are very pleased. In the past, we had fewer streams of revenue, but now we have funds coming in from lots of places.”