News
If you are one of those people who love and are fascinated by hurricanes, northeasters and blizzards, the National Weather Service wants you.
The National Weather Service will host a severe weather spotter training session tomorrow afternoon at the West Tisbury public safety building. The three-hour class begins at 1 p.m. and is open to anyone who would like to help the weather service when reporting inclement weather.
Called SKYWARN, the program is a service that helps local public safety officials take action in the event of severe weather.
Tisbury town leaders and those involved in building the town’s new $7.4 million emergency services building are in the process of vetting a new construction supervisor, after the former one was sacked over the trouble-plagued project.
The former construction supervisor was terminated at the town’s request, in response to a long list of faults in the building, which have delayed the project. An interim supervisor is in place, but has yet to be approved to take over permanently.
Dorothy Packer was one of 10 volunteers honored with the Volunteer of the Year Award at the 38th annual meeting of Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands, held in Hyannis on Tuesday. The morning meeting was attended by 140 and took place at the Cape Codder Resort and Spa in Hyannis. Mrs. Packer didn’t attend. But Jacque Cage, Martha’s Vineyard director of Elder Services, accepted the award on her behalf.
Mrs. Packer on Wednesday demurred, “There are so many others who are just as deserving of this award.”
The All-Island School committee ratified three-year collective bargaining agreements for Vineyard school custodians, paraprofessionals and food service workers at their monthly meeting last week.
All three unions will take no wage increase for the first year of their contracts, which retroactively began in 2010, as well as agreeing to opt out of an indemnity health plan and move to a private provider. Union members will receive an incentive payment for the insurance.
Plans for a new grocery store on State Road in Vineyard Haven put forward by Island entrepreneur Elio Silva have been fast-tracked at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which was expected to vote on the project last night.
Early Bluefish
The first bluefish of the season was caught by an Oak Bluffs angler at Wasque on Tuesday.
George Moran, 66, was fishing for striped bass with another Oak Bluffs angler, Vincent Frye, in the afternoon, overcast with a hollering wind.
Mr. Moran said they were hoping to get striped bass — and he did get one.
But shortly after 2 p.m., Mr. Moran said: “I made a cast, and suddenly I got a hit. It didn’t feel like a bass.”