News
Top Gunner
Cooper Gilkes 3rd added another Top Gun award to his collection at this year’s Rod and Gun Club Fall Shoot; he also took top honors in 1986, 2003, 2007.
Mr. Gilkes, of Edgartown, bested 10 challengers by one point to take the club’s 2010 honors.
Shotgunners enjoyed wonderful weather for the Nov. 28 contest.
Second place was captured by new member Ted Saulnier, while last year’s top gun winner Matt Gamache picked up the third place.
Sluggers Will Be Sharks
And then there was one.
The Ospreys flew out, the Islanders lay stranded between first and second, and the Fighting Clams got bogged down on third.
The Sharks circled with ease, devouring all pretenders to the throne.
And so it will be the Sharks who represent the Vineyard as it welcomes its first season of summer collegiate baseball. May the ballplayers remain hungry for homeruns rather than late night surfers.
A row of decorated wreaths rests along the front pew of the West Tisbury Congregational Church. There are wreaths with red bows and holly leaves, pine cones and delicate juniper berries. A few feature small, felt cardinals peeking out from amongst the greens. There is also a homemade boxwood wreath with no trappings other than nature’s varied shadings of light and dark green. It glistens next to a faded blue Pilgrim hymnal. And then there are three wreaths at the end of the pew adorned with orange slices.
The Edgartown tax rate will increase for the fourth year in a row, part of a trend seen in an Islandwide climate of declining property values.
The selectmen voted to set the tax rate at their weekly meeting Monday afternoon, pending approval by the state Department of Revenue. The new tax rate is estimated at $3.40 per $1,000 of assessed property value, up from the current rate of $3.09 per $1,000.
It took some work to get a quorum, but once that was done Aquinnah voters swiftly approved a series of articles at a special town meeting Tuesday night, including for new affordable housing sites and a delinquent property tax amnesty program.
When not enough people turned up, a small assembly of voters took out phone books and dialed people they knew to convince them to come out to the meeting. About 45 minutes later, applause broke out as the last voter needed entered the old town hall.
Citing concerns about allowing prisoners out on work release in a summer camp setting, the Edgartown conservation commission decided this week to end a work release program between the Dukes County jail and the Farm Institute in Katama.
“Because it’s open to the public and there’s a summer camp there, it’s probably not a good idea for the Farm Institute to have a work release program,” conservation agent Jane Varkonda said at a meeting of the commission on Wednesday.