News
Lillian Hellman Fund
The Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard announces the establishment of the Lillian Hellman Recreational Fund. Through a bequest from the estate of Lillian Hellman, this fund supports recreational, leisure and education activities for school age children on Martha’s Vineyard both after school and in the summer months, with preference given to programs serving children from Aquinnah.
Fallout from the Island Affordable Housing Fund’s recent shortfall in payments for the Island’s rental assistance program emerged at the Edgartown selectmen’s meeting Monday. The board approved a request from the Edgartown Housing Trust to transfer up to $10,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money to assist tenants and landlords in Edgartown who are part of the affordable housing program for rental conversion.
After just a single bid at a foreclosure auction yesterday inside the Colonial Inn in Edgartown, Jack McConnell and Tom McConnell won ownership of the hotel, condominium and retail complex overlooking the harbor on North Water street. Their bid was $2,050,000; there were no other bids.
The McConnells were part of a larger group that previously owned the complex. They acted as an entity called Martha’s Vineyard Colonial Inn LLC.
Twin effects of the recession — less funding and more needy Islanders — led Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to post a deficit of nearly a quarter of a million dollars this year, according to the annual report enclosed in today’s Gazette.
The deficit is half that which Community Services accrued the previous year. “This represents real progress but is still not sustainable over the long-term,” wrote the director of administration and finance Bernadette M. LaPorte.
The P.A. Club was packed with old friends and even a few old political foes on Friday night. Tricia Bergeron was there. So was Patricia A. Costa, who was Oak Bluffs town treasurer for 22 years, and Florence Ben David, who worked in the assessors’ office for the same number of years. Town counsel and native son Ron Rappaport showed up too, shaking hands and sharing smiles and never loosening his tie. Alan Schweikert, Priscilla Sylvia, Judy Williamson . . . the list went on.
The Vineyard Gazette office will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. The newspaper will publish on Friday as usual and the office will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day. Correspondents are reminded that early deadlines apply this week.