News
Willing volunteers, no experience necessary, are needed to help on Habitat of Martha’s Vineyard “build days” every Friday and Saturday at a home site at 250 State Road in West Tisbury. Help frame walls and begin interior partitions; the work day begins at 8:30 a.m. and runs until about 4 p.m.
On Monday a team of college students from across Massachusetts and around the world bicycled into Edgartown to engage the community to push for bold solutions to the climate crisis. The students will host the Awakening the Dreamer symposium, a workshop that will engage local community members in the fight for clean energy, on Saturday, July 11, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs Public Library.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, the Island’s sole provider of many essential human services, unveiled a budget this week for fiscal year 2010 calling for a $500,000 — or 10 per cent — reduction in spending. The budget calls for cuts in salaries, benefits and hours as well as the outright elimination of two programs.
The Oak Bluffs conservation commission this week received a waiver from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act that is expected to fast-track plans to dredge Sengekontacket Pond. The dredge project is intended to improve tidal circulation and reduce bacteria levels.
Bacteria counts recorded in 2007 by the Division of Marine Fisheries during an annual spot check showed high levels of coliform bacteria, automatically triggering a three-year closure for shellfishing from June though September. This is the third year for the closure.
Bumps were smoothed out in a sand renourishment project at Bend in the Road Beach in time for summer. Unfortunately this meant that part of it slid in to the ocean.
Complaints from a set of retired town leaders at a selectmen’s meeting in May argued that dune restoration had diminished the size of the beach and obscured the views from Beach Road, led to a site inspection with various town departments.
For Martina Mastromonaco, Chilmark beach superintendent, the horseshoe she found recently on a dune at the west end of Lucy Vincent Beach is no lucky charm.
On the contrary, she thinks the ancient-looking piece of metal is a bearer of bad tidings. The game of throwing horseshoes at the beach has not been popular for many years, she reasons, so the fact that the ocean has uncovered this artifact now is a stark illustration of how fast her beach is disappearing.