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A new 29-foot gaff-rigged sloop is being built at Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway. The work began in January and the boatyard is working towards a June launch. “In these financial times, we feel fortunate to be building a boat. We only got word after Christmas,” said Ross Gannon of the boatyard. At Christmas time there was uncertainty about the future season. “We didn’t know what we would do,” he said. “When this job came through, it was a great relief.”
The tough economic times are forcing officials in cash-strapped Island towns to get innovative heading into the budget season. Town leaders are considering everything from four-day work weeks to replacing landscaping crews with grass-eating sheep — even to sharing resources with other towns, traditionally a hard sell on the Vineyard.
A proposal to build a summer performing arts stage near the Aquinnah Cliffs easily cleared its first hurdle at a special town meeting on Tuesday, despite strong resistance from some Wampanoag tribal representatives.
Two local men, Ted Cammann and Jim Glavin, are behind the move to use the natural amphitheatre within the circle near the Gay Head Light as a venue for concerts, theatrical and dance performances, children’s programs and other cultural events.
While its leaders scrape the town coffers for pennies, America’s wealthiest small town just got richer, according to a report from Chilmark’s assistant assessor.
The town’s total value, based on assessments, stands at $3.1 billion in 2009, up $186 million on last year says the report.
Chilmark was deemed the richest town in the country with a population of under 10,000 in an article that ran in Business Week magazine in December.
Selectmen made an exception for Dardanella and Sean Slavin, Chilmark’s first recipients of an affordable home site under the town’s new affordable housing bylaw, ruling Tuesday to allow the property to pass to an heir without income restrictions.
But in the ruling selectmen wrestled with — and left unanswered — a key philosophical question on affordable housing, namely whether property should stay in the family regardless of income.
Daylight Saving Time arrives at 2 a.m. Sunday. Remember to turn your clocks, and your computers, ahead one hour.