News
Two Island men with an interest in history and research spent Thanksgiving Day on a mission far from the dining room table this year. While friends and relatives were at home preparing turkey and pumpkin pie, Jay Segel and Ron Monterosso were in London meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to recount the story of a native American who traveled to England in the late 1700s to try and get his tribe's land back.
Responding to high demand, a grant-writing consultancy business is seeking to double a housing repairs assistance program to $2 million and open the program up to the Island.
The program was previously available to just Oak Bluffs and Tisbury home-owners, based on grants written by Bailey Boyd and Associates for the past five years. The program qualifies low or very low income households for forgivable loans up to $30,000 to fund home repair projects from roof, window and door replacement to energy saving changes.
The Dukes County Commission is looking for dedicated residents interested in filling a wide range of important volunteer positions.
Some 30 positions are up for reappointment effective March 1. Terms are being shifted to start on the first of March and end the last day of February to comply with the new requirement adopted by the county commissioners as recommended by the charter study commission.
Announcing Ian
Elizabeth and Sean Kelleher of Parker, Colo. are thrilled to announce the birth of their son Ian Christopher Kelleher on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008. Ian arrived two weeks early on New Year’s Eve, weighing 7 pounds, 14.6 ounces, measuring 20.25 inches, and according to his parents is perfect. Elizabeth is a former Vineyard Gazette circulation director; Sean is a former Edgartown police officer.
On Tuesday, Jan. 20, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States in an inaugural celebration in the nation’s capital, in front of the United States Capitol. The Vineyard Gazette went to the Island’s streets and shops Tuesday, a week before the national event, to ask Vineyarders what they would say to the new President, if they had a moment with him.
In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the poet Robert Burns, the Scottish Society of Martha’s Vineyard will hold its annual Burns Nicht Supper on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Harbor View Hotel. Burns was a prolific writer of poems and songs, as well as a bon vivant of some repute in his native Scotland. Although he lived only 37 years, the so-called Bard of Ayreshire penned or adapted over one thousand songs and wrote uncounted poems, among them the well-beloved A Red Red Rose, and To A Mouse.