News
While other Islanders are out trick-or-treating or putting finishing touches on their costumes, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School varsity football team will be spending Halloween on the field under the lights tonight when they play Cape Cod Tech at home in what is easily their most important game so far this season.
Apple Pie for Charity
Zephrus Zeafood and Grill has created a sweet new way for Vineyarders to think of each other and to donate to the Island Food Pantry. Along with its other standard desserts, Zephrus tempts its patrons by offering a new dessert called As American As Apple Pie.
Chef Robert Lionette said proceeds from the dessert will be sent to the pantry every two weeks. The dessert comes with ice cream and costs $12. Zephrus has already donated over $100 and anticipates enough pie eaters to support checks through out the winter season.
Amid the heap of state and national issues on Tuesday, Island voters will be asked one local question: whether to reduce the terms of the seven-member Dukes County commission. A yes vote on ballot question number four will reduce terms from four years to two. A no vote will leave commission members serving four-year staggered terms.
Oak Bluffs selectmen on Tuesday firmly said no to a proposal from the town assessors to establish a split tax rate giving year-round residents a break on their property tax bills and shifting more of the burden onto seasonal property owners.
Jack Law, chairman of the board of assessors, said creating a split tax rate would give the typical year-round property owner a $790 break on their tax bill based on an average assessed valuation of $606,000. Mr. Law said the board voted to recommend separate tax classifications at their regular meeting on Monday.
Correction
A story in the Oct. 17 edition of the Gazette about short-term borrowing for the West Tisbury town hall renovation project contained an inaccuracy. An attempt by town officials to sell short-term bond anticipation notes was postponed, but did not fail. The Gazette regrets the error.
After receiving a notice of noncompliance from the state last month confirming that treated effluent is seeping to the surface at Ocean Park, the Oak Bluffs wastewater commission has agreed to hire an environmental engineering firm to begin work on additional leaching beds at a new site adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant.