News
Introducing last night’s debate between the four candidates competing to take the state house seat being vacated after 20 years by Eric Turkington, host Judy Crawford noted the absence of a Republican candidate as a complicating factor.
The choice would have been much easier, said the president of the League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard, if the contest was simply between a Republican and a Democrat. But the presence of three independents made the whole thing far more complex.
A sophisticated phone fraud scheme which targeted large numbers of Vineyard residents last week, seeking access to their bank details, appears to have fooled very few people and netted little for the perpetrators, Island banks reported this week.
The phone calls, which began on Thursday night, purported to be from local banks, informing customers their bank cards had been suspended. The computer-generated voice on the line asked them to press one to be transferred to the security department, so the card could be re-activated.
The last day to register to vote in Massachusetts was Wednesday, and the deadline saw a flurry of activity in town halls across the Island.
“I’m working fast and furious,” reported Edgartown town clerk Wanda Williams yesterday morning. Ms. Williams said nearly 60 new voters registered in Edgartown on Wednesday. Because she is still entering figures, the town clerk was unable to report the new total number of registered voters in town at press time.
After years of soggy and sometimes smelly conditions at Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs that some residents and officials suspected were due to failing septic grids beneath the park, the Department of Environmental Protection recently confirmed the source of the problem and formally notified the town that it is in violation of state law.
In another example of the national economic crisis hitting home, West Tisbury finance officials have been advised to wait until the end of this month before attempting any short-term borrowing for the town hall renovation and expansion project.
An initial attempt at financing failed last month.
Construction has been halted on a planned $55 million renovation project at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, at least until the fall.
And while the scenic hotel overlooking the outer Edgartown harbor remains open for business, the owner and his Vineyard attorney said this week that the decision was prompted by a combination of delays in local permitting and problems with the Wall Street bank that was providing financing for the project.