Opinion
April Days
Rain, rain go away — the familiar children’s rhyme runs through the mind this month. April showers? More like deluge with nearly five inches of rain dumped on the Island by Wednesday this week in a record storm that washed out roads and sent highway and emergency workers scrambling. Suddenly winter coats have been replaced by slickers and tall rubber boots, the better for fording puddles the size of small lakes on downtown streets and in driveways.
Round and Round
From Gazette editions of April, 1986:
The Flying Horses, the famous and historic Oak Bluffs carousel which has delighted generations of children and adults on the Island, is for sale and an Island preservation group is working to save it for the Vineyard. The Martha’s Vineyard Historical Preservation Society is negotiating an option to buy the carousel from owner James Ryan of Osterville. The Flying Horses is the oldest working carousel in the nation and is a National Historic Register landmark.
TOWN MEETING TIME
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
I am of the firm belief that by virtue of the fact that you know about the existence of a situation you become responsible for its continuation.
The following reader comments were posted to the story about the death of Michael Ovios, a former longtime teacher in the Tisbury School.
My condolences to your family. I was honored to have Mr. Ovios as a teacher starting in 1975. I can honestly say he started me on my joy of building and being crafty. The school will truly be at a loss of a great mentor and craftsman.
Dana Gallop
West Tisbury
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When the West Tisbury Library opened in 1993, it was already too small. A frantic patchwork of low-cost space solutions over the years have never kept up with growing demand for library services. For well over a decade we have struggled with a severe shortage of space for patrons, materials, programs and staff. Today we have the Island’s largest collection and the highest circulation, but the smallest facility (except for Aquinnah).
The current Edgartown Library building was last expanded in 1975, when our population numbered about 1,500 people. Today our year-round population is a bit more than 4,000, straining the quality of library services for all its users — most of all, the children for whom a good public library can open whole worlds of new opportunities. In January, Edgartown submitted a grant application to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners for a new, 15,585-square-foot library that would replace the old Union School next to our new elementary school.