DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I’d like to thank all the Tisbury voters who attended two long nights of annual town meeting. Town meeting is the forum where major town issues can be debated and decided, and, as the saying goes, the world is run by those who show up. Shame on those who didn’t bother to participate.

In the past several weeks, comments in Island news papers have questioned the necessity of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission or whether Vineyard town zoning laws are now strong enough to protect the Vineyard.

In 1974, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission legislation was drafted by Vineyard residents and put into law by the state legislature to give an added layer of review and protection for the unique resources of the Vineyard.

O n April 14, the residents of Tisbury will be asked to vote on the sale of beer and wine in our town. The real question that most of us are wrestling with is: how will the sale of beer and wine served with meals at Vineyard Haven restaurants change our town? To answer this honestly and fairly, we must look beyond our town boundaries and try to understand the big picture.

How and why do people come to Tisbury?

Super Tuesday Notes

On Tuesday night voters will gather in four of the six Vineyard towns to conduct their annual town meetings. Town meetings are one of the oldest — and some say purest — forms of democracy. The origins of town meeting as an early spring affair date to a time when such meetings were scheduled around the agrarian life and calendar: this was a convenient time for farmers.

PAY NOW, PAY LATER

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Several people have asked questions about my recent essay and presentations about Tisbury’s unfunded liability for other post-employment benefits (OPEB).

My analysis focused on these benefits rather than on pensions because the town started to fund its pension benefits some years ago. That cost is a regular part of the town’s budget, as it should be.

Ship to Shore

From Gazette editions of April, 1909: