Thomas J. Hegarty drives around the Vineyard in his Dukes County pickup truck as though he could drive right out to the edge of the world. He holds up the peace sign to nearly every car he passes, or at least calls out the window to say hello.
He’s a man about town, but the former carpenter, contractor and Lampost bartender with the trademark Ray-Ban sunglasses and sometimes coarse sense of humor, has another side too. Mr. Hegarty is celebrating his 10th year as the director of the county integrated pest management program.
Yes, celebrating.
An Edgartown bird has tested positive for West Nile virus in the first such case confirmed this year on the Vineyard.
A crow was discovered by a hotel restaurant worker and shipped to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by Edgartown health agent Matt Poole.
Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Poole said the worker spotted the crow corpse under a tree near the intersection of Main and Winter streets in downtown Edgartown. Mr. Poole said the discovery is confirmation of what is already assumed: that the virus exists on the Vineyard.
State public health officials have confirmed that a dead crow found in Tisbury last Tuesday has tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the first appearance of the potentially deadly disease on the Vineyard.