The Vineyard could see a sharp increase in the number of tour busses this summer, as three new companies are seeking permission from the six Vineyard towns to offer Islandwide tours for day trippers coming off the Steamship Authority and Island Queen boats in Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven.
Three different applicants recently made the rounds of selectmen: Ron Minkin of Martha’s Vineyard Transport LLC, Barry Lopes of Native Island Tours and Jason Correia of Castaway Coach.
A start-up company wants to connect an underwater fiber optic cable from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven that is intended to vastly improve Internet and mobile phone service to Island customers.
Pitched as a way to boost economic development through an increase in bandwidth, the plan by GPS Fiber Communications Inc. calls for placing approximately 26,600 yards of submarine fiber optic cable from Fairhaven to the Island via Woods Hole.
Two hours before sunrise on Saturday, the call went out to the Island’s volunteer firefighters of a Christiantown home engulfed in flames. Some 50 people responded, in bitter cold that caused their equipment, clothes and even beards to freeze, but they were unable to rescue the man inside, Daniel E. Prowten, 63, who had served on the West Tisbury fire department for 30 years.
Vineyard sports fans had their fill of home team action on Saturday, with all four varsity winter sports teams playing and a fifth game played by the junior varsity girls’ basketball team for good measure. But there was little joy on a blustery winter day; three of the varsity teams lost and one played to a tie.
The bright spot was the girls’ JV squad, which defeated Duxbury 40-24.
Boys’ Basketball
American Tower Company, the company that wants to build a distributed antenna system (DAS) to improve cell phone coverage in the three up-Island towns, must apply for 23 individual special permits, one for each antenna to be installed on utility poles around town.
This is the opinion of Mark Bobrowski, a Concord attorney who is special counsel to the town zoning board of appeals. In a Jan. 15 opinion Mr. Bobrowski said the permits are required by the town zoning bylaw.
A plan to build a two-story commercial building on a wetland at the edge of the Lagoon Pond in the Tisbury Marketplace is still in the early stages, but so far it has not found much favor from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
Sam Dunn, the developer of the marketplace some 20 years ago, wants to build a 7,050-square-foot building with three retail units, two offices, one apartment, and one marine-related unit on the grassy area that abuts Lagoon Pond.
