Amid mixed reports about whether the recession is easing its grip on the nation, the Vineyard economy remains in decline and has yet to hit bottom, merchants, tradesmen and bankers said this week.
Unemployment on the Island is still high — especially among contractors — while many businesses ended the calendar year with sluggish sales and little hope for a better spring or summer. In Edgartown alone at least 10 retail stores have closed their doors for good this winter, and some observers put the number closer to 20.
The Island Housing Trust is appealing to the town of West Tisbury to ease affordability requirements on the high-profile eight-house project nearing completion at 250 State Road.
The reason is a new challenge facing Island towns trying to ensure their affordable housing stays affordable in perpetuity: lenders.
Motorists driving along Beach Road between Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven will cross a new Lagoon Pond drawbridge starting next week.
Traffic will shift from the current single-span bridge built in 1935 to a new metal bridge that is now nearly six years and some $9 million in the making.
It may have been a Christmas miracle or just a lucky break, but Oak Bluffs resident Christopher Dacunto was reunited with his pet kitten Harabe over the holiday weekend under unlikely circumstances following a major car accident on the highway just outside Old Mystic, Conn.
Tuesday before Christmas, Mr. Dacunto was driving on I-95 to see his family in Hamden; in the car with him was 15-week-old Harabe, an exotic Serval-Bengal mix. He hit a snowbank and lost control of his Volvo, flipping it several times before coming to rest on the side of the road.
American Tower Company, the concern that wants to build a distributed antenna system (DAS) to improve cell phone coverage in the three up-Island towns, has submitted a letter to West Tisbury suggesting that its application does not need review by the town zoning board of appeals.
Dated Dec. 14 and written by American Tower attorney Alexander P. Gamota, the letter claims that approval is required by the town selectmen but not the zoning board of appeals.
Despite the snow and cold, the winter sports season is off to a hot start at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School with the boys’ basketball and hockey teams posting early big wins.
Meanwhile, the girls’ hockey team has been shaken by the sudden departure of longtime head coach Sam Sherman just two games into the season. Athletic director Sandy Mincone said Mr. Sherman turned in his resignation last Friday; the Vineyarders were 0-2 on the season after opening with losses to Whitman-Hanson last Saturday and Sandwich last Wednesday.
