The long investigation into the cause of the September 2008 plane crash which took the life of Cape Air pilot and Vineyard Haven resident David D. Willey is over, its findings summarized in two words: “spatial disorientation.”
There were long delays to flights on and off Martha’s Vineyard, emergency services across the Island were swamped with callers reporting fires, and a health warning was issued when a thick pall of smoke settled across Martha’s Vineard yesterday.
But there was little local authorities could do about it; the fires which disrupted the Memorial Day start of the summer season were not on the Island, but hundreds of miles away in Canada.
Martha’s Vineyard school authorities have confirmed the exclusion of four high school students for six months over alleged drug infractions, although the exact nature of the offenses remains vague and contentious.
The four were barred from the school for the remainder of this school year and the first three months of next year, as a result of an investigation which began in early April.
According to the superintendent of schools, Dr. James H. Weiss, who this week completed a review of the cases, they involved a small amount of marijuana.
The town of Tisbury is considering withdrawing from an arrangement with the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital under which it provides an ambulance for off-Island transports.
The reason is that the agreement, which originally was hoped to provide funds sufficient for the town to upgrade its ambulance service, is not paying for itself.
A letter has been drafted to the hospital, seeking talks on possible ways to amend the agreement, so the town will be able to continue operating without placing an extra tax burden on residents.
More than 40 years before BP’s catastrophic oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the barge Florida ran aground in Buzzards Bay one foggy night and dumped nearly 200,000 gallons of fuel. The effects of that accident still linger in the marsh mud around West Falmouth.
So while the news yesterday that the oil company thinks it may have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf is welcome, it by no means signifies the end of the matter.
After more than a decade of planning and almost three years of construction, the Steamship Authority’s new Oak Bluffs terminal was officially opened on Wednesday, just in time for the start of the boat line’s seasonal service.
The chairman of the Oak Bluffs selectmen, Duncan Ross, flanked by the SSA’s general manager, Wayne Lamson and Martha’s Vineyard’s representative on the SSA board of governors, Marc Hanover, cut a red ribbon strung across the front door of the new building.
