In 2010, Tisbury is due to get a new ambulance. But there is nowhere to put it. Nor is there anywhere to put a new fire engine in 2012, when the old one will have completed 25 years of service.
One fire truck and a second ambulance already must be parked away from the main depots downtown. One current fire truck clears the station doorway by two inches when fully loaded.
When there is a major fire alarm, a horn blares at the station, not to summon firefighters but to tell those illegally parked out front to move their vehicles.
Concerns are growing that repairs to the seriously fire-damaged Bunch of Grapes Bookstore could be frustrated by the fact that the neighboring Café Moxie — where the fire began — still has not been fully demolished.
At last week’s meeting of the Tisbury selectmen, Jeff Kristal raised his concerns and those of the Bunch of Grapes building owner Ann Nelson that inactivity on the Moxie site could delay the planned spring reopening of the Bunch of Grapes.
The Steamship Authority is looking to a healthier bottom line without any fare increases in its draft 2009 budget, to be presented at today’s monthly meeting on Nantucket.
It was a close run thing. Just two weeks ago, boat line general manager Wayne Lamson faced the prospect of a large budget hole, thanks to high fuel prices.
“The way things were a couple of weeks ago, I was looking for $2 million and trying to figure what else we could cut to avoid a rate increase,” Mr. Lamson said.
The striped bass is fun to catch and good to eat. It’s also enigmatic, historically prone to wild fluctuations in numbers and to inexplicable disappearances from area waters. And with the annual Island fishing derby opening Sunday, the old question is being asked again: where are all the fish?
Cooper Gilkes 3rd, an Island fisherman for more than 50 years and the owner of Coop’s Bait and Tackle in Edgartown, is concerned, for catch numbers seem to be in sharp decline.
If you had to pick the worst example of marketing defeating morality, it would be hard to go past the bottled water industry.
People spend some $7 billion buying the product each year. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans consumed some 31.2 billion liters of it in 2006, mostly packaged in plastic.
One is a successful young musician, the other a struggling middle-aged fisherman who is also the West Tisbury shellfish constable. One is almost painfully reticent; the other could talk the leg off an iron kettle. But Willy Mason and Tom Osmers share a powerful sense of place and a commitment to preserving unique parts of Vineyard culture. From 4 to 6 p.m. each Friday, they co-host a live show on community radio WVVY (93.7 FM), with an eclectic blend of music and news about fishing, farming and the environment. Tune in some Friday with the two of them.
