Marion Mudge typed her own name into Google on Wednesday. In a fraction of a second, the search engine came up with 370,000 references.
The self-effacing Tisbury town clerk has become a big name in the news. Media in Detroit, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Eugene, Oregon, not to mention some specialty publications including a wine magazine, from all over the country, have featured her.
For 10 years, Mark Luce, innkeeper at the Dockside Inn and Oak House, has employed the same seven-member Jamaican extended family to help run his business. But this year, they won’t be coming.
Darren Morris hires the drivers for the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority. Every year he hires 15 or 20 Bulgarian workers to drive buses. But this year, none.
Edgartown will appeal a decision handed down last week by the state Housing Appeals Committee, which removed town-imposed conditions on a contentious 11-home development in an environmentally-sensitive area off Watcha Path.
The Cozy Hearth project was proposed by a group of Vineyard residents who banded together to build housing for themselves using Chapter 40B — a state law that allows affordable housing projects to skirt most zoning regulations.
The plan was to build 11 single family homes on 10.9 acres, in an area zoned for three-acre parcels.
A recount of ballots in two closely contested votes, the tied result on beer and wine sales in Tisbury and the narrow win by Jeff Kristal in the selectman’s race, will take place next Friday.
Fares for both cars and passengers on Steamship Authority ferries will go up beginning May 1 as a result of soaring world energy prices.
Passenger fare increases on both the Vineyard and Nantucket routes were recommended by boat line management at the April governors’ meeting in New Bedford on Tuesday. The fare hikes are expected to raise an extra $1.5 million in revenue to offset fuel price increases.
But after a long discussion, boat line governors called for raising vehicle rates as well, to provide a further financial cushion of some $575,000.
In an extraordinary outcome, a Tisbury town referendum on whether town restaurants should be allowed to sell beer and wine with meals ended in a tie vote this week, 690 in favor and 690 against.
Following the annual town election Tuesday, which saw a record turnout, supporters of beer and wine sales have called for a recount of the votes, citing the possibility that improperly marked ballots wound up in the count.
The machine count recorded 21 blank ballots.
