Severe budget cutting has begun in cash-strapped Oak Bluffs as town leaders zero in on options for closing the gap on a $245,000 shortfall in the current fiscal year.
Tisbury town leaders are pushing ahead to find funding for the long-planned connector road between State Road and the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road. On Tuesday selectmen voted to apply for $4 million in state grant money to build the road. The town hopes to build in two phases. In the first, $2.5 million phase, a road would be built between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and Holmes Hole Road. A second, $1.5 million phase would connect that new road to High Point Lane.
Too expensive, not necessary, out of character for the Vineyard and unsafe for cyclists. These were the common refrains heard from critics of the proposed roundabout last week, but Oak Bluffs town officials remained bullish, citing safety above all else.
There are still a few weeks until the leaves begin to change color but this week, in the wake of tropical storm Irene many had already browned, died and made their way to the ground all around the Island. Along the trails at Wasque Reservation, what was a swaying panorama of pale green brush last Friday is now a cheerless vista of brownish-gray tinder. In town centers, trees are dropping crunchy leaves onto streets and cars, and the steady hum of leaf blowers can be heard.
While tropical storm Irene did little damage inland save a good salt blasting and natural pruning of trees, the storm drastically reshaped parts of the Island’s coastline when it blew through last Sunday. At Wasque Reservation on Chappaquiddick, 22 feet of south-facing beach fell into the ocean in a 24-hour period. And around the Island conservation officials reported significant losses of beachfront and dramatically altered shorelines. Beaches that were wide ribbons of sand just last week are now nothing but rocks and boulders, and vice versa.
After a month without a town administrator, Oak Bluffs selectmen voted Tuesday night to sign a contract with former Falmouth town manager Robert Whritenour, who will serve in an interim role. The position will last for 13 weeks or until the town finds a permanent replacement for Michael Dutton, who resigned in July.
On Tuesday selectman and board chairman Kathy Burton said she did not think the town had suffered as a result of its August stretch without an administrator and yesterday she said she welcomed the addition of Mr. Whritenour to town hall.
