Remy Tumin
A West Tisbury resident has filed a complaint with the town board of health over fine silica powder he says is blowing onto his property from neighbor Steven Rattner’s horse farm at the former Crow Hollow property.
Philip Spaulding, who lives next door to Mr. Rattner, told the selectmen on Wednesday the material covering the Rattners’ large horse ring has been blown over to his property for the last several weeks, covering his vehicles and property. Mr. Spaulding said he was concerned about a possible health hazard from the silica dust.
The Dukes County commissioners will consider five candidates, ranging in background from attorneys to management positions, for the position of county manager. Four candidates are from the Vineyard, one is from the mainland.
Only carry from place to place what can fit in your car, or if you’re lucky, a friend’s pickup truck. Pack your clothes in garbage bags and carefully stack them so they don’t tumble over on the drive. Leave the cabinets completely empty, tuck the plates and dishes in between your clothes, and lock the door behind you as though you were never there.
Delayed state approval for 2012 property assessments will force the town of Chilmark to operate on borrowed money for the early part of the fiscal year, the selectmen learned this week. Without certified assessments from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, the town cannot set a tax rate, and without a tax rate it cannot send out property tax bills for the second half of the year. Preliminary tax bills for the first half of the year went out in October.
West Tisbury is on the road to becoming a Green Community.
The town is in the final stages of creating a plan to reduce energy use by 20 per cent over the next five years, with the goal of becoming designated a Green Community under the 2008 state Green Communities Act. The designation allows towns to receive special grant funding for energy efficiency studies and improvements to town buildings, among other things.
The town of Tisbury is pursuing the same designation.
The Chilmark selectmen this week endorsed a formal appeal to the U.S. Coast Guard’s rejected insurance claims for the Menemsha boathouse fire.
At their meeting Tuesday, the selectmen unanimously voted to approve an appeal letter written by town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport that questions the outcome of the investigation into the cause of the July 2010 fire and challenges the Coast Guard’s dismissal of the claim due to the belief the fire started on town property.