Sam Bungey
The Vineyard Haven July 4 fire gutted Main street’s center of commerce in a few hours, destroying Cafe Moxie and decommissioning the Bunch of Grapes bookstore on the traditional start date of the summer retail rush.
And as the final weekend of the season begins, store owners in and around Main street Vineyard Haven are still assessing the fire’s impact on summer business and adapting for a winter without two anchor outlets.
The Edgartown town hall was closed Friday afternoon and through yesterday after carbon monoxide was detected in the building.
The town hall was promptly closed at 2 p.m. Friday after fire department chief Peter Shemeth discovered the noxious fumes. The building was ventilated over the weekend and remained closed yesterday to town employees, though no carbon monoxide showed up on tests Monday morning.
The leak of the poisonous, odorless gas was discovered on a fluke, town administrator Pamela Dolby said.
The Edgartown Yacht Club secured planning board permission last Tuesday to operate a junior sailing program for up to 50 students on a residential property next to the Chappaquiddick Beach Club.
Sam Hayes of Edgartown affectionately pinned back the ears of his giant American pit bull terrier, Wallace, as owner and canine took a breather from Sunday’s dog show.
It was the last day of the 147th Annual Livestock Show and Fair of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society. A total of 29,706 entrance tickets were sold, happily surprising organizers who were braced for recession-era frugality and low returns on a late summer start date.
In a move which acknowledges almost a year of bureaucratic missteps, Aquinnah selectmen have announced their plan to scrap an energy district of critical planning concern, created to help push through a pioneering bylaw on wind turbines.
But those involved have voiced a determination not to give up on an initiative praised as much for its concept as it was damned for its presentation during multiple appearances on the town meeting floor over the past year.
The Edgartown library has been provisionally awarded $4.59 million as part of an omnibus bond bill that authorizes a total of $137.5 million for public library construction across the state.
The grant would help pay for an expansion project for the library on North Water street with a price tag of $15 million.
The library began action on the project in 2004 when the town agreed to buy the Capt. Warren house next door to the library on North Water street.