Sam Bungey
In many ways they are polar opposites, as different as North and South, their lives divided by the Mason Dixon Line. One is the consummate mother, wife and gardener, her laundry done, hair parted straight, thoughts quiet and ordered. The other is a consummate hostess, house full of people, dog on the loose, hair flying, calendar cluttered, a poet who scribbles her lines at all hours with whatever writing implement is at hand. And despite all these differences — or perhaps because of them — Rose Styron and Lucy Hackney are also fast friends.
Is the Vineyard over-policed? The subject comes up frequently — in conversations at dinner parties and at annual town meeting time each year, when voters are asked to spend money on new cruisers and ever-expanding budgets for six town police departments.
The answer depends entirely on your point of view.
But here are the facts.
There are currently 109 full-time sworn officers in Dukes County, Martha’s Vineyard and the town of Gosnold.
Michael Lieberman has taken over ownership of the Mememsha deli on Basin Road at an interesting — not to say daunting — time.
With fuel prices spiking, the number of boats moored at the harbor town were down in the preseason months and food costs were up. Mr. Lieberman has found himself swallowing some of the costs since buying the place in February.
At an occasionally raucous Aquinnah special town meeting last Thursday, voters made at least two things clear: that there is support for town action on wind energy, and that they view a proposed energy bylaw as a rush job prepared without nearly enough community involvement.
The bylaw was postponed indefinitely at a meeting attended by 42 voters. But a second, more conceptual article supporting the ongoing investigation of community wind was resoundingly approved.
A painting of a well-known Menemsha-based trawler by Heather Neill has been given to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum by an anonymous donor. The eight by four-foot painting, titled Strider’s Surrender, evokes the decline the local fishing industry.
The Quitsa Strider II is owned by respected Island fishermen Jonathan Mayhew. In a move symbolic of the dire state of the local fishing industry, Mr. Mayhew sold his federal permits last year, giving up his license and putting up the vessel itself for sale.
Nearly four years after the landmark sovereignty case was decided by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has yet to secure a town building permit for the small shed and pier that were at the center of the dispute.
Aquinnah building inspector Jerry A. Weiner sent a letter to tribal chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais late last month formally notifying her that the tribe is in violation of town zoning laws and the state building code on three projects, including the shed and pier. The tribe has not responded to the letter.