Northline Shell, a self-service gas station at the airport business park, opened this week.
Mark Alan Lovewell

New Shell Station Opens for Business

<p>After a 15-month hiatus, Island drivers can once again fuel up at the airport business park. The new station, called Northline Shell, is up and running.

After a 15-month hiatus, Island drivers can once again fuel up at the airport business park. The new station, called Northline Shell, is up and running at 3 Northline Road in Edgartown.

The station opened with little fanfare on Thursday, but news spread through social media and word of mouth about the new gas station.

On Saturday morning, patrons were pulling in to get fuel from one of the four new double-sided pumps dispensing gasoline and diesel fuel. All pumps are self-service.

Inside the station, coolers were stocked with drinks and shelves were stocked with snacks and candy.

“We’re open,” said new owner Louis Paciello, who also owns two other gas stations in Edgartown. “So far so good.”

Three high-powered vacuums are also installed and working, but the car wash is not open yet.

Mr. Paciello said many people are asking about the car wash.

“The car wash will come on line, we’re hoping, next week, but within two weeks,” he said.

The new station will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the winter and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the summer, Mr. Paciello said.

“There should be three or four people there working during the day, and during the slow times, we should have at least one or two,” Mr. Paciello said. “Business will dictate that.”

Construction on the new station, which replaces the former Airport Mobil, has been under way for the better part of the past year.

“It was long, but everybody was very helpful,” Mr. Paciello said.

In one snafu, the convenience store was built much larger than zoning allows, so part of the building now remains closed off.

The Martha’s Vineyard airport commission, which owns and leases the property to Mr. Paciello in the airport business park, remains embroiled in a lawsuit with the former owner of Airport Mobil.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/20/2018 - 12:52

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EV Driver Oak Bluffs

I just got my new EV Tesla. Any thoughts to opening a charging station? I see more and more electric cars on island. I can't gas it up but look forward to using the car wash.

Charge@Home Edgartown

As an EV owner myself, the best benefit is the ability to charge at home and never having to remember to "fill up". Very unlikely that you're driving more than 250 miles on the island per day, so why would you ever need a place to charge outside your house? That's also why the stations at Cronigs are never used, the use case makes very little sense.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/20/2018 - 23:09

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Rose West Tisbury

The old airport Mobil carwash was.not big enough/updated enough to handle some cars and most trucks without damaging them, specifically roof tacks and side mirrors. I hope that new one was built with thoes factors in Mind...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/23/2018 - 10:07

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Susanna J. Sturgis West Tisbury

Very glad to hear about the car wash, but if the gas prices are anything like the ones in Edgartown I'll continue to buy gas in West Tisbury. :-)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/31/2018 - 08:12

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Pam F VH/CT

Glad it is finally open. We miss the car wash, which was the draw to go to that location. Free with fill up was also a nice feature. I am enticed to go electric once my car kicks the bucket.

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