Government
Improved cell phone service will becoming to West Tisbury after the town zoning board of appeals approved a special permit for a tower off New Lane, near Tisbury Great Pond.
The board approved a 66 foot monopine for Verizon at their monthly meeting last Thursday, board chairman Tucker Hubbell said. The monopine will have fiberglass branches and a pole painted brown to resemble a pine tree.
Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a Chilmark summer resident and former Obama administration official, announced Monday that he will run for governor in 2014.
The pediatrician, former Harvard professor and one-time temporary administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spoke on the Vineyard last summer at a forum on health care.
Martha’s Vineyard Head Start will lose two slots in its home-based preschool program because of the federal budget cuts known as sequestration.
Acting behind closed doors, the Tisbury selectmen voted without dissent Monday to fire a Tisbury police officer who is the subject of a criminal complaint and who has had a recent history of misconduct.
Kelly Kershaw, 30, was terminated following a nearly three-hour executive session that was attended by the three town selectmen, their town administrator, Ms. Kershaw and her attorney. Her attorney told the Gazette later in the week that Ms. Kershaw, who had been employed with the police department since 2004, will take action to dispute the decision.
The Dukes County pest management program will be discontinued beginning July 1 due to lack of funding. County manager Martina Thornton notified selectmen and town administrators of the decision in a letter sent last Friday.
The program would have been funded by just two towns, Chilmark and Aquinnah, for the fiscal 2014 year.
Edgartown selectmen Monday rejected a bid to buy the Warren House, a rundown town-owned former captain’s house on North Water street.
After a discussion in executive session with town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport, the selectmen said the bid by a group including Edgartown businesswoman Maggie White was too low. The board voted to put the house advertisement back in the central registry with a minimum bid of $2.3 million.