Government
It’s that time of year when seasonal businesses are taking down the shutters and the summer workforce is beginning to arrive.
In recent years Eastern Europeans and Jamaicans have been filling a growing share of summer jobs. Foreign workers wait tables, greet guests, pour beers, make hotel beds, bake peanut brittle and fudge, serve lobster rolls and fry quesadillas. About 5,000 people come to the Island to work each year, according to a recent Martha’s Vineyard Commission report on housing needs.
The West Tisbury selectmen agreed to allow Alpha Taxi this week to double the size of its cab fleet, over the objection of the two other taxi companies in town.
Alpha Taxi owner Benoit Baldwin requested two more taxi permits for his company, bringing the total to four. In a letter to the board, Mr. Baldwin said he needed the additional permits for an anticipated increase in future service, including for specially-chartered events in the coming months.
Oak Bluffs voted in favor of catch-and-release shark tournaments, West Tisbury approved a new police station and Edgartown approved two spending projects during annual town elections last week.
Voter turnout was sparse, between nine and 13 per cent, and few races were contested.
Oak Bluffs voters approved a nonbinding referendum that would make shark tournaments in town catch and release only by a margin of 225 to 186.
The annual Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament, which offers prizes for the largest shark caught, is held at the Oak Bluffs harbor every summer.
The crowds that gather in Menemsha to watch the sunset will have the added company of a film crew come May.
At their meeting Tuesday, the Chilmark selectmen approved filming dates for the ABC Family reality TV show The Vineyard to film on the public beach. The filming will take place on May 11, 18, 23 and 30, and June 5 and 10 between 4 and 8 p.m. The beach will remain open to the public.
The storm-ravaged Squibnocket Beach parking lot will be repaved this spring while a newly-formed beach committee considers long-term solutions to address increasing erosion at the town beach and abutting development of Squibnocket Farm, the Chilmark selectmen said this week.
Its sweeping beam has guided mariners to safety and cast long flickers of shadow and light across the westernmost edge of the Vineyard for many decades.
But now the Gay Head Light is slated for a lantern change, and in the process the beam will change from sweeping to pulsing.
Lieut. Matthew Stuck of the U.S. Coast Guard aids to navigation branch said recently that the Coast Guard plans to replace the optic rotating light with a flashing LED light sometime in the next few months. The current optic, installed in 1989, is outdated and replacement parts are scarce, Mr. Stuck said.