Government
A tall asphalt silo that has been a source of neighborhood controversy and pending litigation will be dismantled over the summer, according to the terms of an agreement signed off on during a hearing before the Oak Bluffs Zoning Board of Appeals on March 21.
The proposal was offered by White Brothers-Lynch Construction corporation, operators of the asphalt plant at the Goodale Construction Company sand and gravel pit in Oak Bluffs, and will reduce the size and profile of the silo in question.
The Dukes County Advisory Board on County Expenditures was presented with an uncommon windfall during Wednesday afternoon’s meeting, learning from a preliminary audit of the fiscal year 2012 budget that the county had an overall surplus of $572,726. That figure includes a net income of $300,000 for FY2012, as well as additional funds from FY2010 and FY2011 surpluses.
After hearing heated arguments from both sides of a shellfish licensing dispute, Tisbury selectmen at their Tuesday meeting voted to take no action regarding the question of revoking or suspending the license of commercial shellfisherman Tom Searle. The case concerned two incidents, one on Nov. 26, 2012 and one on Jan. 8, 2013, for which Mr. Searle received citations from Tisbury shellfish constable Danielle Ewart.
Plans for a town-run fuel facility at the Oak Bluffs harbor met with some resistance at a Martha’s Vineyard Commission hearing last week, with some abutters to the potential facility questioning why the town needed to be involved, and voicing concerns that the fuel dock will lower property values and cause safety concerns.
Oak Bluffs has plans for a fuel facility at the harbor master’s shack in the Oak Bluffs harbor, with the 10,000 gallon gas tank stored under the parking lot. Boats would be able to fuel up at a floating dock between May and October.
West Tisbury selectmen will continue to explore options regarding development of the town’s planned solar array at the landfill. Town counsel Ronald Rappaport appeared at Wednesday’s board of selectmen meeting to discuss the matter, reporting that the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) had amended the contract he and associate Fain Hackney negotiated in December of last year. The original project lender had withdrawn, and CVEC had found a new lender, Deutsche Bank.
A month after the conservation commission ordered the removal of a Chilmark house perched on an eroding bluff, the commission Wednesday heard plans for the home’s removal: the guest house is slated to come down immediately, with the main house dismantled in phases depending on the rate of erosion.
The 650-square-foot summer home on Stonewall Beach, owned by Natalie Conroy, stood eight feet from a cliff in late February. Ms. Conroy applied to move the house nine and a half feet back from the bluff, an application the commission denied because it would encroach on wetlands.