Government
The time-honored Vineyard tradition of jumping off the Big Bridge into Sengekontacket Pond has now been joined by a yearly concern about the safety of jumpers — not for their daring leaps into the water below, but for the time they spend sitting and standing on the bridge as traffic whizzes by.
Low railings that divide pedestrians, including bridge jumpers, from Beach Road are the worry, and Oak Bluffs and Edgartown are taking steps to address the problem that they say ultimately should be dealt with by the state.
Katherine Rogers, a New Hampshire attorney who was selected to serve as Dukes County manager by the county commissioners last week, will not accept the position. She informed the County of her decision on Thursday morning.
“She is unable to accept the position due to pressing medical problems that she must deal with first,” said Melinda Loberg, chair of the board of commissioners. “There is an unknown time frame for that, so it’s hard to predict when she might be available.”
Neighbors to a large house that is now nearly built on Nashaquitsa Pond in Chilmark have asked the town zoning board of appeals to enforce what they claim are zoning violations on the property.
The 8,200-square-foot house being built by Adam Zoia on the former Harrison property has been the subject of widespread discussion in Chilmark during the last year, including at the town planning board over whether more rules need to be developed to regulate very large houses in town.
Edgartown police and town officials are looking into whether sea planes are permitted on the Great Pond after neighborhood complaints of a Cessna Skyhawk landing there.
At the selectmen’s meeting Monday, town administrator Pamela Dolby said that over the last few weekends there have been reports of a sea plane landing in the Edgartown Great Pond, at Wilson’s Landing.
“It’s a great concern to people who live in the neighborhood,” Mrs. Dolby said.
After a turbulent decade in the housing market, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is reporting a second relatively flat year of revenue, perhaps indicating that the market is climbing onto steadier ground.
Land bank executive director James Lengyel said this week that revenues are expected to be down about seven per cent for fiscal year while transactions are up about three per cent.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Mr. Lengyel said, calling them “essentially flat.”
The fiscal year ends Saturday.
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate for the United State senate from Massachusetts, will make an appearance on the Vineyard at a fundraiser