Government
Tisbury will begin assessing $1,000 a day against the contractor for the town’s troubled new emergency services building.
The town selectmen voted without dissent on Tuesday to begin charging penalties against Seaver Construction of Woburn, the general contractor for the Spring street project which has been plagued by an array of problems and is well behind schedule.
The contract between the town and Seaver allowed for the penalties if the project was not completed by July 9.
Margaret Marshall is certainly no Pollyanna, but something about speaking with her kindles optimism.
The former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has a way of looking at things, a calm, reasoned, broad view that leads you gently to accept — at least for awhile — her conclusion that “little by little, things are getting better.”
She likes to take the long view: change for the better is possible if you just keep plugging away at it.
A proposed change in the guidelines for the state Community Development Block Grant program could spell a doubly whammy for the Vineyard, which has already lost out on $2 million in block grant money this year due to a clerical error.
The guideline change, which is still proposed and has not been adopted, would restrict communities who receive grant funding from applying for the program the following federal fiscal year.
With their town administrator’s resignation effective at the end of the month, Oak Bluffs selectmen met on Friday morning to discuss how to fill the gaping hole at the top of town government. The town is currently searching for an interim town administrator while it prepares its larger search for a permanent replacement for Michael Dutton.
Selectmen announced Mr. Dutton’s resignation last Friday after weeks of speculation in light of the town’s financial problems and revelations about violations to state public bidding laws.
The Steamship Authority will meet on the Island on Tuesday, July 19, at 9:30 a.m. to discuss, among other items, the proposed closure of the Martha’s Vineyard reservations office.
The meeting is at Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven. It is open to the public.
After a strong start, the Vineyard real estate market appears to have weakened dramatically in the latter part of the fiscal year just ended, according to data for the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank.
Land bank revenues, generated from a two per cent fee imposed on most real estate transactions and therefore a good indicator of the overall health of the property market, were a little over $7.7 million in fiscal year 2011, a modest increase on last year’s $7.4 million and well up on the $5.76 million of 2009.