News
West Tisbury selectmen welcomed a new board member and settled into new roles this week.
Shortly after Richard Knabel was welcomed to his seat following victory over Glenn Hearn in the annual town election last week, Jeffrey S. (Skipper) Manter took the gavel as chairman. “It looks a little different from this side of the table,” Mr. Knabel said, thanking his supporters.
Voters will have three strong-minded candidates to pick from in Aquinnah in a race for selectman to be decided May 14 in the annual town elections.
First-term incumbent and current chairman Camille Rose will face off against John Walsh and Roxanne Ackerman for the three-year term.
Mr. Walsh is currently a member of the town finance committee. Ms. Ackerman is Aquinnah’s representative on the Up-Island Regional School committee.
With a green light from both the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and the Chilmark planning board, the Middle Line Road affordable housing project has moved two steps closer to breaking ground.
Middle Line, which has been in the works since 2004, will be the first town-sponsored affordable housing project in Chilmark, with six rental units and six resident homesites.
At its meeting last Thursday night the commission voted 8-2 to approve the project, which was under review as a development of regional impact (DRI).
Proposed fare raises from the new owner of the Chappaquiddick ferry have drawn complaints from dozens of residents.
Peter Wells has asked permission from selectmen to raise cash prices for round-trip journeys from $3 to $4 for foot passengers and from $10 to $12 for cars.
To date 35 letters against the proposed hikes have come into the Edgartown selectmen’s office from the sparsely populated island.
The 527-foot trip, which generally takes between one and two minutes, is the only way on and off the island for most residents.
Fares for both cars and passengers on Steamship Authority ferries will go up beginning May 1 as a result of soaring world energy prices.
Passenger fare increases on both the Vineyard and Nantucket routes were recommended by boat line management at the April governors’ meeting in New Bedford on Tuesday. The fare hikes are expected to raise an extra $1.5 million in revenue to offset fuel price increases.
But after a long discussion, boat line governors called for raising vehicle rates as well, to provide a further financial cushion of some $575,000.
Several years of effort to restore the dwindling Island bay scallop population finally paid off this year; scallop landings Islandwide increased 23