In a town well known for spirited and lengthy town meetings, Oak Bluffs voters may have set a new benchmark this year, as intense scrutiny of town finances coupled with often emotional debate on a wide range of topics pushed the political season to 12 hours spread over four evenings.
Although Tuesday’s boys’ lacrosse game between the Vineyarders and the Whalers from Nantucket had all the makings of a classic barn burner between two inter-Island rivals, the game in the end provided plenty of smoke but little fire.
Two incumbent Oak Bluffs selectmen — Duncan Ross and Ron DiOrio — held off a strong showing by challenger Hans von Steiger yesterday in the annual town elections, as each won a second term on the five-member board.
All three candidate campaigned on a platform of fiscal reform and economic development, a theme which dominated both the special and annual meetings held earlier this week and to be continued in a third night meeting set for Monday at the Oak Bluffs school.
The annual town meeting in Oak Bluffs this week was at times testy and decidedly prolonged — so much so that two nights and seven hours of spirited debate were not nearly enough, forcing the meeting to spill into next week.
After a grueling second night that focused almost entirely on the town budget and finances, voters agreed to adjourn until Monday at 7 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs School.
A Vineyard Haven man will face trial later this month in Dukes County Superior Court for allegedly raping a woman at knifepoint in West Tisbury two years ago.
The Hon. Mary-Lou Rup, an associate justice of superior court, will preside over that case and a number of other criminal and civil cases during the five-week spring superior court session which opened this week in the Edgartown courthouse.
A Dukes County grand jury convened Monday to consider several criminal indictments and is expected to reconvene later in the session, scheduled to conclude May 2.
Representatives for the Vineyard Golf Club appeared before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission last Thursday for a public hearing on their proposal to build nine luxury houses for club members plus a new employee dormitory and bathroom on the course.
The members-only golf club needs permission from the commission, which approved plans for the golf course along the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road in 1999 with a condition that explicitly prohibited member housing. The only housing allowed by the commission was for club employees.
