Edgartown police arrested a Cambridge man on Sunday after he reportedly ignored signs prohibiting swimming at South Beach due to rough surf and ignored repeated verbal warnings from lifeguards and police to exit the water. John T. Waring, 37, was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.
Gov. Deval Patrick gave an official order Friday morning to close South Beach due to impending 15 to 20 foot swells created by Hurricane Bill, which moved up the Atlantic Ocean well east of the Vineyard late Saturday night.
Oak Bluffs town officials have entered negotiations with the East Chop Association to take ownership of the coastal bluff on scenic East Chop Drive, following a report which concluded the slope is in danger of imminent failure.
The takeover plan is still in the very early stages, but those on both sides of the negotiations believe transferring ownership of the East Chop bluff to the town is the only way to secure state and federal funding for repairs of the fragile coastal bank.
Oak Bluffs has turned to a nonprofit company specializing in housing rehabilitation projects to assist with a plan to convert the old town library at the corner of Pennacook and Circuit avenues into a mixed-used commercial building with a pharmacy on the first floor and affordable housing on the second floor.
The Oak Bluffs affordable housing committee, the applicant for the library project, has entered into talks with The Resource Inc. (TRI), a tax-exempt company based in Dennisport that helps towns secure funding and manage projects.
The weekend before Thanksgiving will be noticeably less festive on the Vineyard this year as school officials this week confirmed that the storied Island Cup football game with inter-Island rival Nantucket has been cancelled for the first time in almost 50 years.
Sandy Mincone, the new athletic director for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, told the Gazette this week that Nantucket pulled out of the long-standing tradition due to financial reasons.
The Oak Bluffs town administrator said this week that the town must lay off at least five full-time employees and make deep cuts to the elementary school budget by early fall in order to stem an operating budget deficit that is estimated at nearly $800,000 across two fiscal years.
The Obamas will miss what is generally considered the busiest week on the Vineyard, featuring Grand Illumination Night at the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, the Oak Bluffs fireworks and the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair in West Tisbury.
