Trying to find a balance between encouraging small businesses and respecting homeowner rights, Oak Bluffs selectmen on Tuesday held a pair of public hearings on requests for home businesses in the middle of residential neighborhoods.
The separate hearings were for a home photography studio owned by Joseph Mikos of 48 Vineyard avenue and a commercial fishing operation owned by Luke Gurney of 26 Shawanue avenue, off Worcester avenue.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last Thursday voted to include Checamo and Stoney Hill Paths in a special protection district that among other things will prevent them from being clear-cut and widened in the future.
Commissioners voted 8-2 to include the two West Tisbury roads in the commission’s special ways district of critical planning concern.
A plan that has been in the works for three years to establish the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School as an emergency center during a terrorist attack or outbreak of infectious disease hit a snag this week when concerns surfaced among Oak Bluffs leaders about the suitability of the site.
Oak Bluffs selectmen reacted with outrage this week to a video posted on a national animal rights group Web site that suggests members of the town police department had allowed an illegal betting operation to take place during the annual Monster Shark tournament.
The old West Tisbury town hall — a tall, 1870 mansard-roofed building that stands proudly between the Grange Hall and the Congressional Church — is ready for her makeover.
Up until last week she was still the center of the community, but time has clearly taken its toll on the three-story, high-ceilinged building that formerly housed the West Tisbury school and Dukes County Academy. Paint chips along windowsills resemble piles of potato chips and the wooden floor has warped to the point where there is a noticeable tilt.
In another abrupt change of course, backers of the Bradley Square project announced on Thursday that they would attempt to find common ground through a new committee made up of people on both sides of the project.
“It has always been our mission to create housing that is affordable within the context of thoughtful community involvement,” said Richard Leonard, chairman of the Island Housing Trust, reading a prepared statement at the start of a packed public hearing before the zoning board of appeals at the Oak Bluffs senior center.
