After more than two years of debate and planning at the local and state level, time literally ran out last week on a proposal to impose a one per cent tax increase on the sale of more expensive homes on the Vineyard to pay for affordable housing.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives last week unanimously approved an environmental bond bill with a healthy allocation of $1.5 million for Oak Bluffs to help repair the retaining wall along Sea View avenue that partially collapsed in February.
The bill also includes $500,000 to build a new stand-alone public fishing pier adjacent to the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority pier.
The West Tisbury byways committee has recommended including the Dr. Fisher Road in an expanded Martha’s Vineyard Commission special ways protection zone, after hearing complaints from residents about an increasing number of dump trucks and trash haulers traveling on the road.
While some business owners predicted a bleak summer season on the Vineyard due to record high gasoline prices and a sagging national economy — an outlook made worse by the devastating Fourth of July fire in Vineyard Haven — the mid-term economic report card for the season has so far been a mixed bag.
In every sense, last Tuesday was a perfect day for baseball on the Vineyard.
The sun shone brightly over the new baseball diamond at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, as a tangle of wispy clouds stubbornly refused to give way fully to the brilliant blue behind. The smell of hot dogs and hamburgers hung thick in the air, while dust kicked up on the infield floated by on a slight ocean breeze.
Last Tuesday marked the first-ever Cape Cod League baseball league played on the Vineyard. By any measure, the game was a runaway success.
A plan to allow the developers of the upscale Field Club in Katama to pay $1.8 million to the Edgartown affordable housing committee instead of designating three lots on their property for the housing, as required by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, hit a snag this past week.
Although the plan has the backing of the town affordable housing committee, the commission at its regular meeting on Thursday decided the plan needed further discussion, voting 6-4 to schedule a public hearing on the matter.
