Julia Wells
Saturday night, an hour before sundown. The ferocious northeast wind from the day before has died, the only reminder a thick blanket of seaweed covering the rocky north shore. My friend and I are fishing. He has entered the derby; I have not. We trade off using two rods, one big, one small. The small rod has a sluggo, apparently the lure of choice for catching bass this year, the large one a popper.
Another lone fisherman stands in the rocks several hundred yards away. We can hear the quiet whine of his reel as he casts far out into the setting sun.
On Tuesday at noon it was quiet at the polls in Edgartown. The midmorning rush was over and the lunch rush (the town clerk wondered if there would be one) had yet to begin. Gray clouds scudded across a September sky. A small crowd of elderly tourists spilled out of a bus onto Church street. Eric T. Turkington ducked inside the Baylies Room at the Old Whaling Church. A lone voter arrived and headed for the empty booths, paper ballot in hand. He looked up and spotted the longtime Cape and Islands state representative.
She stood outside and watched, numb with disbelief.
And Ann Nelson — whose name is still synonymous with the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore even though she turned ownership of the store over to her son Jon three years ago (she stills owns the building) — wanted to go inside.
The Chappaquiddick ferry, a singular enterprise and sole transportation link for the residents of this tiny island situated off the extreme eastern end of Edgartown, is set to be sold to Peter Wells, a seasoned captain who is a familiar face at the helm of the three-car ferry.
The Edgartown selectmen will hold a public hearing on Tuesday afternoon to consider the transfer of the license and ground lease from ferry owner Roy Hayes to Mr. Wells. Mr. Hayes, who lives in Edgartown, has owned the ferry since 1988.
In a clear sign of a cooling real estate market here, revenues at the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank fell in 2007 for the second straight calendar year. The total number of real estate transactions also was down last year, for the third year in a row.
The land bank collected $10.9 million in revenues in 2007, compared with $11.6 million in 2006, a drop of seven per cent.
And the land bank recorded 1,403 real estate transactions in 2007, a drop of five per cent from the previous year, when 1,474 transactions were recorded.
The sudden resignation of Martha’s Vineyard Museum executive director Matthew Stackpole has shaken the 85-year-old county historical society as it plots a move from its home base in Edgartown to West Tisbury.