A major wind turbine development near the Vineyard is at best a stopgap measure, and the real energy future lies in federal waters, state energy and environmental officials told Islanders this week.
“The state’s interest, long-term is not in state water,” Deerin Babb-Brott, one of the senior bureaucrats driving the state oceans plan, told local community leaders at a public meeting at the regional high school Wednesday night. The interest is in federal water, at the extreme limit of visibility, or completely over the horizon, he said.
After much debate about logistics, and delays caused by vaccine shortages, it appears likely that all Vineyard residents will be offered vaccination against both swine flu and regular flu, at a single big clinic, on Nov. 11.
A meeting of the Island’s various town health agents, school nurses, tribe and other public health officials late yesterday agreed on that date and the venue — the regional high school — with one proviso, that the state comes through with enough vaccine to allow it to proceed.
This time, it was another dog, a tiny papillon called Baby, which Biggie, the pit bull crossbreed, nearly killed. It was the fear of what might happen next time which led Tisbury selectmen on Tuesday night to take unprecedented action.
They don’t just want Biggie muzzled, and his owners to pay $3,600 in restitution for veterinary bills. They want the dog impounded and then removed, not just from the town but from the Vineyard.
Commercial deliveries of diesel fuel to fishermen working from the Lake street dock on Lake Tashmoo have been stopped, after operating for some 18 months, apparently illegally.
The action followed a report to town selectmen on Tuesday night by the Tashmoo management and harbor management committees, which not only deemed the operation an environmental hazard, but also took the selectmen to task for “selective and preferential enforcement” of regulations prohibiting commercial activity on the dock.
The Steamship Authority now believes upwards of $140,000 was embezzled by a bookkeeper over some eight years, and the boat line is investigating further back in the woman’s 20-year employment history.
Armine Sabatini, 45, of Mashpee was arraigned on Monday in Falmouth district court and pleaded not guilty to felony charges of larceny.
Police said they had identified 194 fraudulent transactions dating back to 2001, totaling $83,000. A further 176 suspect transactions still were under investigation.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last night imposed a moratorium on large-scale wind generation in waters within three miles of the Island.
By a vote of 12-1, the commission accepted a nomination made by two towns and supported by the other four, to have all the Vineyard’s offshore waters designated as a district of critical planning concern (DCPC).
But it deferred consideration a similar nomination which would cover wind generation on land, out of concern that it might interfere with wind projects already in the pipeline.
