Remy Tumin
Nesting season has begun for piping plovers, and Tashmoo Beach in Tisbury will be closed for the next month to protect a plover nest found Monday on the road leading to the public beach.
The town of Tisbury closed the end of Herring Creek Road and the beach on the recommendation of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, which monitors shorebirds across the Vineyard. Shorebird monitor Liz Baldwin found the small nest and alerted the Massachusetts Audubon Society sanctuary on Monday.
The Martha’s Vineyard Airport is getting new runways. But the work you’ve seen going on out there all spring is only phase one.
“To you guys it’s probably just asphalt and drainage but to airport people it is something that will last a long time,” airport manager Sean Flynn said on a tour of the new construction this week.
The total cost of the project is $12.5 million, 95 per cent of which is funded by the federal government. The state and airport split the difference in the remaining five per cent.
Things will begin to return to normal in Menemsha next week when the town reopens the new West Dock, nearly 11 months after it was destroyed in the Menemsha Coast Guard boathouse fire last July 12.
Railings still need to be installed and the dock cleaned up before the public can use the pier, but Chilmark selectman Warren Doty said yesterday he expects the dock to open June 3. Electric and water lines still need to be installed after that and are expected to be done by June 15. Mr. Doty said commercial fishermen can begin using the dock on June 3.
Aquinnah police are readying a new beach safety program this summer that will involve placing numerical markers on beaches for use when calling for help in the event of an emergency.
Det. Ryan Ruley described the plan to the Aquinnah selectmen at their meeting last Thursday. He said police will line town beaches with numbered placards that will help emergency dispatchers identify a person’s location.
The police and fire departments, Tri-Town Ambulance and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) are all involved in the project.
The house at Tea Lane Farm in Chilmark needs $500,000 worth of repairs and renovations to prepare it for a future farming family, a special subcommittee told the Chilmark selectmen this week.
The committee of Frank Fenner, Leonard Jason and Dick Smith presented preliminary plans to the selectmen at a public hearing Tuesday night that show a much-altered interior layout but keep the existing exterior the same.
Unlawful dumping at the Edgartown fishermen’s depot led the Edgartown selectmen to approve new rules this week for the storage depot off Meshacket Road.
Selectmen will appoint someone to be in charge of the depot and will install some kind of security system around the area.