Sam Bungey
It strikes fear into the hearts of most business owners, but the recession does not scare Nancy MacMullen, the Island cobbler.
A look around her Oak Bluffs workshop will tell you why: always cluttered, it is overrun these days with queued shoes.
Ms. MacMullen, 56, is operating a two-week waiting list before she even gets a look at your footwear. Same goes for jackets, luggage sets, golf bags, deck chairs and die cups.
There was a lot wrong with the warrant for an Aquinnah special town meeting planned for Feb. 3, but a posting error was the official cause for a last-minute cancellation.
The decision, made at the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, further postpones votes on some $20,000 in town housekeeping measures outstanding since last fall, and action on a proposal from Ted Cammann and Jim Glavin of Chilmark to stage a seasonal performing arts program at the Aquinnah Cliffs.
An association of all six Vineyard finance committees this week called for every Island public employee to forego an annual cost of living increase amid the growing national economic crisis.
It is unclear how the request from the Martha’s Vineyard Finance Association will play out as each Island town wrestles with its budget.
The association put out a statement on Monday asking employees to band together to help avoid layoffs in the coming year
Hours after adding his vote to an $825 billion federal stimulus package, Massachusetts Cong. William D. Delahunt was on the Vineyard yesterday to provide an economic backdrop for the bill to a group of Vineyard town and regional leaders.
Though much of his message was bleak, Mr. Delahunt offered hope in the form of coaching for secure programs and project funding as a result of the stimulus package and the promise of an upward economic trend some way off in the future.
Chilmark’s most diehard scallopers will have a chance to increase the bushel limit in exchange for some community service.
Menemsha seafood retailer Karsten Larsen convinced selectmen at a meeting Tuesday to raise the small pond limits from two to three bushels a day, arguing that those ponds are oversubscribed with small scallops which would die in a freeze and potentially damage the pond bed.
Cape and Islands Rep. Timothy Madden and Sen. Robert O’Leary were on the Vineyard Wednesday night to brace town officials for massive cuts to local aid to cities and towns expected in the next fortnight.
At a meeting of the all-Island selectmen held in the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven, the legislators also put forward possible methods of wringing out remaining funds from the state and federal coffers.
Much of the news was not good.