Sam Bungey
Here on the Vineyard, the fun is over. This week saw the first light frost of the fall. Those who spent their summers in shacks are scuttling inside and sliding down the storm windows. Ocean bathers have become a scarce breed.
And while few have yet reached for the thermostat, there can be no doubt that looming on the horizon, alongside a diabolical financial crisis, is an army of monstrous energy bills.
By many measures the Oak Bluffs elementary school is having an excellent year.
There are 410 pupils at the school, which is up seven on last year, an anomaly on an Island where enrollment is steadily shrinking. Nearly 50 students are there by school choice, that is, children whose parents have elected to send them to the Oak Bluffs School from other towns.
Outerland, the Island’s only nightclub, is up for sale. Aboveground Records and Offshore Ale have cut back on their performances. The Oyster Bar’s entertainment license was revoked this summer. The Wintertide is gone. The old Atlantic Connection is now an amusement arcade.
Is it that hard to put on a little music?
Well, clearly Vineyard music promotion is a tough racket, but the pervading sentiment of those working in music on the Island is that it can be done.
David D. Willey, the Cape Air pilot who died in a plane crash in the woods of West Tisbury Friday night, was remembered by family, friends and colleagues yesterday as an expert pilot, an avid learner and a family man with a wry sense of humor. He was 61.
“He was a great pilot, an exemplary human being,” Cape Air founder, chief executive officer and fellow pilot Daniel Wolf said yesterday. “This was a special person and it’s a huge loss for the company. It’s a devastating thing for the family.”
Island educators began to analyze the good and less good news contained in the 2008 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores released Wednesday, while they voiced continued frustration at what they say are unrealistic provisions in the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the tests.
Some of the good news: all six Island schools met state targets for the school’s overall average percentage, known as the composite performance index, in both English and math.
With tick-borne diseases at epidemic levels on the Vineyard and the cause of growing concern as a public health threat here, the national Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched a controlled study of Lyme disease and tularemia in the Island Wampanoag population.
The study is phase one in a three-year environmental health program for the tribe, made possible by a $360,000 grant from the CDC, based in Atlanta, Ga.