Revised Yellow House Plan Attracts Lone Bid
A sole applicant is in the running in Edgartown’s second search for someone to lease and renovate the Yellow House.
Sara Brown
In light of several renovation projects around the downtown area, the Oak Bluffs selectmen Monday reconsidered a longstanding town policy to prohibit downtown construction work from June 1 to Sept. 15.
At a special meeting, the selectmen adopted clarifying regulations to allow construction work inside buildings during the summer with several conditions, including no work on weekends and nights.
As efforts to revive the New England groundfishery grow increasingly contentious, the state attorney general Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging n
The data is clear: like the rest of the country, Martha’s Vineyard is bracing for a sharp increase in the population of older residents. The number of Vineyard residents 60 and older is growing at a faster rate then the rest of the state, and that demographic is expected to grow as the baby boomer generation gets older. Some estimates show that Island residents between 60 and 70 years of age will triple by 2020.
Oak Bluffs entered the summer season Tuesday with heated debate over issues from one end of Circuit avenue to the other. At the upper end of the avenue, unfinished construction on the Edgartown National Bank’s new building was a central point of contention. Later, selectmen grappled with whether to allow a stationary food truck on the lower end of the avenue.
Senior personnel changes are underway in Oak Bluffs, with the longtime town clerk retiring and a new acting fire chief in place.
Town clerk Deborah deBettencourt Ratcliff, who has worked for the office for 25 years and served as town clerk since 1997, announced her retirement this week. Her last day will be June 30.
The selectmen accepted her retirement with regret at their meeting Tuesday, and appointed assistant town clerk Laura Johnston as the acting town clerk.
A New Hampshire man charged with vehicular manslaughter after an accident on the Vineyard last July that killed his son and his son’s girlfriend pleaded guilty to a lesser charge last Friday in Edgartown district court.
In an emotional scene at the courthouse, Thomas C. Jones, 54, pleaded guilty to negligent operation of a motor vehicle in the July 4, 2012 accident that led to the deaths of his son, Seth Jones, and Heather Laflamme. Two counts of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation were dismissed. Judge Bernadette L.