MV Times May 15, 2026

Collaborations across the community B6

Artist Marthe Rowen captures landscapes with pen B8

Connie Alexander elected to Tisbury Select Board

SAILING INTO SUMMER

Voters also approved a $1 million override to fill a funding gap.

BY EUNKI SEONWOO

The Tisbury Select Board has a new member on its roster: Constance (“Connie”) Alexander, who won in a decisive victory during the annual town election.

Throughout Tuesday, Tisbury voters went to the town’s Emergency Services Facility on Spring Street to cast their ballots for 20 seats — although some positions had no candidates — as well as two ballot questions. During the annual town election, voters on the sidewalk waved campaign signs to support different candidates.

Among the four contested races, the select board caught the most interest from voters, as could be seen by yard signs that supported either Alexander or John Greg Martino, the other select board candidate, on Tisbury lawns. Alexander was elected to a three-year term on the select board in a 443–224 vote. She replaces former board member Christina Colarusso.

“I am extremely grateful for all the support I received from the very beginning to right this very minute,” Alexander said at the polls. “I promise to do everything I can to help this town move forward in the best and most efficient way possible.”

Alexander first came to Tisbury in 1979, and was a science teacher in the Tisbury School for 22 years. She has also held various town positions, such as former chair of the planning board and member of the sewer advisory board. Alexander is currently a board member of Tisbury Waterways, Inc., a nonprofit that advocates for cleaner waterways in the town, and has served with various other organizations, including the Big Brother Big Sister Advisory Council and the Tisbury School Advisory Council. Supporting town employees and opening up more efficient communication and collaboration across Tisbury’s departments are

Once-elegant hotel now symbol of struggle

ITeaching the trades

CTE programs at the high school awarded state funds and could see another boost through building project. BY

Island House residents tell of bleak conditions in seasonal workforce housing.

TBY SARAH SHAW DAWSON

Just as the needs of the Martha’s Vineyard com-

trades, culinary arts, early childhood development, and health assisting.

n the 1860s, ornate resort hotels were constructed in downtown Oak Bluffs to accommodate an influx of summer visitors. The Island was a budding attraction: Early sightseers promenaded in billowing gowns and sharp suits while attending religious camp meetings, and took in the beauty of the Island as a vacation hot spot. One of the first hotels built to house this new wave of tourism was called the Island House. Over 160 years later, the Island House still exists, but serves a totally different purpose.

wenty-three-year-old Jackson (“Jackie”) Pizzano spends most of his days up in a tree, a hundred feet above the ground, often secured to a Tabor Tree bucket truck as he uses a chainsaw to prune, remove dangerous branches from, and propagate the health of the Island’s woods. For the past couple of years, he’s worked as a licensed arborist on the Island, but his roots in the outdoor industry started when he was a student in the high school’s horticulture program.

Pizzano is one of many Island students who have returned to the Island to work in the local trades after higher education, and his attendance in one of the career technical education (CTE) programs introduced him to the industry. Horticulture is one of several of these programs offered at the high school, which also include automotive technology, building

About a quarter of high schools in the state offer these career programs, including Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS). And there’s a push both from the state and locally to support them further. Not only were the programs recently awarded funds from the state governor’s administration for expansion, but the school building project, which awaits an Island-wide vote early next month, includes plans to bolster what is already a career push for many students.

“I knew I hated being inside, and that’s why I chose horticulture,” Pizzano said. “I wasn’t going to work in an office.”

Pizzano is a prime example of the success of a learning cycle that’s beneficial to both the Island economy and the

SARAH SHAW DAWSON

Thursday, May 14, 2026

THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD TIMES

Summer is just around the corner, when sailboat regattas will be featured on Vineyard waters and boats line the harbors. The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) sailing team has cut through the blue waters of the Islands to take on opponents from across the region. Most recently on Tuesday, the team beat Nauset Regional High School 3-1 in Orleans. But you may be able to get a chance to see the Vineyard students sailing on a dazzlingly bright day in local seas, as is shown in our cover photo of when they beat Monomoy Regional High School 3-0 a week ago.

Jackie Pizzano visited the horticulture classroom on Saturday for the program's plant sale. SARAH SHAW DAWSON

news in brief

Five people sent to hospital after crash in Edgartown

Five people, including two minors, were hospitalized after a three-vehicle crash on Edgartown–West Tisbury Road Tuesday afternoon.

Edgartown Police responded to the crash at 4:26 pm. While investigations are ongoing, preliminary findings by Edgartown Police indicate a possible mechanical issue that caused a gray Volkswagen Passat to veer into oncoming traffic, resulting in a head-on collision. A gray GMC Terrain took the brunt of the damage in the collision, and a third car was then hit by the Passat, a Toyota Sienna that was exiting Old Purchase Road onto Edgartown–West Tisbury Road.

All five individuals were transported to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for evaluation and treatment. Their conditions were not immediately released.

Edgartown Police Sgt. Bill Bishop said in a statement that the driver who caused the accident will be cited and charged, pending the completion of investigations.

Edgartown–West Tisbury Road was closed or partially restricted from the time of the response until about 5 pm.

“The Edgartown Police Department would like to thank the Dukes County Communication Center, the Edgartown Fire Department, and ambulance crews from Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, and Tri-Town for their assistance,” Bishop said in a statement to The Times.

Shark-bitten seal washes up at Lucy Vincent

A six-foot dead seal washed up on Lucy Vincent Beach this week with a fatal wound from what experts believe was a great white shark.

Andrew Jacobs, laboratory manager and environmental technician for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources, received a call Sunday, May 10, about a stranded seal. Jacobs said he went out Monday, May 11, to perform a minor investigation on the dead animal, and found that “markings of the wound” were “consistent with shark predation.”

The department is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Greater Atlantic Region Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and responds to local calls of stranded, entangled, or injured marine mammals and sea turtles.

It does happen, Jacobs said, though a sharkbitten seal isn’t very common for the Island. He recalled one in 2020.

Jacobs said the wound was likely from a great white shark; the bite diameter on the wound was 12 to 14 inches, he estimated. The species is known to start to pass through Island waters off the south shore in late April and early May on their way to Cape Cod, where there are higher seal densities, as well as the Gulf of Maine and Canada. White sharks typically treat Island waters as a highway, and don’t set up there. The bulk of the population moves north in June and July.

“This doesn’t surprise me,” Dr. Greg Skomal, a senior biologist at the state Division of Ma-

rine Fisheries known as the modern-day Matt Hooper, the marine biologist in “Jaws,” said.

Skomal said that this was likely a white shark. Based on pictures shared by Jacobs, he didn’t, however, think this was a new bite — this didn’t happen in the past few days, because the wound was washed out and almost looked somewhat healed. There isn’t a lot of fresh blood, which tells him that this attack didn’t happen close to the beach.

The wound was definitely fatal, Skomal added, because the abdominal cavity was penetrated. He said that the seal could have been miles out to sea, been bitten, and then drifted toward the Island.

The seal is located about a quarter-mile east of the entrance of Lucy Vincent Beach in Chilmark, Jacobs said.

If you see a stranded, distressed, or dead marine mammal, contact a local stranding network partner, or call NOAA’s stranding hotline at 866-755-6622.

The end of another school year

The end of the school year is near, but before students can head into summer break, there are a couple of public events at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) this spring to celebrate student achievement and creativity.

The performing arts department’s Spring Concert is Tuesday, May 19, from 6 to 8 pm at the MVRHS Performing Arts Center (PAC). It features major groups from the department, such as chorus, vocal ensemble, orchestra, concert band, percussion ensemble, and the MV Big Band.

The next night, Wednesday, May 20, from 6 to 9 pm, is Evening of the Arts, which showcases work from students in the art, design, and technology department. Displayed in the Triangle Gallery at MVRHS, the work includes special showcases by seniors and advanced students, as well as a fashion show, story slam, and the Vineyard Conservation Society award ceremony. There’s music by performing arts department students, and a performance by students in the Navigator and Voyager program of the “Wizard of Oz” in the PAC.

Honors Night is the next day, from 6 to 8 pm in the PAC. All departments hand out awards for excellence, effort, and leadership. Students can also receive school- and districtwide awards.

Performing arts department students perform Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23, at 6 pm.

And on Friday, June 5, Class Night is at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs, from 6 to 9 pm. This is when seniors are awarded more than 400 scholarships.

The MVRHS 67th Commencement Exercises for the class of 2026 takes place on Sunday, June 7, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm, also at the Tabernacle. Seating opens at 12:30 pm.

Juli Vanderhoop resigns from Dukes County Commission

Julianne (“Juli”) Vanderhoop of Aquinnah resigned her seat on the Dukes County Commission, a press release from the commission announced Wednesday.

Vanderhoop, who is a member of the Wampanoag Tribe as well as on the Aquinnah Select Board, cited personal priorities as a reason for her resignation, according to the release. She told The Times that she made the decision because she needs the time to focus on her 95-year-old mother, Anne, and she wasn’t able to participate on the commission as fully as she wanted to. She said she would have stayed if she could, but “family comes first.” Vanderhoop is also the owner of Orange Peel Bakery.

“What a great group of commissioners I’ve worked with, and we’ve made progress in bringing visibility to what the commission responsibilities to the Island are, so people understand how many things the commissioners juggle,” Vanderhoop said.

Vanderhoop was first sworn in in January 2023 to the seven-member group that serves as the legislative body of the county government. She completed the two-year term, then was sworn in again in January 2025.

“It was a pleasure having you on the board and working with you over the years,” Martina Thornton, county manager, said in the release.

The commissioners need to fill the open seat through the rest of the term, which ends on Jan. 6, 2027. Anyone interested in applying should contact Thornton at manager@dukescounty.gov, and be available to meet with the commissioners at their next regular meeting on May 20. No more than two commissioners can be residents of the same Island town.

The Wave replaces Garde East

A family-run restaurant group from Nantucket is opening a new seasonal restaurant called the Wave Restaurant & Bar later this week.

Owner of the restaurant Milan Basnet said the new location is scheduled to open Friday, May 15, and will be taking over Garde East’s prime location on the water with a roof deck in Vineyard Haven, operating from 10 am to 10 pm.

“Every time I come to Martha’s Vineyard, I love it, and I always wanted to be connected

somehow,” said Basnet. “We were thinking of growing and expanding, and all of sudden, we found this opportunity, and we just fell in love with that place, and we were like, ‘This is it,’ and that’s how it came to life.”

Basnet, who’s been in the restaurant business since 2008, also operates two popular Nantucket restaurants, the Easy Street Restaurant and Island Blend. Basnet said the move to Martha’s Vineyard just felt like a natural expansion.

The kitchen will be led by Kieren Thornton, a 10-year veteran chef of Nantucket’s well-known Galley Beach Restaurant. The Wave plans to launch with a small, focused menu that will change seasonally and utilize local ingredients from small businesses around the Island. Signature dishes that Islanders can keep an eye out for include a lobster roll, which is already a favorite among Nantucket customers, and a housemade clam chowder, featuring fresh clams

PUBLISHER & EDITOR

NICHOLAS VUKOTA

A three-car crash on Edgartown—West Tisbury Road left five hospitalized.

ANDREW JACOBS Adult gray seal with markings consistent of shark predation found at Lucy Vincent.

UPS store breakdown shows cracks in system

At the local store of the United Parcel Service (UPS) in Vineyard Haven, cardboard boxes and plastic packages were stacked nearly to the ceiling of the already cramped building last Wednesday.

It’s the only UPS franchise location on the Island, and the three employees who work there said they were completely overrun and overworked.

Since the near-halt last week, operations have improved.

What started as technological issues grew into an insurmountable mess that caused delivery disruptions at the Vineyard Haven UPS store, employees said. It induced outrage from Islanders, and that all came to a head last week on social media.

The store was open Wednesday, May 6, but barely, and wasn’t taking in more packages. If locals had a mailbox and the key combination for the front door to the store, they were able to look for deliveries themselves. But day-to-day operations weren’t running as usual, employees said. Packages hadn’t all been sorted through, so many Islanders hadn’t received them. The result was a nearcomplete halt to a system that locals rely heavily on.

“The employees are doing the best they can, but the infrastructure of the world has changed, and the store isn’t built to handle that infrastructure anymore,” manager of the store Daniel told The Times as

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he walked through the small back room and maneuvered past towers of packages.

(Daniel asked that his last name not be used, for fear of retaliation.)

Islanders spoke out about the delays they experienced, which affected their businesses and deliveries of medication and other essential items. One community member posted a dozen signs on the front door of the store that stated in bold print: “It’s not the staff!!! Mike Boylan is to blame!!!”

Boylan is the owner of the store, and lives on Nantucket full-time. Employees said they had reached out to Boylan for help for months. After the store lost internet and couldn’t catch up on its logs, they reached their limit.

“None of us want to see this happening, and it’s not an easy fix,” Boylan said in a phone call with The Times last Wednesday. Since last week, day-to-day operations in Vineyard Haven are partly back to normal. The store has started to take drop-offs again, and packages once stacked behind the counter are sorted through, although the towers of boxes in the far back remain.

Meanwhile, the UPS Store, Inc., a corporate entity that franchises individual stores, is largely uninvolved.

A spokesperson for the corporate entity said that the Vineyard Haven store is independently owned and operated. “The UPS Store, Inc., is

and local ingredients. The seasonal eatery will be open until the end of September.

Basnet said the goal is to live up to Garde East’s strong reputation for quality, while also making the restaurant more accessible to locals.

“Everytime somebody mentioned Garde East, everyone had a lot of good things to say, they had a good reputation, and we will keep up that reputation,” said Basnet. “But I also found an opportunity. A couple of townspeople said they wished it was a little cheaper, so for me, my plan is to be an all-time, anytime place, the food will be topnotch … But it has to be for everyone.”

Basnet said he wanted to thank Tisbury officials and residents for their support throughout the approval process. The Wave Restaurant and Bar was approved for a liquor license by the Tisbury Select Board earlier this month.

“Everybody has been super-nice. I want to thank the whole town of Tisbury, the people who are working in the town, town select board, town administrator. I want to thank everybody because everybody, they were all so supportive and worked with me to get this going, and there wasn’t much of a challenge. It was a learning experience,” Basnet said.

Basnet said he will announce the soft launch soon to friends and family. They plan to give back to the community by offering discounted meals during the soft launch, and donating a portion of proceeds

not involved in matters related to franchise location staffing,” a spokesperson said. There are more than 5,500 UPS stores nationwide, including a large number of independently managed storefronts, what the spokesperson described as a “network.”

With minimal assistance, employees in Vineyard Haven were struggling to keep up with demand.

“We’re trying to pick up the pieces. We’re trying to clean up the store,” UPS employee Joseph Vanderhoop said last Wednesday. “As employees, all we really wanted was time … and for our boss to understand what we’re going through.”

Daniel, Vanderhoop, and another employee, Tyler, who also declined to provide his last name, said they’ve worked tirelessly to catch up, but the amount of work is “insane.”

“We had various things that broke down, and kept adding on more and more until it got to this point. It got so bad, we couldn’t even get to the bathroom at one point,” Daniel said. “It’s surreal.”

Boylan confirmed to The Times that the space was so inundated with packages that the way to the bathroom was blocked.

Last Wednesday, as Daniel and Tyler walked around the small area behind the counter and explained the situation, Vanderhoop navigated conversations with customers. One woman asked him, “Where do we go?”

Vanderhoop told each person, including that customer, the ins and outs of their situation, other places on Island to send out their packages, and possible solutions.

Susanna Herlitz-Ferguson, the owner of MV Salads and a longtime customer of the Martha’s Vineyard franchise location in Tisbury, said she watched these issues reach a crisis over the past few months.

“I just know that all of a sudden, there was a brand-new team, and they seemed a bit overwhelmed in the beginning. And I go there all the time because, through MV Salads, I ship my dressing to Amazon,” Herlitz-Ferguson said.

While in the store last Tuesday afternoon, HerlitzFerguson watched a contractor desperately search for his paychecks while the three young UPS employees assisted him, and saw a woman crying outside because she couldn’t get her medication.

“I’m sure there are way more stories like that,” Herlitz-Ferguson said.

Martha’s Vineyard Community Services chief clinical officer Abigail Foley told The Times that many Islanders rely on medication deliveries. “Timely delivery of prescription medication is essential to ensuring continuity of care,

news in brief

from the event to local organizations that are interested. Any business interested in participating can reach out to Basnet at milan@tamandco.ca or 617-800-3837.

Chilmark postpones decision on Menemsha Harbor upgrades

As the potential hefty costs for an upgraded high school weigh on members of the Chilmark Select Board, town officials decided to postpone their decision on upgrades to Menemsha Harbor, which include a revamp of the dock that was last reconstructed more than 30 years ago. During the select board meeting on May 5, after they heard recommendations from its commercial dock and replacement working group, the board decided to postpone further discussion on any harbor upgrades until its second meeting in June. Board members said they want to better understand the fiscal impact of the pending high school project before making any final decisions.

The Commercial Fishing Dock Working Group, composed of Ryan D. Rossi, who is Chilmark harbormaster, Peter Neilley, Thomas Ruimerman, and Matthew Mayhew, as well as select board member Jeffrey Maida, created four conceptual plans, which they presented last week, for repairs and upgrades to the Menemsha Harbor commercial fishing dock. The plans were developed with Childs Engineering, the Bellingham-based firm hired for the project.

The existing dock was last reconstructed in

client safety, and positive health outcomes,” she said.

The three staff members said they make between $25 and $30 an hour and work six days a week. They don’t get paid overtime, and said the amount of work on their plate requires it. Most of the packages that are backed up are Amazon returns, said Daniel and Tyler.

Tyler came back to work at the store this year after a hiatus of a few years. The last time he was employed there was the summer of 2020, just a few months into the COVID pandemic. He said the number of Amazon deliveries and returns recently has far exceeded the 2020 numbers, an observation that he added is totally shocking to him.

After the entire staff quit at the Vineyard Haven UPS store in 2025, the new group of three has worked solo, with very little background experience in the industry. Boylan said he was at the store for two months after the other employees left to bridge the gap, but then didn’t return to the Island until this week.

Tom Sawyer, former manager of the store, left the store last June. He said, about himself and other employees: “I guess the best way to put it is, we just decided it was time to move on.” He added that shipping

1987, and had approximately 10 to 15 years left in its lifespan if significant repairs and preventive maintenance were not completed, as of a March 2022 waterfront inspection report by Childs Engineering. Of the four options, the working group recommended the select board consider option one and option three.

Option one focuses on repairs to existing structures and extends the dock’s life by an estimated 10 to 20 years. It lacks, however, improvements to resiliency, like significantly addressing sea level rise. Because of this, the working group said that it was unlikely to attract major grant funding. It is estimated to cost around $1.5 million.

Option three is a more comprehensive approach that includes replacing the bulkhead and constructing a new dock at a higher elevation, to account for sea level rise. It is estimated to cost roughly $8.8 million.

Meanwhile, option two would repair the wharf and raise it to a higher elevation for better protection against rising sea levels. This was estimated to cost around $9.2 million. Option four would be a full upgrade of the existing dock, like in option two, but the addition of a new floating dock system, rather than a fixed timber wharf. It is estimated to cost $8.6 million.

Options one and three were presented by the working group as the most viable paths forward that aligned with the Chilmark Master Plan. The working group and select board both stressed adherence to the master plan, which

is a tough business — both stressful and high-volume. Sawyer was there for 18 years, and said that especially after the pandemic, when online shopping increased, the industry sped up quickly.

“The employees there … they were put in a really tough spot,” Sawyer said. He said the staff members he managed were experienced and had knowledge of the business, plus a solid routine. “That’s not to say everything we did was perfect, or we didn’t make mistakes,” he said. Coming into such a demanding job with minimal shipping experience makes it all the more difficult, said Sawyer.

Boylan said last Wednesday he had hired a new person to help and who would start last Thursday, and he hoped to make it to the Island on Monday to assist them with catching up. He said UPS knows about their situation and is “very supportive.”

The Times went to the store this past Monday, and Boylan was there but said he wasn’t allowed to talk to the press.

On Facebook, there’s been an uproar by the Island community about Boylan and what locals claim is a track record of his being absent from the store and neglecting his employees. Boylan told The Times last Wednesday that it’s been alarming to see the response online.

“What’s going on over there is totally out of everyone’s control, meaning me and the staff. It’s due to technology problems,” Boylan said. “I’m able to take all the criticism and nasty things people are saying about me. But the way [locals are] treating my staff over there is just unbelievably bad.”

Hayley Duffy contributed to this report

identifies maintaining the character of Menemsha while continuing functionality, as a primary focus.

Rossi mentioned that the Seaport Economic Council, a state government group that helps coastal communities develop to facilitate economic growth, showed interest in providing up to $3 million in grant funding if the town chooses to go with option three.

“It addressed sea level rise, but also their main goal, or their driving factor for wanting to help on this project, is because we are one of the only commercial fishing ports in the commonwealth that allows dockage for commercial fishing vessels free of cost,” added Rossi.

The select board ultimately decided to table the decision until after the high school project vote on June 2, which asks Islanders whether to move forward with the $333.5 million high school project, which would mean Chilmark residents pay a $21,310,800 share. The dock upgrades will be discussed again at the second select board meeting of June. The agenda is not yet posted on Chilmark’s town website.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to just take the issue to the voters until we know about some of these projects,” Rebecca Haag, the newest select board member, said toward the end of discussions last Tuesday.

Chilmark Town Administrator Tim Carroll highlighted that the school vote is right around the corner, and important to Islanders. “The school vote’s in June, so that’s going to be a big one,” said Carroll.

The local franchise was in serious flux, and employees said they asked for help for months. BY SARAH SHAW DAWSON

SARAH SHAW DAWSON

Packages nearly reached the ceiling last Wednesday.

EDITORIAL

Amid a rise in alpha-gal, hope springs eternal

Signs of summer are starting to appear across the Island. Crowds at the well-stocked Jardin Mahoney garden center in Oak Bluffs were stirring into action on Mother’s Day to fix up flower beds, add new plantings, and fertilize the lawn. Across the Island, the sound of hammers and tablesaws can be heard, as contractors and homeowners are out in full force repairing damage from a hard winter. Businesses that shuttered for the colder months are reopening for what promises to be a busy season.

But as the Island gets busier and warmer, there’s a lurking concern on the minds of many Vineyarders and those planning to visit: ticks. And sprouting up along with the concerns, there is also the hope that the Island’s new and concerted efforts at mitigating and reducing the tick population will be successful.

If you live on the Island, you know that the prevalence of ticks and the threat of tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme, are a major concern, not just here but across the country. But recently, the Island appears to have a uniquely high concentration of lone star ticks and the allergy that can be triggered by their bite. This is known as alpha-gal syndrome, a condition that makes sufferers allergic to mammalian products, such as red meat, pork, dairy, gelatin, and really anything that is derived from hoofed animals. The allergy and its dietary restrictions have grabbed people’s attention. It’s one of the reasons that a new nonprofit, Tick Free MV, was founded to head an Islandwide effort to reduce deer and tick populations in the name of public health, and local healthcare providers Martha’s Vineyard Medical and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital expanded their facilities for patients afflicted with tick-borne conditions.

LETTERS

Oak Bluffs Democratic Town Committee is back

To the Editor:

On May 7, the Oak Bluffs Democratic Town Committee had an organizational meeting to re-establish the DTC with a new, three-member executive committee and 14 inaugural members. The leadership includes Joseph C. Carter, chair; Susanna J. Sturgis, secretary; and Richard J. Toole, treasurer. Leon Brathwaite, vice chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, in his capacity as a state party official, attended the organizational meeting and ensured that the election of new members and officers was done in accordance with party procedures, and he was highly supportive in recruiting members.

Monica Burke Oak Bluffs

Katama Meadows threatens Edgartown

Great Pond

To the Editor:

This letter was also submitted to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

I attended most of the Katama Meadows hearing on Thursday night, and want to write to express my concerns about the project. I have great concern about the health of our great ponds, having experienced the degradation of Tisbury Great Pond over the course of my lifetime. To hear that this project could contribute to the increasing demise of Edgartown Great Pond is alarming to me. I think any decisions we make in this time of climate change, where warming waters are already harming the health of the ponds, should be conservative, cautious ones. To find out at a later date that this project indeed caused great harm to a great pond that is one of the Vineyard’s most valuable and unique

Part of Tick Free MV’s effort is addressing the Vineyard’s overpopulation of deer, one of the animals that the parasitic arachnids, especially the adults, latch onto to feed. A culling of the herd may be a key to solving the problem.

Earlier this year, the state expanded the hunting season, and declared alpha-gal a recognized condition that can now be officially reported to the Massachusetts Department of Health. This means Island health officials and the state can accurately chart the problem and eventually map out a strategy to solve it. Tick Free MV also commissioned a survey that took place in February and March that found the Vineyard has an average of 53 deer per square mile, which is far above the state standard, and that there are hot spots, particularly in parts of Aquinnah, Chilmark, and Chappaquiddick, that host much more.

Now we know for certain, although these numbers were always suspected, especially by Island hunters, how many of these hosts are available to ticks. But what to do next? Experts at a panel hosted by Tick Free MV about the survey late last month said eradication of deer, such as through hunting, isn’t a silver bullet for the Island’s tick problem. It would only help other tick mitigation efforts work more efficiently. And in terms of eradication, sterilization of the deer isn’t really an option for a place like the Island.

Based on the panel a few weeks ago, next steps are still in discussion. We support all of these efforts, and we’re invested in their success, because even our local paper isn’t immune to the tick problem.

Look, between last summer and this summer, although there are not fewer ticks, there are many more coordinated efforts — from the state, health officials, and the local community — to try to solve the problem.

Meanwhile, more likely than not, as summer approaches and more people come to the Island, a number of them will contract alpha-gal. So the Vineyard needs to be ready to communicate to visitors about the risks. That’s a new norm for us.

assets and resources would be tragic.

Maybe projects that have affordable housing aspects seem appealing to you or other decision- making boards, but to jeopardize one of our Island’s special places in order to provide a small percentage of affordable housing seems wrong. And to understand that these are just lots, not built units, ready to be moved into, makes them of even more questionable value. Secondly, we do not need any more market-rate housing. We are already inundated with summer visitors, as our traffic experience on any summer day illustrates.

Also, I wonder whether you have considered that terms such as 25-year storms are no longer accurate. Storms have become stronger, and 100-year events have become annual. I think any consideration of this application needs to be designed with this aspect of climate change in mind.

Finally, I believe we need to slow down on the development of this Island, period. The observations that Emily Reddington made about Edgartown Great Pond resonated with me, as I have seen them on Tisbury Great Pond. It frightens and saddens me for the future of our Island. We cannot keep building here and expect to preserve what we all love and cherish here.

Kate Warner West Tisbury

Incommensurable numbers, irrational result

To the Editor:

As I walked out the door on my way to town meeting, my wife asked if I really thought one vote counts. Ironically, as I exited the Aquinnah Town Meeting about 10 pm last night, I wondered the same thing.

That conversation felt closer after a panel discussion led by local epidemiologist Lea Hamner, who specializes in tick-borne diseases and allergies like alpha-gal, last week. Among the focal points, Hamner highlighted how some Island restaurants have made and can make alterations to their menu to accommodate those with alpha-gal. Alpha-gal isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s something we’re learning to live with and work around, but with that in mind, the Island should be more vocal that it’s here. The Vineyard community is making various efforts to help those already dealing with alpha-gal, including forming a support group and sharing information given by local officials, but an expanded outreach campaign will be important to prevent more people, from locals to visitors, from contracting it. And while there have been murmurrings from some people about a hesitation to come to the Island because of it, we’re still likely to see an inundation of summer tourists who are attracted by the Vineyard’s charm. As they arrive, we share an obligation to know about and educate others on alpha-gal syndrome, and instruct them on how to be vigilant and avoid tick bites. This knowledge campaign, combined with the efforts to reduce the deer and tick populations, should give all of us some hope that this is the summer that we start to turn the corner on this issue. Hope springs eternal, as they say.

If you or someone you know suffers from alphagal syndrome, a support group meets every third Thursday of the month from 5 to 6 pm at the TriTown Ambulance conference room, located at 399 Middle Road in Chilmark. No prior registration is required, and more information can be requested through Cheryl Kram, clinical services supervisor for the VNA of Cape Cod, at 508-957-7664. Virtual Tick Talks are held also through the Vineyard Haven library every Thursday from noon to 1 pm, and more information can be requested at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. Your town’s health department can also provide more information about ticks.

Regardless of the merits of Article 17, there were 76 votes cast, 50 in favor. A two-thirds majority was required for passage. The moderator, deaf to challenges from the assembled voters, declared the question passed. However, factually, the vote did not rise to that metric.

This is but grammar school arithmetic that challenged the moderator.

2/3 = 0.6667.

50/76 = 0.6579.

Close, but not close enough; the vote fails passage by 0.0088 votes. Does 0.0088 vote count? It seems we are in need of some adult supervision.

The question remains: Who adjudicates such questions, after the fact?

James A. Glavin Aquinnah

High school needs repairs

To the Editor:

I recently had the opportunity to take the high school tour in order to see firsthand what the challenges are for the building. There are many, it turns out.

The boiler is old, a relic from 1996 that manufacturers no longer have replacement parts for, and it is housed in a room that contains asbestos.

The ceiling in the Special Ed area is warped from leaks, and the room is inadequately sized to accommodate wheelchairs or aide equipment. The trades education area is unheated and peppered with ceiling leaks, and the classroom above the trade area is inaccessible to those who cannot take stairs. The preschool room is very undersize for the possible 15 children that are legally able to use it. I counted 14 used plastic bins, rather than cubbies or hooks for coats.

The lighting appeared dim throughout the hallways, and with the many

leaks, I wonder about electrical safety. I know this building is used to house several community programs such as adult education courses, and that the Councils on Aging sponsor luncheons in the cafeteria. Summer school student programming remains here as well.

I was impressed with the coursework-to-career programs that have been instituted despite the staff working with kids in these conditions. Children and the staff deserve safer and more inspiring surroundings in which to learn and instruct.

I encourage people to please go see for yourselves before you make your decisions on the renovation project vote. The cost is astronomical to most of us, but as we all know, the costs will only go up, and as one person said, trying to fix anything this far gone with a Band-Aid approach “is like putting lipstick on a pig.”

Cecily Bryant Vineyard Haven

Fare thee well, dear Martha! To the Editor:

By the time you read this, I’ll be long gone. But I thought it fitting to pay my respects one last time to the Island — and the people on it — who saved my life. You know who you are! I came here a broken man in 2012, and leave whole again in 2026. Next stop? Albuquerque, N.M., where I’ll be opening my own addiction and mental health treatment center. Absolutely none of this would be possible without having been afforded the luxury of living here for 14 years.

Ain’t life grand?

’Tis.

Dr. Brian L. Morris Edgartown

VINEYARD GALLERY

ESSAY

How the Fourth Amendment protects us

BY JACK FRUCHTMAN

A fundamental right of everyone on U.S. soil is embodied in the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. It reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Recalling these words is critical at a time when federal agents ignore it as they detain, arrest, and deport those they believe do not belong here. There are no warrants, no reasonable searches and seizures, no probable cause, no oath or affirmation before a judge or magistrate. No one will forget last May’s raid by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that led to the detention and arrest of some 40 Brazilian Islanders on the Vineyard and Nantucket.

There is a reason why the amendment appears in the document.

Many Americans in 1776 were angry at King George III, and his ministers who, they claimed, violated their rights as British subjects. We are all familiar with the issue of taxation without representation. But British authorities in colonial America also issued something called “writs of assistance,” which embodied general warrants. These warrants empowered officials with sweeping authority to conduct a search without cause, and without specifying who or what they were seeking. A judge’s signature was unnecessary.

In 1761, lawyer James Otis challenged these writs in Massachusetts superior court, but he lost his case. Five years later, however, the chief justice of a British court declared they violated English common law.

In Entick v. Carrington, he ruled that “every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass.” This case is so important that Justice Antonin Scalia cited it in six Fourth Amendment cases when he wrote for the Supreme Court majority.

Unfortunately, Entick had no impact on the use of general warrants in the American colonies. British authorities continued to widely use them here.

Today, despite the protections in the Fourth Amendment, agents from ICE and Customs and Border Protection blatantly ignore the Fourth Amendment and break into homes, businesses, and offices to arrest and deport whoever they believe

resides illegally in the U.S. They stop cars and trucks, smashing windows, not knowing exactly who is inside, to drag people out to make arrests, which often lead to severe beatings. At times, they arrest and have killed American citizens, such as Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year. The Guardian counted 32 people who died in ICE custody last year, and CBS News reports that at least 18 people have died in ICE detention in the first four months of this year.

A national organization called Defend and Recruit, established during the first Trump administration, developed a strategy to create a network of “Fourth Amendment Workplaces.” These are designed to help employers and workers understand their constitutional rights whenever ICE agents appear.

According to The MV Times, an Island group styled as MV 4A helps “defend immigrants and uphold the law by inviting businesses and organizations to become an MV 4A Workplace on Martha’s Vineyard.” Its members demand “signed judicial warrants” before federal agents enter a workplace in pursuit of undocumented immigrants.

The Times report noted that at this year’s annual Chilmark meeting last month, voters “overwhelmingly” approved the town “as a Fourth Amendment Workplace.” Also approved was an article “to protect citizens from being surveilled

through the deployment of license recognition using automated license plate readers.” The Times noted that Aquinnah adopted the designation earlier this year.

Throughout the Island, residents and visitors alike may see signs plastered on entryway doors to businesses, such as grocery stores, drugstores, and other establishments, requiring federal agents to abide by the rights specified in the Fourth Amendment. This too is a project of MV 4A.

We live in trying times, for sure. But as the American patriot Thomas Paine wrote in 1776 during another trying time in our history, “Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered.” We have no other choice but to work as a community of staunch believers in the Fourth Amendment.

As Paine put it, when we stand together, we will deserve “the love and thanks of man and woman,” and “yet we have this consolation that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” We all have work to do to protect our neighbors as the heavy-handed force of the federal government comes hammering down on us.

Jack Fruchtman, who lives in Aquinnah, has taught constitutional law and politics for more than 40 years. He has written two books on the Constitution and three books on Thomas Paine.

REBECCA NORRIS

Elaine Costa Carroll, 83, of Vineyard Haven, and McLean, Va., died on May 9, 2026, in Virginia. She was the mother of Michael T. Carroll and Elizabeth J. Carroll; the former wife of Michael Carroll of Vineyard Haven; and the longtime partner of Dan Hastings of McLean.

Her visitation will be held in the Chapman Funeral Home on Edgartown Road in Oak Bluffs on Thursday, May 21, from 5 to 7 pm. A funeral service will be held in the funeral

home on Friday, May 22, at 11 am, officiated by Fr. Joseph Pasala. Please arrive between 10 and 10:45 am. Burial will follow in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven. All are invited to the P.A. Club afterward; please bring a dish to share. A complete obituary will appear in another edition of this paper. Visit chapmanfuneral.com for online guestbook and information.

Roland Goulart

Roland Goulart of Edgartown passed away peacefully on April 10, 2026, after a battle

obituaries

with lung cancer. He was 85.

Roland was born on Martha’s Vineyard on Jan. 4, 1941, and, aside from some time serving in the Air Force, he spent the majority of his life rooted in the place he knew and loved.

Roland built a career at the Edgartown highway department, and also worked as a carpenter, bartender, and tour guide. He spent the last two decades of his life as a bus driver, which made him a familiar face for locals and visitors alike. He had a knack for storytelling, and was known for sharing a mix of historical facts, local legends, and the occasional tall tale about the Island. Whether entirely accurate or not, his stories were always delivered with confidence and humor.

In his free time he was often found playing cribbage with friends or spending an afternoon at the VFW or the P.A. Club, places where he enjoyed good company and familiar conversation.

He is remembered as someone who knew the island

inside and out, took pride in its history, and enjoyed passing along what he knew to anyone willing to listen.

He is survived by Jackie Goulart of Edgartown; his son, Kevin Goulart of Chelmsford; and his daughter, Stephanie Slali of San Diego, Calif.

A graveside service will be held on Saturday, June 13, at 1 pm at the old Edgartown graveyard

Geraldine Jackson

Geraldine Jackson, 93, of Edgartown, passed away quietly, leaving behind a legacy of love, laughter, and deep devotion to the people she cherished.

Geri was predeceased by her husband, George (“Sonny”) Jackson; and her daughter, Cathy Merrill. She is survived by her son, Glenn Jackson; her brother, Dennis Gibson and his wife Helen; her grandchildren, Jennifer Kennedy and her husband Mark, Laura Ruggiero and her husband Joe, Jason Merrill and his wife Katie, and Josh Merrill and his

wife Melissa; as well as by nine great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.

She also leaves her dear friend, Patricia Dean, whose companionship meant so much to her throughout the years.

Geri loved her family and friends fiercely. She had a quiet wit, sharp, surprising, and always delivered with a twinkle in her eye. She delighted in being social, opening her home, and entertaining those she loved. Her warmth made every gathering feel special, and her presence brought comfort and joy to all who knew her.

She will be remembered for her generous spirit, her humor, and the deep affection she carried for her family and friends. Her memory will continue to live on in the stories shared, the traditions upheld, and the love she poured into every life she touched.

A private burial was held in the New Westside Cemetery, where she was laid to rest beside her husband.

Katherine Mary Palches Yolton

Katherine Mary Palches Yolton, 96, passed away peacefully at Navigator Homes in Edgartown on May 9. Katherine had been a resident at Windemere since 2011, and moved to Navigator, along with most of her peers, when Navigator opened in February of this year.

A memorial service for Katherine — Katie, to all who knew her — will be held at the Unitarian Church in Vineyard Haven at 11 am on Saturday, May 30.

Nancy S. Merjos

Nancy S. Merjos, a longtime resident of Oak Bluffs, died peacefully in her home in the Campgrounds at the age of 94. She is survived by her two sons, Timothy Merjos and Stavros Merjos. There are no services planned at this time.

Elaine Costa Carroll

Aquinnah Cliffs property transfer initiated

After contentious debate, Aquinnah took a step to transfer ownership of properties near the Cliffs from the town to someone who would create a space for cultural and educational uses. Aquinnah voters crowded inside the town hall Tuesday to review and approve 31 articles for this year’s annual town meeting.

Though there was some heated discussion on the contents of the warrant, especially around ownership and use of town-owned property at Aquinnah Circle North, all of the articles passed in the end. Voters head to the polls on Thursday, between noon and 8 pm, to cast their votes on several uncontested races, as well as three requests by the town to use real estate and property taxes to support school budgets and pay for bonds to repair town facilities. There were 87 residents checked in to vote, which surpassed the necessary quorum, though some articles had vote counts that were higher.

The session started at 6:30 pm with a moment of silence for Islanders lost in the last year, and included recogni-

BY HAYLEY DUFFY

tion of Roxane Ackerman, who was town constable and a representative on the Up-Island Regional School Committee for the town, and Gabriella Camilleri, who was Aquinnah town clerk. There was also an acknowledgement of several retirements — highway supervisor Jay Smalley from the department of public works, harbormaster and shellfish warden Chip Vanderhoop, and finance committee chair Allen Rugg. Chief of Police for Aquinnah Randhi Belain acknowledged the retirement of Sgt. Paul Manning, who served the police department for 24 years.

The warrant article that brought most debate was introduced by NaDaizja Bolling, director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center, and concerned two parcels at Aquinnah Circle North.

The article requested that voters approve the select board to start a process to transfer ownership of that space, excepting the lighthouse, to someone that could create a space for cultural and educational uses near the Cliffs.

An amendment by Bolling

to the language in the article that was mostly clerical eventually passed, but only after several people said they wanted to make amendments, and a request to table the whole discussion failed. The parcels, which don’t have a well or septic, were purchased by the town to be used as open space more than a decade ago, but there’s been no progress on that front.

Jamie O’Brien, alternate for the finance committee, said that the properties hold an assessed value of $3.7 million, and that they are taxpayerowned and town-owned properties. “We are obviously not flush with cash here in this town, and I think we can little afford to gift away these properties,” he said. He asked that the properties not be limited to cultural and educational uses, as stated in the then-proposed article, but be considered for commercial purposes. O’Brien’s proposed amendment wasn’t heard.

Kristina Hook, an Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe elder, made a plea to the crowd: “Please, let us go ahead and make it cultural … There are still those of us who have

ConnieAlexanderelectedtoTisburySelectBoard

major goals for Alexander.

“We are very siloed right now,” she said, referencing town offices located on both Spring Street and High Point Lane. “We’ve lost three key, major, management players in town in the past year and a half, and we are feeling that pinch. But we have great people in place, people who work really hard, and we need to support them the best we can, and we are getting there.”

While unsuccessful this election, Martino may not have to wait too long to run again for the select board. During the second night of the annual town meeting in April, Tisbury voters approved a measure to expand the select board from three to five members. While it passed at town meeting, it still needs to be approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor. It will be finalized if Tisbury voters again approve the proposed board expansion in a special ballot. The additional two members won’t be expected to join the select board until after May 2027. Alexander said she was in favor of the expansion. She highlighted that the current quorum of three select

board members limits communication among board members unless they are in a publicly scheduled meeting.

The Tisbury Select Board, meanwhile, was functionally a two-member board as of September, when former board member Colarusso began missing meetings for undisclosed reasons. Colarusso resigned from the board in January. Alexander said a bigger select board means the members can “split up

generationally been here, some of us have been here and gone away and come back. We always come back. Because I am Aquinnah. My circle is complete on this ground. It's one of the few places to go up to the head of the Cliffs and feel that energy. It's one of the few places that can be returned to give our people an opportunity to share with everybody what we know about Gay Head.”

Bolling clarified that the article requests that a process to transfer ownership be enabled, and that the Aquinnah Cultural Center would love to put forward a proposal for the space, but approval of the article didn’t ask for or guaran-

the state have seen an increase between eight and 10 percent this year. Aquinnah’s budget, however, only increased 3.7 percent, the lowest of all the Island towns, he said.

“For the average Aquinnah resident in an average home — the average value of a home is $1.55 million — it means $397 a year,” Goldstein said. He added that 95 percent of the budget is nondiscretionary expenses, ones the town can’t really change.

Several expenditure requests were passed quickly, such as funds to improve town buildings; replace technology at the police station and other town offices; pay a grant writer; and complete

designation aims to protect employees from unlawful searches, and requires federal agents to have warrants to enter businesses in town.

Voters passed a “borrowing article” for $300,000 for repairs to the trim and windows at the fire station and town offices. The vote Tuesday authorized the select board to borrow that much money, but is contingent upon a debt exclusion vote, which is one of the questions on the ballot Thursday. If that question passes a majority vote, the select board can borrow the money. The consequence is that taxes would increase to pay the loan for the life of the bond.

and conquer” by attending more meetings, and be better informed and allow “a much more efficient way to do business.”

“Personally, I think we are no longer a sleepy town,” she said. “We are a very busy town with a lot of initiatives we need to continue moving forward.”

In the other contested races, incumbent Hillary Conklin kept her seat as town clerk over challenger Joanna Jernegan in a 506–119 vote.

tee them as the new owners. The article passed the required two-thirds vote, 50 to 24.

The town’s budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, passed at $7.67 million. Howard Goldstein, the new chair of the finance committee, said that budgets across

For the Tisbury board of health, Betsy Carnie received 404 votes, beating out Emma Kaitlin Kristal, who received 208 votes. For the sole contested finance and advisory committee seat, Bruce Campbell beat Richard Wayne Homans Jr. in a 308–228 vote.

The results of the remaining uncontested seats were John F. Schilling for town moderator (608 votes); Kenneth A. Barwick for town constable (562 votes); James Bartholomew Norton for the board of assessors (522 votes); Jennifer Marie Cutrer for the Tisbury School committee (521 votes); David J. Schwab to a three-year term on the water commission (566 votes); Patrick Rolston to a two-year term on the water commission (524 votes); Mary Bernadette Budinger-Cormie for the planning board (476 votes); Robert Peyton Gilpin (473 votes) and Jean B. Lewellyn (497 votes) to three-year terms on the library board of trustees; Norah Anne Van Riper to a two-year term on the library board of trustees (507); Ruth Konigsberg (468 votes) and John Alexander Meleney (465 votes) to three-year terms on the finance and advisory committee; Thomas George Goulet to a one-year term on the finance and advisory

the playground and make repairs to the basketball court behind the fire station.

Voters also passed the article to establish a bylaw that designates the town of Aquinnah as a “Fourth Amendment Workplace Community,” which recently passed in Chilmark. The

committee (467 votes); and Nancy Weaver for the town’s representative on the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission (532 votes). Meanwhile, joining a trend across the Island, Tisbury voters approved two ballot questions for Proposition 2½ overrides that would allow the town to raise more in property taxes than the state limit. Voters approved

The same is true for the question on the ballot about the town parking lot.

Funds to repair the restrooms at the Aquinnah Cliffs also passed, though some members of the audience said that $125,000 was too low a number.

Voters also approved the select board establishing a property tax exemption that would ease the burden on permanent residents. An actual percentage for the tax exemption can now be determined by the select board at a later date.

The rest of the articles, such as $46,300 for a rapid foodwaste recycler, authorization of the select board to increase the lease area on the Carl Widdis Way property for development of more units, and a ban on timeshares, passed in the last 30 minutes of the 3½-hour-long session.

the town to proceed with a $1 million override to fill the gap in the school and town funding in a 372–288 vote. The other question, a request to allow Tisbury to borrow $3 million to expand the town’s sewer collection system in the State Road sewer district, was approved 490–157.

Nicholas Vukota contributed to this report.

NICHOLAS VUKOTA

HAYLEY DUFFY

Aquinnah residents gather at the town hall for annual town meeting.

Connie Alexander

Once-eleganthotelnowsymbolofstruggle

Continued from A1

munity have changed, so has the building itself, which now serves as workforce housing for surging summer crowds.

Since 2012, the Island House has operated as housing for international students who travel to work here for the summer season.

Located at 11 Circuit Ave., the building is a far cry from the towering, decorated structure that once housed 19th century vacationers.

Last summer, an estimated 80 to 100 international workers slept on bunk beds in the 18 small rooms from May through August, the busiest months of the year. And their presence, according to the many businesses that employ them, is essential for the local summer economy to function.

The Island House is just one example of the many ways Vineyarders are responding to a crisis in housing and affordability, one that is raising new questions about the sustainability of the Island for those who live here. But the tenants who lived at the property last summer were alarmed by the conditions. The owners said they’re doing everything possible to provide clean and safe housing for workers during an Islandwide shortage.

Crowded living in busy summer months is something that Islanders have become accustomed to over the past few decades. The situation has degraded to a point of real concern for employees, business owners, and local and state officials in recent years, and prompted the state delegation to sound an alarm.

“As our housing crisis has worsened, the reality is that we are dependent, more and more, on a seasonal workforce,” State Sen. Julian Cyr told The Times. “Unless you have extreme wealth, housing is decreasing at the margins for everyone, including people who are an essential part of our community and our workforce.”

For much of the season, the tenants, typically ages 19 to 28, at the Island House didn’t have access to hot water for showers.

Tenants were kept awake until the early hours of the morning by the loud music from the bars on Circuit Avenue. They didn’t have a kitchen, so they said they had to rely on staff meals from their restaurant jobs. Eventually, they said, they became disillusioned with their accommodations, and for some, the Island as a whole.

These tenants are often referred to by the visa categorization they travel under, the J-1 visa summer worktravel program.

The Island House stands as a symbol of the experience of these foreign laborers and how they integrate into

the summer economy. Over the past 11 months, The Times conducted a series of interviews with the J-1 tenants and the landlords of the Island House, the previous owner of the building, board of health and building officials who monitor complaints, Cape Cod town officials, visa sponsorship agencies, and local business owners, as well as looked through historic books and records and analyzed decades of reports on the property.

This is what we found

• A history of harsh complaints about the Island House spans decades.

“Every time you put up a screen, when the kids come, they burst it open to smoke,” Ralston Francis said.

He added that the lack of hot water was from the students leaving water running for long periods of time. The couple fixed multiple instances of flooding throughout the summer, which also caused damage to their restaurant, Eleven Circuit, which is on the first level of the building.

The high rent is one way the Francis couple said they mitigate the cost burden on themselves. And they have worked with the town to ensure the property is safe for

• There are no avenues that the J-1 students were aware of for non-policerelated complaints.

• Many workplace housing owners see themselves as cogs in a larger machine of low affordable availability for workers. But the machine has a lack of resources, and accommodation has barely improved.

Island House stands as a symbol of a complex problem

As far back as 2003, Island House was falling into significant disrepair, according to records and interviews, and for nearly two decades, it continued to be operated with neglect to the structure and indifference to the running complaints of its tenants.

In 2023, the building was sold to Mavis and Ralston Francis, who are the current owners. Ralston, who himself came to the Island as a J-1 visa holder from Jamaica, brought a different spirit to the management. But as the couple quickly learned, changing the reality of affordable housing is another matter altogether.

to house a large group of residents. That said, officials at the Oak Bluffs board of health said only two tenants are allowed to live in most of the rooms, which is fewer than the number of students who actually lived there in 2025.

Zoning on Martha’s Vineyard allows for mainly single-family homes and low-density residential districts. Mixed-use housing, such as apartment buildings for seasonal workers, is rarely proposed by developers, due to the low payout from renting rooms affordably compared with the high cost of building.

The rising price of shortterm Airbnb rentals takes up much of the market in the summer, and more af-

students to live there.

Lorna Welch, the assistant health agent for the town of Oak Bluffs, said the Francises have done work on the property that aligns with the town’s inquiries and inspections.

“He’s improved it a lot,” Welch said of Ralston Francis. Inspections by the board of health continued under the Francises’ ownership. They were usually conducted in April, prior to anyone moving in, and listed dirty mattresses, missing screens on windows, and needed work on bathrooms, as well as some deficiencies in a few rooms. The property hasn’t yet been inspected this year, Welch said, as of Wednesday, May 13.

In 2025, the inspection of the property listed 18 rooms and 12½ baths, and said mattresses and window screens were an issue that needed addressing. The language looked nearly identical to inspections from the early 2000s. The report also said that bathrooms looked renovated and much improved.

The Island House is one of the few properties on the Island that is actually zoned

immigration policies prompted the letter, which was intended to get ahead of the rush of J-1s and ensure they’d travel safely and quickly.

“The college students participating in the summer work-travel program play a vital role in sustaining seasonal businesses by filing job vacancies that would otherwise go unmet,” the letter stated.

From July to September 2025, six J-1 students spoke to The Times about their rooms at the Island House, which they said were overcrowded and lacked basic amenities. One of them invited The Times to tour the property in August.

This J-1 student, a 24-yearold Serbian man, waved a reporter through a door with a bold “No Trespassing” sign and a placard that said “Island House” hanging on the chipped yellow paint.

A short walk up a set of stairs inside revealed a maze of bedroom doors and communal bathrooms. Dozens of shoes were lined up outside of each one. “We put our shoes outside since we don’t have space,” said the J-1 student with a shrug; he asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from his employers, who provided him with accommodation at Island House.

He repeatedly apologized for the mess as he meandered ahead. “We don’t have anywhere to put our clothes,” he explained. The rooms, about 10 by 10 square feet each, contained one to two bunk beds, mattresses (some stained), one small refrigerator, and, in some rooms, one shelf.

fordable, longer-term rentals are few. When the Francises purchased the property at 11 Circuit Ave., they were asked by visa sponsorship agencies to continue housing students. They agreed.

“Once we got in, we started to fix what we could there,” Mavis Francis said. “The housing is a lot better than what it used to be.”

J-1 visas are a summer life force for the state

Massachusetts hosts one of the highest concentrations of these seasonal workers from abroad, with J-1s in resort areas, like the Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cape Cod, at record numbers. And they’re needed.

The issue is important enough that members of congress from across the country have taken it up. Seventeen of them, including Massachusetts Rep. Bill Keating, sent a letter to Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, in March, requesting support for the work-travel programs ahead of what they said would be a high-volume summer. Federal travel restrictions and increased vetting for international students amid harsh

they need their help to stay operational, and the cultural exchange is considered to be a valuable asset for Islanders and visitors alike.

The system, however, demands balance in order to keep working. And stable accommodation is the biggest factor for seasonal workers. Once on the Island, thousands of miles from home, many J-1s said they’re not sure where to turn if they live somewhere unsafe or unsanitary.

“I just really want to save all the students that will pick Martha’s Vineyard. They don’t deserve that accommodation. They don’t deserve to be treated like that,” 28-year-old Borna Biljak, who came to the Island from Croatia, said to The Times in August. Biljak lived in Island House in 2025, but moved out in July after his many complaints about the accommodation didn’t yield the changes he wanted.

But while those interviewed from Island House had issues with their lodging, they also described housing where their friends lived in other locations on the Island: basements with dozens of mattresses covering the floor, and uninsulated buildings with sheets strung up as makeshift walls.

The Times reached out to some of those students, but they were too afraid to come forward because they didn’t want to risk their housing in a foreign country.

J-1 interviews: Oak Bluffs accommodation lacked amenities and was overcrowded

The “communal kitchen” was actually a microwave in the hallway. And it was broken for much of the summer. Without dressers, the floors ended up covered with clothes, and the students’ suitcases were open and sprawling, leaving little walking access. “We come back just to sleep. We all work all day,” the J-1 student, who held two jobs at local restaurants, said.

Two to six students lived per room, paying $225 a week each. Each room of four pulled in around $3,500 for monthly rent, far higher than the Island average of $3,000 for a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment for an individual, per data from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s Housing Needs Assessment in 2024.

For the J-1 students, the opportunity is both a travel experience and financially beneficial. They can make more than $10,000 in just a few summer months, which some said was a whole year’s salary in their home country. In Croatia, for example, a typical annual salary is around $17,000.

The J-1 visa holders who spoke to The Times said they want to work here and participate in the community. Local businesses said

“We can’t even speak to our parents about this because, honestly, they would just tell us not to come back,” one 22-year-old student, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for her visa status, told The Times in an interview.

The student sat with three friends in Healey Square in Oak Bluffs on a sunny August afternoon. They all described the conditions they lived in on the condition of anonymity — a cramped room with four bunk beds and five people. “It wouldn’t be legal in Europe. I don’t know if it’s legal here,” she said.

According to health officials, who have signed off on the property during annual inspections before students move in each summer since 2012, the number of tenants living there is not allowed per local zoning bylaws. And town officials said they were surprised by the state of the housing.

“When I first came into this department and I did my inspection [at Island House], I was kind of floored by the condition … It was one of those things ... how do I let this go — but it’s been operating like this

1. The Island House was one of the first resort hotels built in the late 1800s.

2. Most rooms in the Island House were equipped with bunk beds, a shelf, a small refrigerator, and in this one, a chair.

3. The door to the Island House, where 80 to 100 J-1 students lived in the summer of 2025.

COURTESY MARTHA'S VINEYARD MUSEUM

SARAH SHAW DAWSON

SARAH SHAW DAWSON

Teachingthetrades

Continued from A1

students themselves. Islanders who return home after further education or extended travel often find stable work in the trades. Many got their start through a CTE program.

Affordability continues to be a top issue for Island residents, and no one seems to be immune. And with a salary of $300,000 a year needed to purchase a home on Martha’s Vineyard, according to new data from a UMASS Donahue study, certain jobs make more financial sense than others.

The pay in the trades — which for landscaping positions starts at around $30 per hour, double the minimum wage in Massachusetts — is a good start for some young Islanders. And running a business in those fields is a way many of them thrive, and can even purchase homes here.

Trades are huge on the Island. When Pizzano pulls up to job sites, he said, it’s like a high school reunion. “I know my buddy is doing the electric inside. I go talk to him. I go talk to the carpenter, because the roofer [is someone] I went to high school or middle school with.”

He added, “We’re doing different parts of trades, and we’re all kind of doing the same mission. You feel like you’re in a community, because it’s not like off-Island where there’s these huge corporations.” Here, he said, “it’s all just little mom-andpops,” where everyone works for the same cause.

These programs provide economic benefit to municipalities too, which is why Gov. Maura Healey announced a $2 million grant for MVRHS CTE programs late last month.

“Across Massachusetts, we’re hearing from students and families who want access to career technical education,” Healey stated in a press release April 30. “This investment will expand capacity, create new opportunities, and ensure more students can gain the skills they need to succeed, while strengthening our workforce and supporting employers across the state.” And that money is needed. Facilities for the CTE pro-

grams at MVRHS are hardly up to standards. According to past reporting, the horticulture classroom is infested with mold, and the building trades shop has faulty windows. The lack of central air in automotive technology creates challenges, and the culinary arts kitchen has outdated equipment and ceiling leaks.

Horticulture instructor

from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) shaves off some of that total, but taxpayers in all six Island towns will ultimately be responsible for an estimated $258 million, plus an additional $180 million in interest, to be nearly equally distributed over the next 30 years.

There’s an Island-wide vote on June 2 to determine whether or not the project goes ahead, and it very much depends on Island property

here for a very long time, so it’s not in the best shape,” Crossland added.

Pizzano remembers the space well. He said “half the battle” of the day-to-day work in the program was “digging through 50 years” of the program’s history to find just one working tool. It was true in 2016, when Pizzano started his education in horticulture, and remains true today. In 2016, the conditions were nearly identical to those this year,

pass, “the most common outcome of a failed vote is that the project is removed from the MSBA pipeline, their funding is gone, and the project is dead.”

The school committee is anxious to get the project through, partly because the state of disrepair as well as health risks and dangers posed to students and teachers need immediate action.

“The district believes the building deficiencies identified must be addressed,” the report stated.

tion systems; transmissions; electronics

Building trades

• Instructor: William Seabourne

• Certifications students receive: OSHA 10-hour Construction/General Industry, and First Aid/CPR/ AED

• Class content: Safe use of hand and power tools, drawings and blueprints, installations, subflooring, roofing, siding

The size of other classrooms in the high school building, like those for English and history, is also far below the DESE requirement, which is 825 square feet. Hart said the average size of a room in the school is 715 square feet.

Culinary arts

• Instructor: Chef Jack O’Malley and Chef Kevin Cromwell

• Certifications students receive: ServeSafe, First Aid/ CPR/AED, OSHA 10-Hour General Industry

• Class content: Cooking, food service, waitstaff training, effective communication at work

Early childhood development

• Instructor: Leslie Frizzell

Kyle Crossland said thatthanks to a state grant back in 2018, his program got a new greenhouse. But still, the classroom, he said, “is basically a warehouse with one wall that has plugs.”

All CTE classroom sizes are far too small, according to the requirements set by the Department of Secondary Education (DESE). In order to meet state standards, nearly 10,000 square feet — or the equivalent of 27.8 football fields — of additional space is needed for CTE programs alone, according to Sam Hart, the MVRHS director of operations.

The proposed layout for the new school would add an additional 34,000 square feet. Hart said “about twothirds” of that would be “taken up by special education and CTE.”

“Those programs are what’s driving almost all of that extra 34,000 square feet,” he added.

The entire project is nearly 200,000 square feet of additions, as well as renovations of existing structures. It would cost around $333.5 million. A $71 million reimbursement

owners to accept an increase in their taxes.

If the project is voted down in June, many of the additions and renovations for the 1959 school may have to wait another decade to come before Islanders again. And if needed repairs proceed without state approval from the MSBA, which took nine years to secure, the central air systems, mold, and other school deficiencies still need to be fixed. The upgrades would cost, without the entire high school building project that’s on the table now, an estimated $201 million to $238 million, according to a recent school committee report. Plus, the MSBA reimbursement would be lost if the project is voted down.

But the recent $2 million state grant for CTE remains, no matter the vote.

“We wrote it to support the high school building project, so it’s new equipment for the space as well as the design and some of the construction costs,” the CTE department chair and culinary arts teacher, Jack O’Malley, told The Times.

“This building has been

Once-eleganthotelnowsymbolofstruggle

Continued from A8

for all this time,” Alexa Arieta, the O.B. health agent, told The Times.

All the J-1 students who were interviewed last summer said the housing on Circuit Ave. was mostly reserved for first-year J-1 students. More experienced J-1 workers described staying there as a rite of passage for new students on the Island.

Students who lived at Island House before eventually found more suitable housing in later years. They said that they felt that if they could just get through the summer, they’d find something new in the following years.

“If we didn’t have anyplace to stay besides Island House, we would not come back

here,” a 23-year-old J-1 student told The Times.

The housing was described to the J-1 students by their landlords, the Francises, before the students arrived on the Vineyard in April and May. But the contents of those discussions are not totally clear. The students told The Times they were assured they’d have kitchen access, a

and were highlighted in a public tour. A decade ago, they wanted to fix the deficiencies, but that would have cost millions of dollars, a far cry from the $175,000 allotted in the budget for repairs then.

“Our ambition is great, but our facilities are poor,” former MVRHS Principal Peg Regan said to The Times that year.

The solution was a school renovation, which school officials then just started to plan, and which is now a possible reality. Now the MSBA funding is secured, and the proposal is nearly in front of voters.

School building committee members, along with Tappé Architects, the group that created plans for the project, recently published a report titled “What Happens if the Ad/Reno Does Not Proceed?”

The first sentence sums up its findings: “If the Island votes ‘No,’ the project is dead.”

If the project is voted down by voters, the reimbursement grant from MSBA will be lost. While there’s a small window of opportunity to hold a second vote, where the project could

bedroom, and a bathroom.

But after they got off the ferry, they walked in to find rooms with used mattresses, no sheets, mold, doors that wouldn’t lock, and paperthin walls.

However, the landlords, the Francises, countered that they were transparent about the modest accommodation. They said that the students were extremely messy, and even cost them thousands of dollars in damages. The J-1 stu-

At a recent plant sale for Mother’s Day, the culmination of the horticulture students’ work throughout the year, Pizzano looked back on the education he received. He said teachers like Crossland and the former CTE program director, Dr. Barbara-Jean Chauvin, who left the position in 2021, were integral to his current career path.

“I tell everybody to go into them, because they’re an awesome stepping stone to any of the trades,” Pizzano said.

Pizzano was urged to attend college for a degree in arboriculture and forest management, and with Chauvin’s encouragement, he received a scholarship through MVYouth that allowed him to attend two years at UMass Stockbridge for free. Then he brought that knowledge back to the Island.

“I’m starting to see more and more students who I’ve had [in school] start to enter horticulture-related fields, like arboriculture, like Jackie does, and there’s such a demand for it,” Crossland said.

CTE program offerings at MVRHS

Other CTE programs in the school see a similar economic payout for both students and the Island economy.

Automotive technology

• Instructor: Ken Ward

• Certifications students receive: OSHA 10-Hour General Industry

• Class content: Technical repairs; tire, wheel, and brake service; engine diagnosis and repair; fuel injec-

dents, the Francises said, were rarely at the apartments. They worked, went out on the town, and left messes, like trash in the hallways, for other people to see. The age of the tenants, they said, was a huge challenge, but they wanted to help.

“We’re young entrepreneurs, trying to help a cause,” Ralston Francis said. “We didn’t have to do the housing. We continued with it. But then a lot of

• Certifications students receive: OSHA 10-hour Health Assisting, American Red Cross CPR, MA State EEC license

• Class content: Education and care of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary students; nutrition; health and safety; social and emotional growth Horticulture–landscape maintenance

• Instructor: Kyle Crossland

• Certifications students receive: OSHA 10-Hour General Industry and Massachusetts Pesticide Application

• Class content: Propagation, pest management, plant and soil science, landscape and hardscape design Health assisting

• Instructor: Melinda McCarron

• Certifications students receive: OSHA 10-hour Health Assisting, American Red Cross PLS CPR, Certified Nurse Aide, Home Health Aide, Alzheimer’s and Dementia Sensitivity Training, Mental Health Support Aide

• Class content: Anatomy, physiology, growth and development, medical terminology, aging and Alzheimer’s care, infectious diseases, mental health, nutrition

people say, ‘Oh, it’s about the money.’ It’s not necessarily about the money, it’s about a cause … We’re trying to contribute to the Island. So we provide housing if there is not that housing.”

This is the second in a series about housing, affordability, and its effect on the summer economy on Martha’s Vineyard. We’re running this in print and online. You can go online for the full story.

Kyle Crossland walks through the horticulture plant sale last Saturday.

SARAH SHAW DAWSON

Vineyard Bank, a local community bank, has an exciting opportunity available for an Office Coordinator. This role facilitates HR administrative processes, assists with MV Bank Charitable Foundation initiatives, coordinates internal/external events, and handles general clerical operations.

Please

ADMINISTRATIVEASSISTANT

IslandElderlyHousingislookingfor afulltimeadministrativeassistant forourPropertyManagementteam. Thispositionprovides administrativesupportforallrental andtenant-relatedactivities.This positionrequiresworkingwith tenants.Candidateshouldhave strongorganizationalandtime managementskills,alongwith strongwrittenandverbal communicationskills. Experience/ proficiencywithcomputerentryand databasesystems.Formore informationaboutIslandElderly Housing,visitourwebsite, www.iehmv.org.Pleasesend resumetodyoung@iehmv.org

ART TEACHER, ELEMENTARY GRADES MVPCS

The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School has an opening for a 3 daysper-week (.60 FTE) Art Teacher for grades K to 6 to start September 1, 2026. Must hold a BA/BS; teaching experience preferred. Competitive salary and full benefits provided. Please email a resume and letter of interest to Peter Steedman, School Director, at psteedman@mvpcs.org and complete an application on our website, www.MVPCS.org.

AtlantisHardscapeLLChas openpositionsondifferent crews.

•LandscapeMaintenance Foreman-managedaytoday operations,identifyandprune plantmaterial,abilitytospeak withclientswhenneeded.

•ExperiencedStoneMason

•LawnMowingCrew-experience withlargecommercialmowers.

SS#,validMAdriverslicense required.

Text774-563-0181

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BEACH PATROL DUKES COUNTY IS LOOKING TO HIRE PART-TIME BEACH PATROL FOR THE SUMMER SEASON. Will be responsible for issuing parking tickets on State Beach, informing patrons of beach rules and do general maintenance tasks. Candidates must be at least 18 years old. CPR certification preferred. Job application and job description available at https://www.dukescounty. gov/employment-opportunities

CARDETAILER

DriversLicenserequired.508-4006171.300StateRd. Tripbarnes@comcast.net.

CHAPPY BEACH CLUB IS HIRING

CAMP COUNSELORS.

Successful candidates are at least 16 y.o. and able to work Mon - Fri June 28 (Sunday Orientation) - July 24. Hourly wage of $15 with additional Staff Appreciation bonuses. Housing is not available. Contact sydney@chappaquiddikcbc.org

DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Responsible for managing County programs, including Health Care Access, Public Benefits Access, and Vineyard Smiles as well as direct client service as needed. Includes program planning and development; grant writing, management and reporting; hiring and supervising staff; oversight of systems used to access and document benefit applications; acts as liaison to town governments, local and regional health and human services coalitions and boards. Knowledge of the health and human service needs of diverse Islanders preferred. Must have excellent interpersonal and communication skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office. Full job description and job application available at https:// www.dukescounty.gov/employment-opportunities

DRIVERS WANTED:

We are looking for people for full time/ part time. All shifts available. Applicants must possess a Massachusetts Driver’s License and have at least 2 years driving experience. Any questions please call BOB @ HARBOR TAXI 508-693-0037.

ISLAND LAW FIRM SEEKS INDIVIDUAL FOR FULL-TIME SECRETARIAL OR PARALEGAL POSITION.

Will train and promote qualified Island resident. Email letter & resume to: info@ bfmlegal.com.

THE TOWN OF TISBURY IS LOOKING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO ASSIST THE PLANNING BOARD TEMPORARILY.

This is Subcontract work approximately 30-40 hours a week unbenefited. Provides administrative support to the Planning board in the area of applications, processing bills payable, account receivables, assist with agendas and meeting packets and answers phones.

Applicants should submit resume and letter of interest to Human Resources Department at pbennett@ tisburyma.gov. Town of Tisbury is an EOE. Please submit by May 28th. Open until filled.

DUKESCOUNTYSHERIFFS'OFFICE PUBLICSAFETYTELECOMMUNICATIONSOFFICERS **$500MonthlyHousingStipend forFullTimeIslandResidentTelecommunicators** Areyoulookingtokick-startyour career,whilehelpingtheIsland Community? Dutiesinclude,butnotlimitedto receiving,processing,transmitting and/ordispatching emergencyandnon-emergencycalls forpolice, fire,emergencymedical, andotherpublicsafetyservicesvia telephoneandothercommunication devices. Effectiveoralandwritten communicationsskills,sensitivityto workingwithconfidential material; flexibilityandwillingnessto adapttochangingenvironmentand priorities;positiveattitude,integrity and,excellentjudgment. Workscheduleincludes assignmentstotheday,eveningand night,weekend,andholidayshifts. Paidon-sitetraining,aswellas off-islandAcademytrainingupon completionofprobationaryperiod. Full-timepositionwithagenerous benefitpackage,includingpaid leave,insuranceand retirement.Fulltime Tele-Communicator-In-Trainingpay rangeis$71,140.94$78,545.22annually,plus$500 monthlystipend.Applicationsand jobdescription availableatdukescountysheriff.com/ careers

OFFICE MANAGER

Adam T. Incorporated is seeking an Office Manager for a thriving residential construction firm. This is an opportunity to grow within the company with a good wage and increasing benefits. Flexible hours 30 to 40 hrs/ wk. Must have strong organizational skills, computer savvy, and proficiency in QuickBooks & Excel. Position requires: processing payroll, invoicing, handling insurances, answering phone, processing building permits, various additional documentation, and have communications w/staff. Training is available. Email resume to adam@adamtinc.com or text to 508-958-4041.

MARTHA’S VINEYARD REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL seeking applicants for a one year only .6

JOB POSTING HEAD OF CIRCULATION

The West Tisbury Free Public Library is seeking an organized, detail-oriented individual to fill our Head of Circulation position. This is a benefited F/T position (40 hrs/ week, $33.50/hr), beginning July 1, 2026.

Jobs

westtisbury-ma.gov/391/Employment-Committee-Openings. EOE. Strong in-house candidate.

JOIN THE ALEX MILL TEAM ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD

PROFESSIONAL OFFICE POSITION

AIRPORT GROUNDS AND FACILITIES CUSTODIAN SUMMER 2026

EXCITINGJOBOPPORTUNITIES

SUMMER2026

AIRPORTGROUNDSAND

FACILITIES/AIRPORT GROUNDSKEEPER

TEMPORARY, SEASONAL, FULL AND PART-TIME

TEMPORARYSEASONALFULL ANDPART-TIME

Maintainairportpremises–primarilyoutdoor,someindoor. Maintainacleanandsafe environment.Schedulemayinclude weekends,eveningsandsome holidays.

Grounds&Facilities:grounds keeping,mowing,some landscaping.

Maintain airport premises – providing a clean and safe environment for employees and customers. Custodian/Janitorial duties, primarily indoors, multiple buildings. Starting rate $29.59/hr. Schedule may include weekends, evenings and some holidays. Applications available at Airport Administration Office, 71 Airport Road, West Tisbury, MA 02575 or at https://mvyairport.com/employment-opportunities/ The Martha’s Vineyard Airport is an Equal Opportunity Employer and an Alcohol and Drug Free Workplace. Positions open until filled.

Startingrate$29.59/hr ApplicationsavailableatAirport AdministrationO ce,71Airport Road, WestTisbury,MA02575orathttps:// mvyairport.com/employmentopportunities/ TheMartha’sVineyardAirportisan EqualOpportunityEmployerandan AlcoholandDrugFreeWorkplace. Positionsopenuntil

FIELDMANAGER

FieldManagerneededfororganic vegetablefarm(May–Nov,40hrs/ week).Leadcrewinplanting, harvesting,irrigation,and maintenance.Assistwithcrop planningandsoilcare.Requires2–4yearsexperience,leadershipskills, validdriver’slicense,andstrong workethic.Moreinformationand applicationat whippoorwillfarm.comoremail farmer@whippoorwillfarm.com.

FULL TIME YEAR ROUND ATTENDANT

The Martha’s Vineyard Refuse District is seeking a Scale Attendant / Recycling Attendant to work at one or more of our District’s local drop off areas. Assisting and directing the public in proper disposal of waste and recycling materials. This position is a full time 40 hr per week and participates in the CCMHG benefits program and ukes county retirement system. Starting pay rate is $28.41 Please stop by the office or email us to pick up an application during our regular business hours. M.V. Refuse District located at, 750 Edgartown West Tisbury rd. Edgartown Ma. 02575 or email to mvrefuse@comcast.net. 508-627-4501

LAWN MAINTENANCE

Established Landscape Design and Build Company has an opening in our Lawn Maintenance Dept. Knowledge of machines helpful. Must have legal working papers, speak uent English, and have a valid driver’s license. Please email info@ indigofarm.com

This position helps provide leadership for the library’s Circulation team, including participation in hiring Circulation staff, training and evaluations. Duties include oversight of all circulation transactions and statistics including interlibrary loans, maintenance of policies and procedures, and purchase and cataloging of periodicals.

Requires strong interpersonal skills and ability to be an effective team leader. Must be self-motivated, have experience working with the public, superior technical abilities, management experience and a minimum of three years of working in a public library. Must have a strong familiarity with KOHA, CLAMS, ComCat and mediated interlibrary loans along with google suites. Nights and weekends required.

Submit Town of West Tisbury application and resume to Alexandra, Library Director, West Tisbury Free Public Library at apratt@clamsnet. org by May 15th. Applications and job description are available at the Library or online at the town of West Tisbury website: https://www. westtisbury-ma.gov/391/Employment-Committee-Openings. EOE. Strong in-house candidate.

JOB POSTING LIBRARY COLLECTION SPECIALIST

The West Tisbury Free Public Library seeks an organized, detail-oriented, and technology-savvy Library Collection Specialist. This is a benefited F/T position (35 hrs/week, $33.50/ hr), beginning July 1, 2026. This position is responsible for acquisitions, cataloging, budget tracking, deaccessioning, and overall management of all adult materials in a variety of formats.

Bachelor’s degree in a related field required, along with 2-5 years of professional-level library experience including collection development, cataloging, and experience working with online ordering tools. Master’s Degree in Library Science is strongly preferred. 1/2 of hours will be dedicated to working the circulation desks or other areas of the library as needed. The ideal candidate will have a strong familiarity with KOHA, CLAMS along with google suites and excellent customer service skills. Nights and weekends may be required. Submit Town of West Tisbury application and resume to Alexandra, Library Director, West Tisbury Free Public Library at apratt@clamsnet. org by May 15th. Applications and job description are available at the Library or online at the town of West Tisbury website: https://www.

We’re opening on Martha’s Vineyard and looking for friendly people to join us for the summer season. If you’ve got an eye for style, care about the little things, and enjoy helping people find the pieces they ll actually wear, you’ll be in good company. Interest? Please email your resume and a short introduction to:lori@ alexmill.com

MARTHA’S VINEYARD MUSEUM IS HIRING SEASONAL VISITOR SERVICES ASSOCIATES

Join our team for a unique part-time seasonal opportunity working both at the Museum and the Edgartown Lighthouse! We are seeking friendly, reliable, and enthusiastic Visitor Services Associates to welcome guests and support daily operations. Please see mvmuseum.org/careers for a complete job description and instructions on how to apply.

MVHEBREWCENTERSEEKSA SKILLEDPART-TIMEOFFICE MANAGERTOSUPPORTDAILY OPERATIONS,MANAGE COMMUNICATIONSAND CALENDARS,ANDSERVEASA WELCOMINGPOINTOFCONTACT. Idealcandidatesareorganized, tech savvy,andcomfortable jugglingmultiplepriorities.Flexible scheduleandcompetitivepay.Apply witharesumeto info@mvhebrewcenter.org.

ISLAND LAW FIRM SEEKS INDIVIDUAL FOR FULL-TIME SECRETARIAL OR PARALEGAL POSITION

Will train and promote qualified Island resident. Email letter & resume to: info@bfmlegal.com.

SAVATREE IS LOOKING FOR TREE CLIMBERS, LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE SPECIALISTS, LANDSCAPE CONSTRUCTION SPECIALISTS AND GROUND OPERATIONS TREE CREWS FOR OUR WEST TISBURY LOCATION! All experience levels needed. We have housing options available to rent on island as well as sign on bonuses!!!! Please reach out to Lchabot@savatree.com or text to 774-218-9355.

NOWHIRING

TransitConnection,Inc.,theprivate operatingcontractorforthe Martha’sVineyardTransitAuthority (VTA),hasthefollowingopenings. Allapplicantswillbesubjectto drivingandcriminalrecordchecks, aswellasalcoholandcontrolled substancepre-employmentand randomtesting.Vehicleoperators mustalsopassaDOTstandard physical.Workschedulescanvary andwillincludeweekendsand holidays.TheVTA/Transit Connectionisanequalopportunity employer.

ParatransitCoordinator FTyear-roundpositionreceiving clientrequestsandschedulingtrips forTheLift.TheLiftprovidesADA paratransitvantransportationfor peoplewithdisabilities.Serviceis shared-ride,door-to-doorfor individualswhosedisabilities preventthemfromusingthebus system.Computerliteracyanda goodknowledgeofMartha’s Vineyardrequired.Paystartsat$28/ hour. ParatransitDriver FTandPT/Year-Roundpositionin systemservingamedicallyqualified passengergroup.Exemplarydriving, customerserviceand communicationskillsrequired.Pay startsat$28/hour. VehicleOperator,Fixed-Route FT/PTSeasonalandYear-Round. Safelyoperateavarietyof commercialtransitvehiclesona scheduledbasis,providingexcellent customerservicetopassengers, obeyingallDOTandtra c regulations.Worktimevaries,early morningtolatenight.Knowledgeof Martha’sVineyardisveryhelpful. CommercialDriverLicensetraining isavailable.Paystartsat$28/hour. Pleaseapplyat: 11AStreet Edgartown,MA02539 Ordownloadapplication atwww.vineyardtransit.com

POLICE OFFICER

TOWN OF OAK BLUFFS

Serve the town and Island that you love and join the Oak Bluffs Police Department. We are recruiting for a full-time Police Officer through a rolling application process. We anticipate hiring one full-time police officer by July st 2026. We offer competitive pay and benefits, a workout on duty option, education incentives, an excellent work schedule consisting of 4 days on and 3 days off, a robust employee wellness program and we are fully accredited through the Massachusetts Accreditation Commission. Full list of requirements and application process can be found on the Oak Bluffs website under employment opportunities: oakbluffsma.gov/jobs. Oak Bluffs is an EOE/AAE.

Administrative assistant, bookkeeper wanted for island based real estate management team. Experience in uickbooks and MS Office and Adobe Acrobat and filing systems sought. ood ages and benefits package. Email Resume and contact info to admin.job@realestateofmarthasvineyard.com

TEACHER’S ASSISTANT MVPCS

The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School has an opening for a full-time Elementary Teacher’s Assistant to start September 1, 2026. We are looking for a creative, enthusiastic individual wishing to explore or advance a career in education within our project-based learning curriculum. Competitive salary and full benefits provided. Please email a resume and letter of interest to Peter Steedman, School Director, at psteedman@mvpcs.org and complete an application on our website, www.MVPCS.org.

THE BOATHOUSE & FIELD CLUB

JOIN OUR TEAM THIS SUMMER SEASONAL POSITIONS — JUNE THROUGH LABOR DAY

Swim Instructor

We are seeking a certified Water Safety Instructor (WSI) to lead swimming lessons and aquatic programming for our members. WSI certification is required.

Lifeguard

Current lifeguard certification required

Membership Front Desk

A welcoming presence at the heart of our member experience. Responsibilities include greeting and assisting members, managing inquiries, and supporting day-to-day operations. Prior customer service or hospitality experience preferred.

To apply, at boathousemv.com or emailing Davina.webb@boathousemv.com

We look forward to welcoming you to the team.

THE GREAT PUT ON IS SEEKING AN ADMINISTRATIVE/OFFICE ASSISTANT TO HELP WITH SHIPMENTS, ONLINE ORDERS, PHONE CALLS, AND ENTERING/RECEIVING ORDERS

Must be organized and detail-oriented. If interested, email thegreatputonmv@gmail.com or call 508-560-9821

TRIPBARNESNEEDSASSISTANT DriversLicenserequired,phone skills,speaksenglish.508-4006171.300StateRd. Tripbarnes@comcast.net.

ISLAND NURSING WITH PURPOSE!

The VNA of Cape Cod seeks compassionate RNs for Martha’s Vineyard Home Health. Enjoy exibility, -oncare, and a supportive team. $7,500 Sign-On Bonus! Experience preferred, but transitions welcome. Apply today: CCHCHRRecruitment@CapeCodHealth.org or call 508-862-5787. Your Vineyard career starts here!

MARTHA’S VINEYARD COMMUNITY SERVICES IS SEEKING THE FOLLOWING POSITION: Program Director – Island Wide Youth Collaborative (IWYC) ($73,000 - $88,000/year). The Program Director will lead the IWYC, a Massachusetts Family Resource Center. Responsibilities include program oversight, designing and planning the IWYC program, supervising staff, working with Leadership to develop program budgets, managing state and federal contract compliance, and collaborating with community partners. Some evening and weekend hours are required. Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree required (relevant field preferred) and 1–3 years of nonprofit program management or leadership experience. Strong communication, leadership, and organizational skills required. Passionate about helping families thrive? We encourage you to apply at: mvcommunityservices.org/ employment

Text or call 774-563-0951 FREE LIGHT TEAL SECTIONAL SOFA. Good shape. Free Kirby vacuum. Works. Text if interested: 508527-3672 4 VINTAGE RALEIGH BIKES $75 each, cash only, photos available. Text 617 388 7677. JIGSAW PUZZLES SCRABBLE, PARCHEESI, ETC. Good/Excellent condition. $3-$12. 508-693-7472 -Call anytime, 7:30am-12:30pm is best.

STERILITE LATCH & CARRY 26GAL PLASTIC STORAGE TOTE W/LATCHING LID 23 x 18 x 20 new $15. 267-566-2596. WETSUIT JACKET WITH OVERALLS PANTS 6 mm thick. Like new. Size Medium. $75 West Tisbury. 774-563-0050

BOSE CINEMATE GS SERIES II HOME THEATER SOUND SYSTEM

Originally $799. About 15 yrs old, unused last 10 yrs. $100. Text 781-622-7086

LIFE FITNESS ELLIPTICAL CROSS-TRAINER X9 IN GREAT CONDITION

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MARILYNMOSES|617-462-0381

NEWLISTINGINOAKBLUFFS

$999,000

ALANSCHWEIKERT

OCEANPARKREALTY

$1,790,000CALLORTEXT ALANSCHWEIKERT 508-221-1708 OR MICHAELSCHWEIKERT 774-563-9112

OakBluffs:WaterfrontPropertyat VineyardHavenOuterHarbor**This isanexceptionalopportunityto acquireastunningwhitesandy beachpropertyonVineyardHaven Harbor.ThischarmingIsland cottageboastsbreathtaking panoramicviewsoftheharborand sound,showcasingmagnificent sunsetseacheveningovertheWest ChopPeninsula.Youcanenjoythe livelyboatingscene,withyachts fromaroundtheglobeandferries arrivingatport,allinthecompany ofyourfavoriteguests.This picturesquesettingisenhancedby thedelightfulscentofvibrant rugosarosesthatadornthesandy landscape.Experiencetheunique convenienceofstoringyour paddleboard,kayak,windsurfer,and otherwatercraftrightinyour backyard,allowingyoutoindulgein refreshingswimsatyourleisure. Thereispotentialformooringa motororsailboat,pendingapproval fromtheHarbormaster.This propertyepitomizestheclassic Martha’sVineyardexperience— creatingtimelessmemories. Additionally,ithasasolidrental history.Pleasenote,ourinformation suggeststhattheadjacentlotis unbuildable;however,we r ecommendverifyingthiswiththe

WelcometoLagoonRidge,Oak Bluffs’newestandmostsoughtafterneighborhood.Buildyour3bedroomdreamhomeinthis elevatedenclave,set95feetabove LagoonPondandcapturing sweepingskyviews,colorful sunsets,andrefreshingsea breezes.Thisexceptionalhomesite representsoneofthe final opportunitiesinthisthrivingnew community.Tobebuilt—The Naushon—features3bedrooms, 3.5bathrooms,andover2,400 squarefeetofthoughtfullydesigned livingspace.Agrandwrap-around coveredporchprovidesawelcoming entryandtheperfectplacetoenjoy morningcoffeeorcoolevening breezes.Inside,theopen-concept floorplanconnectsthechef’s kitchenwithspaciouslivingand diningareas,idealforentertaining familyandfriends.Eachbedroom suiteincludesatileden-suitebath withcustomizable fixturesand finishes,andthesecond-floorsuites mayofferprivatebalconiesfor addedrelaxation.ClassicOakBluffs cottagearchitecturemeetsmodern comfortandenergye ciency, makingTheNaushonanidealyearroundorseasonalretreat.Lagoon Ridgeoffersdirectaccessto conservationlandswithwalkingand bikingtrails,andnearbyLagoon Pondinviteskayaking,sailing,and shell fishing.Allutilities—electric, townwater,andaprivate,state-ofthe-artAmphidromewastewater system—arelocatedatthestreet. Thisinnovativesystemservesthe entireneighborhood,providing convenienceandpeaceofmind. LagoonRidgeisacovenantprotectedcommunitywith architecturalreviewand professionalmanagementbyFirst PropertyManagementCo.This beautifulhomesiteisreadyforthe constructionofyourVineyarddream home.Elevenlotshavesold—only tworemainavailable.Callfor details!

OCEANPARKREALTY,INC.

Charmingyear-roundrenovated Victoriancottageinthehistoric Martha’sVineyardCampMeeting Association,locatedintheheartof WesleyanGroveinOakBluffs.This 3-bedroom,1-bathhomefeatures shiplapwalls,knottypineceilings, originalwood flooring,andsun-filled interiorsthroughout.Theupdated kitchenoffersquartzcountertops,a farmhousesink,stylishlighting,and newerenergy-e cientappliances. ImprovementsincludeMarvinwood windows,anewerroof,hotwater tank,andenergy-e cientheat pumpsforACandheat.Enjoya welcomingfrontporchwithcolorful gardensandaslatepatiowith fencedgardenspaceforoutdoor diningandrelaxing.Juststepsto CircuitAvenue,OakBluffsHarbor, andnearbybeaches.

IMPROVEDPRICE$700,000

CALLORTEXTMARILYNMOSES

617-462-0381

OCEANPARKREALTY

PRIVACYMEETSCONVENIENCEIN

OAKBLUFFS

JAYNEISFORD|203-962-4317

$1,795,000

Nestledattheendofaquietstreet, thisroomyandspaciousCape-style homeoffersprivacyand conveniencejustashortdistanceto theOakBluffsSchool,towncenter, andwithinwalkingdistancetothe Lagoon. Sun-filledmainlevelwithopen floor plan,largewindows,andagenerous kitchenwithamplecounterspace, openingtothediningarea.Sliders leadtoabackdeck,yard,and bluestonepatio..perfectfor entertainingorrelaxing. Radiantheated floorsintheprimary suiteandlower-levelplayroom.Twocargaragewithbonusspaceabove. Beautifulstoneworkdriveway. Updatedfurnace(2020)andwater heater(2024).

$500,000SOLD BYMARILYNMOSES 617-462-0381..WONDERING WHATYOUCOTTAGEISWORTH? CALLORTEXTANYTIME! Experiencethecharmof21Rock Avenue,nestledintheHistoric Martha'sVineyardCampMeeting Association.Thisyear-round cottagefeatures1bedroomand1 bath,andisjustmomentsaway fromOakBluffsHarbor,ferryports, sandybeaches,artgalleries,and delightfulrestaurants.Recent exteriorenhancementsinclude cedarfencing,refreshedhousetrim, newpaint,andanupgradedroof. Pleasenotethattheheatingsystem iscurrentlynotfunctioning.Enjoy theconvenienceofon-siteparking. Thiscottageisalsofeaturedinboth theEisenstaedtandPainterLadies books,addingtoitsuniqueappeal.

WelcometoLagoonRidge.....Oak Bluffs’newestandmostsoughtafterneighborhood!Buildyour3bedroomdreamhomewithM DuffanyBuildersonthislofty setting,95feetaboveLagoonPond, featuringsweepingskyviews, colorfulsunsets,andrefreshing saltyseabreezes.Thisexceptional buildinglotisamongthelastofthe remainingopportunitiesinthis thrivingnewcommunity.Utilitiesare alreadyatthesite,includingtown water,electric;andaprivate Amphidromewastewatersystem thatwillsaveyouthecostand inconvenienceofasepticsystem. LagoonRidgebordersacresof pristineconservationlandwith abuttingaccesstoscenicbiking andhikingtrailsprovidingthe perfectblendofprivacyandoutdoor adventure.LocatedindesirableOak Bluffs,andcentraltoalldownIsland towns,thisisanactiveandvibrant communitywithplentyof constructionmomentum—don’t misstheopportunitytobecomepart ofthisattractiveneighborhood! Easytoshow–contactustodayfor a privatetourofthisexceptional offering!“Priceisforlotonly,home picturedisasampleofhometobe built..callfordetails.

508-221-1708

OakBluffs:HomeSweetHome Situatedonoveraquarteracreof beautifullylandscaped,level groundswithcolorfulperennial plantingsandmaturetrees,this sun-filledranchoffersaperfect blendofcomfortandcharm.The openkitchen,dining,andliving areasfeaturecathedralceilings, classicverticalknottypinewalls, andacozybrick fireplace.Enjoya convenient first-floorbedroomanda spacioussecond-floorprimary bedroomwithaprivatedeck.The finishedbasementprovides additionallivingorhobbyspace. Updatesincludea2017oilburner andRothoiltank.Aninviting outdoorshowercompletesthiswellmaintainedhome,offeredfurnished andreadyforyourpersonal touches. Locatedinaquietresidential neighborhoodclosetoallthatOak Bluffshastooffer.

ONELOTAVAILABLE35DOUBLE OX$700,000CALLORTEXT MARILYNMOSES617-462-0381 FARMNECKGOLF&TENNISCLUB: Theoriginal1780Farmhousewas tastefullyrestoredin1985tohonor thelandandlegacyofFarmNeck. Thisserene3.7-acreoasisofrolling greenerywithavarietyofmature treesandlotsofnaturalprivacyhas anupIslandfeelwiththedown Islandconvenienceto finedining, shopping,ferry,airport,bikepaths andincludesStockholder MembershipinthepopularFarm NeckGolfClub.Thisexceptional propertyissituatedbetweenthe7th and8thfairwaysandisjustashort walktotheclubhouserestaurant, tenniscourtsandproshop.For waterenthusiaststhereisthe opportunitytohaveamooring,with HarborMasterapproval,offthe privatebeachonSengekontacket Pondgivingyoudirectboating accesstoNantucketSound. Althoughthishistorichomefeatures 5bedroomswith4.5bathroomsand lotsofintimatespaces,thereisstill plentyofroomonthepropertyfor expansionofthemainresidence…… withtheexistingdetachedgarage/ apartment,thiscountryestateis trulyanIslandtreasurethatwill providelotsofrecreational enjoymentforfamilyandfriends throughouttheyears.

IMPROVEDPRICE:$1,795,000** CONTACTMARILYNMOSESAT 617-462-0381FORMORE

DETAILS!

OCEANPARKREALTY

OpenHouse23CircuitAve Extension,OB SAT5/1611AM-1PM&SUNDAY 5/1711AM-1PM PRICEADJUSTMENT,NOW $2,600,000 COMMERCIALB-2OR RESIDENTIAL OFFEREDBYRENE’BENDAVID/ REALTOR®,OCEANPARK REALTYINC. 23CircuitAveExtension Cell508-847-4864 3bedrooms/1bathroom,Rare OpportunitywithEndless Possibilities–UnmatchedHarbor& VineyardSoundViews.Location, Location,Location!Atrulyrare offeringintheheartofOakBluffs, wherepropertieslikethisseldom becomeavailable.Positioned directlyacrossfromtheiconicOak BluffsHarbor,thispropertyboasts unobstructedharborviewsand sweepingvistasofVineyardSound— asettingthatcapturestheverybest ofislandliving.Fromyourfrontyard, watchferriescomeandgo,boats driftthroughtheharbor,andenjoy thestunningbackdropofopen waterstretchingtowardVineyard Sound.Thisisapropertythatputs yourightinthemiddleofeverything, whilestillofferingthecharmand characterofaclassicislandhome. ZonedB-2Commercial,the opportunitiesaretrulyendless. Continuethelegacyofasuccessful tourist-orientedbusinesslikethe longtimeAndersonBikeRentals, createanewcommercialventure,or reimaginethepropertyasyour personaldreamhome.Whetheryou renovatetheexistingstructureor buildfromthegroundup,you’ll benefitfromoneofthemostvisible andvibrantlocationsinOakBluffs. Walktoeverything—ferries,beaches, themarina,restaurants,movies, shopping,OceanParkconcerts,the OB fishingpier,andthebelovedOak BluffsFireworks.Thisisamust-see, legacypropertywithrarepotentialin alocationthatcan’tbebeat.Very easytoshow.Pre-approvalorproof offundsrequiredwithalloffers.

OPENHOUSE SATMAY16TH (10:30AMTO12PM) 6STONEPOUNDWAY,HIDDEN COVE,OB

Waterfrontboataccesson SengekontacketPondw/community tennis.Threebedroomsw/large separatefamilyroom.-Yearroundor vacationhome! Kayakstorage,dinghydock. Peacefulquietassociation.Very reasonablypricedat$1,399,000. CallAUSTINREPROPERTIESofMV 508-314-5833

PRICEIMPROVEMENT

46KENNEBECAVENUE

OAKBLUFFS,MA $$1,495,000

CALLORTEXTALANSCHWEIKERT 508-221-1708ORMICHAEL SCHWEIKERT774-563-9112 OCEANPARKREALTY

ThisexquisiteVictorianhome, lovinglypreservedbythesame familyforoverageneration,stands inoutstandingconditionandis perfectlysituatedinthevibrant heartofOakBluffsCenter.Enjoythe convenienceofbeingjuststeps awayfromthePublicBeach, SteamshipAuthority,OakBluffs Harbor,asupermarket,andavariety ofcharmingrestaurantsandshops thatcontributetoOakBluffs'allure asapremiersummerdestinationon Martha'sVineyard.Thisdelightful three-seasoncottagehasbeen carefullymodernizedovertheyears, offeringarareinvestment opportunity.Locatedwithinthe highlysought-afterB1Zone,this residencehasbeencherishedasa familyhomewhilealsoprovidingthe potentialforcommercialendeavors. Thepropertyfeaturesawelldesigned floorplanthatincludes fourbedrooms-oneconveniently locatedonthe first floor-alongwith afullbathroom,twohalfbathrooms, alaundrystoragearea,aneat-in kitchen,andacozylivingroom.The homeisadornedwithstunning wood flooringthroughout,brightand airyroomswithoriginalwindows,a newhotwaterondemandsystem, andacharmingfrontporch,perfect forleisurelyafternoons.Withits fourbedroomsandprimein-town location,thispropertyoffers substantialrentalpotential,making itanexceptionalopportunityfor bothpersonalenjoymentand investment.

Discoverthebeautyof**THE PRESERVEatTHEWOODLANDS** inthehighlycovetedOakBluffs community!Thisisyourchanceto ownoneofthelastremaining buildinglotsinthisprimelocation, justmomentsawayfromtown, beaches,harbor,ferryports,andthe FarmNeckGolf&TennisClub. Undergroundutilitiesarealreadyin place,makingthisrareoffering perfectfordevelopingyourdream familycompound.Enjoyapeaceful andprivatesetting,surroundedby conservationlandandtrailsidealfor hiking,walking,andbiking. Don’tmissoutonthisincredible opportunitytoembracetheOak Bluffslifestyle!

SOLD $4,075,000CALLORTEXTJAYNE

ISFORD

203-962-4317

Spectacularwaterfronthomewith stunningwaterviewsfromevery room.Situatedinaprivatelocation intheSengekontacketAssociation, thisisanexceptionalpropertyina raresetting.Inadditiontothe breathtakingwaterviewofMajor's CoveandofFelixNeckthroughout thehome,thefrontoftheproperty facesserenepastoralviews.This homeoffersfourbedroomswitha main floormasterandensuite, exquisitecraftmanshipthroughout andauniquesettingonthewater. Greatcarewastakenintheplanning ofthishometoensuremaximum enjoymentofthetranquil surroundingsandviews.Eachof threebedroomsonthesecond floor hasawaterview.Thequalityof materialsusedintheconstruction ofthishomeisoutstanding.Asyou walkthroughtheproperty,the landscapingandgardensare impeccableandhavebeenfeatured inMVMagazine.Thebackyard gentlyslopesdowntothewater. Carefullyplannedbytheowners, thishomewasconstructedtofollow netzerodesignprincipleswhich provideanenergy-e cientretreat. Completelyrenovatedin2014and lovinglymaintained,thispropertyis atrueone-of-a-kindsanctuaryon theVineyard.

Juststepsfromtheiconic TabernacleandTrinityPark,this charmingcottageisnestledinthe heartofthehistoricMartha's VineyardCampMeetingAssociation adesignatedNationalHistoric LandmarkDistrict.Surroundedby colorfulgardensandpicturesque pedestrianwalkways,itoffersan easystrolltoOakBluffsHarbor, beaches,ferries,artgalleries, restaurants,andallthevibrant charmoftown.Thisdelightfultwobedroom,onefullbathroomcottage blendshistoriccharacterwith thoughtfulupdates,makingitan ideal3-seasonorextended seasonalretreat.Withadditional insulationunderthehouse,abuyer couldpotentiallymakeitsuitablefor year-rounduse.Anexpansive wraparoundfarmer'sporchwith classicgingerbreadtriminvitesyou torelaxandsoakinthe community’suniqueatmosphere. Inside,paintedwood-beamceilings, archedwindows,andtimelessbuiltindetailsenhancethewelcoming livingspaces.Aversatilebump-out areaoffers flexibleuseasaguest sleepingnookoro ce,withdirect accesstotheporchforsummer breezes.Thediningroomprovides aninvitingspacefordinnerparties andentertaining,whilethekitchen withadjoininglaundryandpantry addsconvenienceandcharm.The cottagecomfortablysleepsseven, includingtwobedrooms,asingle bedinthebump-out,andasleep sofainthelivingroom.Theproperty ispartiallyinsulatedandfeatures propaneforcedhot-airheatinthe kitchen,bathroom,diningroom,and onebedroom,withanewfurnace installedin2019.Additional featuresincludeanelectricstove, refrigerator,washer,dryer,garbage disposal,50-gallonpropanehot waterheater,andapproximately200 sq.ft.ofstorage.Maturegardens andlawnwithirrigationfurther enhancethisspecialoffering.Best ofall,thecottageisoffered TURNKEYandFULLYFURNISHED, readyforyoutoenjoyfromdayone.

Real Estate

SOLD

$899,000NEWSPRINGLISTING CALLORTEXTMARILYNMOSES

617-462-0381

Experiencethecharmofthis exquisitelyrenovatedVictorian GingerbreadCottage,nestledwithin thehistoricMartha'sVineyardCamp MeetingAssociation.Justmoments awayfromOakBluffsHarbor,ferry terminals,artgalleries,restaurants, publicbeaches,andvibrant shoppingareas,thiscottageoffers anunparalleledlocationnexttoall ofOakBluffs'picturesqueparks. Thisraregemfeaturestwoside yardsadornedwithvibrant landscaping,enhancingitscurb appeal.Stepinsidetodiscovera breathtakingchef’skitchen, designedwithchicshiplapwallsand customcabinetry.Recentupdates includeabrand-newroof,modern electricalandplumbingsystems,a state-of-the-artHVACsystem,and energy-e cient,high-quality Blombergappliances.Thecottage showcasesgleaminghardwood floorsthroughout,complementedby a freshcoatofpaintanddesigner finishesthataddatouchof elegance.Thisthree-seasonhome ismove-inready,makingitthe perfectplacetoenjoyafantastic locationwhereeverythingiswithin walkingdistance.

SOLD&CLOSEDIN30DAYS $1,995,000CALLORTEXT

MARILYNMOSES617-462-0381

HOUSE&STUDIOABOVE GARAGE~

SOLD$815,000ANDCLOSEDIN LESSTHAN30DAYS

MARILYNMOSES617-462-0381 Welcometo17SiloamAvenue,a delightfulcottagenestledinthe historicMartha’sVineyardCamp MeetingAssociation,offering spectacularsunsetviewsofSunset Lakeandthedistantharborfromits invitingporches.Thecurrentowners havecherishedthishomeyearroundfor13years,andit’seasyto seewhy.Thisspaciousresidence featuresanopenlivinganddining areathatseamlessly flowsintoa beautifullyrenovatedkitchen, perfectforbothfamilygatherings andentertaining.The first flooralso includesadelightfulpartially renovatedbathroomadornedwith attractivepaintedwoodbeam ceilings,addingatouchofelegance tothespace.Venturetothesecond floor,whereyou'll findthree comfortablebedrooms filledwith naturallightthankstotheabundant windows.Locatedjuststepsaway fromtheharbor,beaches,ferry ports,andallthevibrantattractions thatOakBluffshastooffer,this cottageistheperfectretreatfor thoseseekingbothtranquilityand adventure.Don’tmissyourchance toownapieceofthispicturesque location!Mostofthefurnitureis includedandpersonalitemswillbe removedpriortoclosing.

Welcometo26TiaAnnaLane!This exquisiteresidenceisimmaculate, stylish,andfullyrenovated,readyto welcomeitsnewowners!Situated onabeautifullylandscaped0.30acrelotadornedwithvibrant plantings,thehomeboastspristine conditionsbothinsideandout, featuringnewerHardiPlanksiding. Theinvitingfarmer'sporch, completewithMahoganydecking, setsthetoneforthischarming property,whilealovelypergola gracesthebackofthehouse.Upon entering,youarewelcomedbya whitewashedwoodwithhighceiling thatenhancesthewarmambiance. The flooringthroughoutthehomeis first-growthSouthernPine, meticulouslycraftedwithpegged andbungeddetails.Theexpansive entranceleadsintothelivingand kitchenareas,whicharebathedin naturallight,creatinganairy atmosphere.Uncoverthecharmof thewood-burningstovenestledin thefamilyroom,equippedwitha circulatingfanaddswarmth, e ciencyandfocalpointfor gatherings.Culinaryenthusiastswill appreciatethekitchen,whichis outfittedwithstainlesssteelGE CafeSeriesappliances,attractive quartzcountertops,walkinpantry andamplecabinetspacetostoreall yourcookingessentials.The screenedporchoffersanideal settingforentertainingguestsor enjoyingapeacefulmorningcoffee amidstthelushsurroundings.All bathroomsinthehomehavebeen meticulouslyrenovated,ensuring moderneleganceandfunctionality, whilecustomwindowtreatments elevatetheaesthetic.Additional updatesinclude,ahotwaterheater (installedin2020),pull-downstairs toafullyinsulatedattic(upgraded in2021),energy-e cientheatand airconditioningwithmini-splits,in groundsprinklersystemforeasy maintenanceandaforcedhotwater boilerforoptimalcomfort throughouttheyear.Thebeautifully landscapedyardprovidesample spaceforoutdoorenjoyment,and deededaccesstotheLagoonfrom GullLandingopensupopportunities forkayaking,swimming, fishing, boating,clammingorsimply savoringthepicturesquewaterfront scenery.Callnowforyourprivate tour!

YOUCANAFFORDTOBUILDON

MARTHA'SVINEYARD

Save1/3offconventionbuilding methods.Newhomesand additions.High-endhomeshellsare customdesigned,constructedina controlledenvironment,and deliveredtoyourMVsiteforabout $135/sq.ft.(Estimatedpricefor finishedhouse:$550/sq.ft.) Packagesinclude:Customdesign, postandbeams,roofandwalls, doorsandwindows,sidingand trim,insulationand floors.Thepreconstructionwallandroofpanels goupinab out3weeks.Viewmodel inAquinnahbyappointment.(508) 645-3572Brokerparticipation invited Posner@MVPostAndBeam.com

SOLD BEINGOFFEREDBYRENEBEN

DAVID/OCEANPARKREALTYINC. CELL508-847-4864

$1,250,000

11ONONDAGAAVE,OAKBLUFFS OPENHOUSE

ComfortableIslandHomeona QuietDead-EndRoadinOakBluffs: Welcometo11OnondagaAvenue, thesecondhomeontheleftona short,quietdead-endroadinawellestablishedOakBluffs neighborhoodenjoyedbybothyearroundandseasonalresidents.This well-cared-for3-bedroom,2.5bathroomhomeoffersspace, comfort,andatrulyinvitingisland lifestyle—justashortwalktothe OakBluffsSailingCampParkand beach,wherebeautifulsunsetsover thewaterawait.Inside,theopenconceptlayoutconnectsthekitchen anddiningareatothelivingroom, creatingabrightandfunctional spaceperfectforbothentertaining andrelaxeddailyliving.Aninviting deckoffthediningroomextends yourlivingspaceoutdoorsintoa serenelandscapedsettingidealfor enjoyingmealsinthefreshVineyard air.Thehomeissetonapeaceful lotwithbothfrontandbackyards offeringasenseofseclusionand spacetoenjoy.Upstairs,theprimary bedroomfeaturesanensuitewitha shower,providingacomfortableand quietretreat.Twoadditional bedroomsandafullbathcomplete theupperlevel,andahalfbathwith washer/dryerisconveniently locatedonthemain floor.Thefull basementincludesbothindoorand outdooraccess,offering flexibility andadditionalpotential.A finished roominthebasementisreadyfor yourcreativetouch—whetherasa mediaroom,homeo ce,playroom, orguestoverflow.Thepropertyalso includesaspaciousstorageshed andadrivewaythateasily fitsthree tofourcars.Anewroofinstalledin 2023addspeaceofmindandvalue. Locatedminutesfromdowntown OakBluffs,localbeaches,ferries, andallthecharmtheVineyardhas tooffer,thishomeisreadytobe yourislandgetaway,year-round

SOLD BEINGOFFEREDBYRENE'BEN DAVID,REALTOR®ATOCEAN PARKREALTYINC. CALLORTEXT508-847-4864. $999,999.00

Location,Location,Location!This uniquepropertyonthebeautiful islandofMartha’sVineyardpresents anincredibleopportunityforthe buyerwithvisiontocompleteand personalizeahomefullofpotential. Theoriginalresidence,builtin1920, offers2bedroomsand1bathand hasbeenexpandedwitha substantialneweraddition,creating increasedlivingspaceanda finishedgarageareasuitablefor storageorfutureuse.Abovethe garage,another2bedroomsanda fullbathawait finaltownapprovals —providingtheperfectframework foranAccessoryDwellingUnit (ADU)oradditionallivingquarters. Withcreativityandplanning,this propertycouldbetransformedinto a spacioussingle-familyhomeora multifamilyresidence.Setonalarge cornerlotwithinwalkingdistanceto town,theferries,andtheharbor,the locationalonemakesthisamustsee.Thepropertyalsofeaturesa newer4-bedroomsepticsystem installedin2006,whichhasalready beeninspectedandpassed.After beinglovinglycaredforbythesame family,thethreesiblingswho inheritedthehomearenowreadyto passitalongtonewownerswho canbringtheirownvisiontolife. Thisyear-roundresidenceistrulya propertyyouneedtovisitinperson tofullyappreciateitspossibilities. Sellerisofferingbuyer’sbroker compensation.

SOLD COASTALCHICCONDO

PRICEIMPROVEMENT$1,149,000 SENGEKONTACKETWATERFRONT COMMUNITY|MARTHA’S VINEYARD

Stylish,sunlit,andsuperblylocated —thisarchitecturallydesignedendunittownhouseoffers2bedrooms, a flexiblethird-floorloft,and1.5 bathsacross1,323sq.ft.Enjoya sleekchef’skitchenwithstone countertops,custombuilt-ins,anda 288sq.ft.privatedeckidealfor entertaining. Withupgraded flooring,windows, systems,andasuccessfulrental history,thispropertyisperfectfor year-roundlivingorasastrong investment. Communityamenitiesinclude: •Accesstofresh&saltwaterponds •Oceanaccessdock+boatramp •Clubhouse,tennis/pickleballcourt s Kayakstorage+potentialmooring MinutestoFarmNeck,bikepaths & beaches Offered$1,149,000

Exclusivelyby:MarilynMoses| REALTOR® 617-462-0381| marilyn@oceanparkmv.com

SOLD OAKBLUFFSSENGEKONTACKET

$1,995,000CALL ORTEXTJAYNEISFORD 203-962-4317

Thisdelightfulhomeisonascenic lotnestledwithinthe SengekontacketAssociation.Every roominthehomeis filledwith naturallightandbeautifulviews.It isaveryshortwalkingdistanceto thecommunityboatdockand kayaking,aswellasthewalking trailsofSengekontacket.Updatedin 2008bythearchitectowner,this homehas3bedroomsinthemain houseandalovelybedroomand bathroominthestudiothatis attachedtothemainhomebya stunningoverheadtrumpet walkway.Cathedralceilingsinthe mainfamilyroomandkitchenwith lightfromeveryangle.The renovatedkitchen,livingroomand additionofascreenedporch completethemain floorofthe home.Thelowerlevelofthehome has3setsofslidingglassdoors thatwalkouttothegardens.There are2largebedrooms,onefull bathroomandaseparatewasher anddryerroom.Thetop floorhasa completelyupdatedandverylarge masterandensuitewithlovely viewsofthepropertyand surroundingwoodlands.This propertyhasanintimatefeel becauseofthecaretakenwiththe designbutalsoallowsforeveryone tohavetheirownprivatespacefor relaxationduetothelargesquare footageandopen floorplan.There isalsoanoutdoor firepitandlarge wraparounddeckoffofthemain floor.Solarpanelsonthemain home.Familymembersandfriends leaveaftertheirvisitsto26Box Turtleeachyearsaying,"Whencan wecomeback".Aspecialhomeina speciallocation.The SengekontacketAssociationhasan activegroupofpickleballandtennis residentswhowillwelcomeyouon thecourts.Ownerswilloffera1997 IslandJeepWranglertobeincluded inthesaleofthispropertywith roughly55,000mileages.

HOUSES-OAK

BLUFFS

COMMERCIAL CONDO FOR RENT/SALE AT TISBURY

area. tilities not included. Includes 2 parking spaces. 508-221-0858.

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT.

One room ,200 sq. ft. office space for rent. Unique building on Beach Rd in ineyard Haven. Office space only use. (508)627-2750.

SUMMER RENTALS

CUSTOM ARTISAN CRAFTSMAN CARRIAGE HOUSE IN WEST TISBURY FOR MONTHLY RENTAL WITH UPPER LEVEL LIVING SPACE

One bedroom with king size bed and large loft area with full size bed. Beautiful woodworking throughout home. Conveniently located and close to shopping and beaches. July and August $11,000 per month June and September $6,000 per month. 508-221-2796

APARTMENTS/ROOMS

NEW LOVELY RENTAL

AVAILABLE NOW FOR SHORT OR LONGER TERM

WEST TISBURY SECOND

FLOOR SLEEPS UP TO 5. Beautiful, hypoallergenic huge 2 bedrooms one bath, with hardwoods oors, laundry, electric stove, parking, porch, barbecue, privacy, across from up island Cronigs. Weekly, May (800 a week)

June thru October 2300/week or monthly 8000. (All rates are negotiable)- not year round. Text first please thanx! Lisa 310 213 5472.

CABIN FOR RENT IN TISBURY, MAY TO OCTOBER Sleeps 4, no smoking, no pets. First month and security deposit. Call 508 696 3831.

YEAR ROUND

Studio, one person only, full-time, day-worker preferred. West Tisbury. No smokers, no pets. Partially furnished or not. $1,750. Application references, first/last/ secuirty. 508-693-9199.

PETS & LIVESTOCK

HORSES FOR HALF LEASE TO GOOD RIDERS ONLY.

Stunning oating gaits. ovable and gorgeous chestnuts both. Enzo: Dressage/jumper- famous sire in Olympics! Indoor arena and out door ring. Also his friend Diamond. For trails and light ring work much less expensive. Text Lisa 310-213-5472

Classifieds

*ESTATESALE*

LifelongcollectionofAntiques, Primitives,Art,Collectibles,MV Glass,China,Silver,Crystal, Furniture,Rugs,Kitchenware,Tools, Decor,Somethingforeveryone.

651StateRd-WestTisbury Sat/Sun5/23&5/2410a-2p NoEarlyBirdsPlease LimitedOnSiteParking NOPARKINGonSTATERd 850-293-4345

YARD SALES

132 South Rd Chilmark 9 - 2 Saturday May 16th - Home Accessories, Tools, CD/VHS/Records, Furniture, Bunk Beds & more. 508.314.0041

ARTICLES FOR SALE

I HAVE FIVE WORKING AIR CONDITIONERS.

ELECTION WARRANT

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts MARTHA’S VINEYARD REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Dukes, ss.

To the registered voters of the Towns of Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury, Massachusetts, GREETINGS:

ou are hereby notified and arned that the inhabitants of the Towns of Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury, Massachusetts registered to vote in any of said Towns being the members of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional District, are to meet at their respective polling places, to wit, In the TOWN OF AQUINNAH, at TOWN HALL, located at 955 STATE ROAD, AQUINNAH, MA 02535, in the TOWN OF CHILMARK, at THE CHILMARK COMMUNITY CENTER, located at 520 SOUTH ROAD, CHILMARK, MA 02535, in the TOWN OF EDGARTOWN, at TOWN HALL, located at 70 MAIN STREET, EDGARTOWN, MA 02539, in the TOWN OF OAK BLUFFS, at THE LIBRARY, located at 56R SCHOOL STREET, OAK BLUFFS, MA 02557, in the TOWN OF TISBURY, at THE EMERGENCY SERVICES FACILITY located at 215 SPRING STREET, TISBURY, MA 02568, in the TOWN OF WEST TISBURY, at THE PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING (STATION 2), located at 454 STATE ROAD, WEST TISBURY, MA 02575, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 at 11:00 a.m., to vote by BALLOT on the following question:

“Do you approve of the vote of the Regional District School Committee of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional School District adopted on March 9th, 2026, to authorize the borrowing of $333,490,457 to pay costs of designing, constructing, originally equipping and furnishing a new District high school and related athletic facilities to be located at 100 Edgartown Road, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, which vote provides, in relevant part, as follows: “VOTED: That the Martha’s Vineyard Regional School District (the “District”) hereby appropriates the amount of $333,490,457 for the purpose of paying costs of designing, constructing, originally equipping and furnishing a new District high

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school and including the rehabilitation of the running track and grass fields on the est side of Sanderson Avenue, located at 100 Edgartown Road, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, including the payment of all costs incidental and related thereto (the “Project”), which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children of at least 50 years, and for which the District may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), said amount to be expended at the direction of the School Building Committee. To meet this appropriation the District is authorized to borrow said amount, under and pursuant to G.L. c. 71, §16(n), and the District Agreement, as amended, or pursuant to any other enabling authority. The District acknowledges that the MSBA’s grant program is a non-entitlement, discretionary program based on need as determined by the MSBA, and any Project costs the District incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the District; provided further that any grant that the District may receive from the MSBA shall not exceed the lesser of (1) forty-six and thirty-one hundredths percent (46.31%) of eligible, approved Project costs, as determined by the MSBA, and (2) the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA, and that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the Project Funding Agreement that may be executed between the District and the MSBA. The debt authorized by this vote of the Committee shall be submitted to the registered voters of the District’s member communities for approval at a District-wide election to be held on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 in accordance with the provisions of G.L. c. 71, §16(n) and the District Agreement.”

Yes_____ No_____

The polls will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00p.m.

The District Secretary is hereby directed to serve this Warrant by posting an attested copy thereof in at least one public place in each of the Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown,

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Legal Notices

Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury, Massachusetts, and by publishing a copy thereof at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the District, said posting and publication to occur at least ten days before the day of election as aforesaid.

The District Secretary shall make due return of this Warrant with his or her doings thereon to the District Secretary, on or before the day of the aforesaid election.

[The balance of this page is intentionally blank.]

Given under our hands and the seal of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional School District as of this 9th of March, 2026.

School Committee Signatures:

/s/Jeffrey Manter

_/s/Rizwan Malik

_/s/Marsha Shufrin

_/s/ Kathryn Shertzer

_/s/Kelly Scott

_/s/Robert Lionette

_/s/Amy Houghton

_/s/Jennifer Cutrer

_/s/Sarah Murphy

MARTHA’S VINEYARD COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING

The public is invited to a public hearing concerning whether the proposed amendments to the regulations governing the Coastal District in the Town of Chilmark conform to the guidelines for the development of the istrict specified in the Commission’s designation of the District. Amendments are proposed in Section 3.07(4) Separations in the Coastal District. Annotated changes can be found on the MVC website: www.mvcommission.org/dcpc

Date & Time: Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 6:35 p.m.

Place: Hybrid Meeting MVC Office - 1 st Floor, 33 New York Ave, Oak Bluffs, MA and Zoom Meeting ID: 878 2111 0402; Password: 430182

Written testimony may be submitted prior to or during the hearing. Check for updates on the online calendar. MORTGAGEE’S NOTICE OF SALE OF REAL ESTATE

By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain Mortgage given by Dolores Williams and Cheryle Williams to Option One Mortgage Corporation, dated February 7, 2005 and recorded with the Dukes County Registry of Deeds at Book 1030, Page 179, subse-

quently assigned to Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee for Carrington Mortgage Loan Trust, Series 2005-OPT2, Asset Backed Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2005-OPT2 by Sand Canyon Corporation f/k/a Option One Mortgage Corporation by assignment recorded in said Dukes County Registry of Deeds at Book 1243, Page 114 for breach of the conditions of said Mortgage and for the purpose of foreclosing same will be sold at Public Auction at 3:00 PM on June 4, 2026 at 124 Skiff Avenue Unit G-11 aka Unit 11 aka Unit 11C, Tisbury (Vineyard Haven), MA, all and singular the premises described in said Mortgage, to wit: The Unit (hereinafter referred to as “the Unit”) known as and designated Unit Number 11 (11C) of the Causeway Harborview Condominium, a condominium situated in Tisbury (Vineyard Haven), County of Dukes County in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, created pursuant to Master Deed dated 3/18/1976 and recorded on 3/23/1976 with Dukes County Registry of Deeds in Book 332, Page 253, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of Chapter 183A of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Said Unit is conveyed together with an undivided percentage interest in the common areas and facilities. Said Unit is shown on the plan of the said Condominium entitled “Causeway Harborview” dated August, 1975, and recorded with said Deeds as Tisbury Case File No. 68 and 69. Legal Address: 124 Skiff Avenue, Unit 11(C), Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 Mailing Address: 124 Skiff Avenue, Unit G-11, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 Being the same premises conveyed to the herein named mortgagor (s) by deed recorded with Dukes County Registry of Deeds herewith. The premises are to be sold subject to and with the benefit of all easements, restrictions, encroachments, building and zoning laws, liens, unpaid taxes, tax titles, water bills, municipal liens and assessments, rights of tenants and parties in possession, and attorney’s fees and costs. TERMS OF SALE: A deposit of TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS AND 00 CENTS ($10,000.00) in the form of a certified check, bank treasurer’s check or money order will be required to be delivered at or before the time the bid is offered. The successful bidder will be required to execute a Foreclosure

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Sale Agreement immediately after the close of the bidding. The balance of the purchase price shall be paid within thirty (30) days from the sale date in the form of a certified check, bank treasurer’s check or other check satisfactory to Mortgagee’s attorney. The Mortgagee reserves the right to bid at the sale, to reject any and all bids, to continue the sale and to amend the terms of the sale by written or oral announcement made before or during the foreclosure sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee or the Mortgagee’s attorney. The description of the premises contained in said mortgage shall control in the event of an error in this publication. TIME WILL BE OF THE ESSENCE. FinCEN reporting will be required of all successful purchasers, absent a lawful exemption. Other terms, if any, to be announced at the sale. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee for Carrington Mortgage Loan Trust, Series 2005-OPT2, Asset Backed Pass-Through Certificates Series 2005- OPT2 Present Holder of said Mortgage, By Its Attorneys, ORLANS LAW GROUP PLLC PO Box 540540 Waltham, MA 02454 Phone: (781) 790-7800 24-014029

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School District Invitation for Bids

Surplus School Vehicles (#26-36)

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School District invites bids for the sale of four (4) surplus vehicles: one (1) 2012 Ford Econoline Van, one (1) 2012 Ford Escape Hybrid, one (1) 2015 Ford Expedition, and one (1) 2015 GMC Savcut. All vehicles are being sold as is and all sales are final. Vehicles must be removed from the property by Wednesday, June 17, 2026. Vehicles can be inspected by appointment only through Troy Vanderhoop, Transportation Manager by calling 508-560-2003 or tvanderhoop@mvyps.org. Bid documents can be obtained by emailing Jocelyn Broadley at jbroadley@ mvyps.org. Bids will need to be per vehicle and must be submitted in a sealed envelope addressed to Mark Friedman, School Business Administrator, and be received at 4 Pine Street, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 by Wednesday, June 3, 2026, before 4:00PM (Eastern Standard Time).

If Bids are being delivered in person, bids must be placed in secure drop box at front door at 4 Pine Street, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568. Bids will be opened on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 at 4:00 PM. The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School District reserves the right to reject any or all bids.

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

MARTHA’S VINEYARD COMMISSION

The public is invited to a public hearing concerning the following Development of Regional Impact #484-M12 Vineyard Golf Renovations Applicant: LSV Realty Trust; Vineyard Golf Club; Marilyn Vukota Location: 100 Club House Lane, Edgartown. Map 22, Lot 57.2 (approximately 12.05 acres) Proposal: Creation of a new pro shop, cart barn, loading dock and patio, alteration of an access road, addition of 34 parking spaces, expansion of a restaurant deck and seating, locker room renovations, and drainage improvements.

Date & Time: Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 6:35 p.m. Place: Hybrid Meeting MVC Office - 1st Floor, 33 New York Ave, Oak Bluffs, MA and Zoom Meeting ID: 878 2111 0402; Password: 430182

The application and plans are available on the MVC website. Written testimony may be submitted prior to or during the hearing. Check for updates on the online calendar. LEGAL NOTICES WEST TISBURY WEST TISBURY ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING On Thursday,

Chappaquiddick community split over ferry license transfer

As the Island’s busiest time of year approaches, a final decision is brewing over the transfer of the Chappy Ferry license from longtime owners Peter Wells and Sally Snipes to the current captain, Brian Scall.

While Scall received a wave of support from residents of Chappaquiddick, the smaller island a part of Edgartown, during a public hearing on Monday, it wasn’t unanimous. Some Chappaquiddick residents continued to call for more transparency, and raised caution over the proposed ownership structure.

Around 60 Edgartown residents packed into the town hall meeting room, spilling out into the hallway, early this week for the hearing on the potential transfer of the Chappy Ferry license. In the end, a final decision after the hourlong discussion wasn’t made, and the Edgartown Select Board decided to return to the matter on May 26, after town staff conduct background checks and review issues raised by the Chappy Ferry steering committee, such as updating the license and learning more about who the investors are.

The select board is the licensing body for the Chappy Ferry, and any major changes, like rate adjustments or license transfer, need to be heard at a public hearing and approved by the board. The transfer of the license has been a focus of discourse on Chappaquiddick, because the ferry is the only year-round way to

Harry Rosenzweig

Harry Rosenzweig, beloved husband, father, grandfather, artist, and educator, passed away peacefully at the age of 84 a er a courageous battle with cancer.

Harry dedicated his life to the arts as both a creator and a teacher. He produced monumental works in plaster and concrete, with installations on Martha’s Vineyard, in Savannah, Ga.; Miami, Fla.;

BY EUNKI SEONWOO

leave and go to the island.

Scall emphasized to the crowd and select board members the extent of his outreach to the community, from conducting a meetand-greet at the Chappaquiddick Community Center to talking with the Chappaquiddick Wampanoag Tribe. He said that “safe and reliable service” was his priority, but that he still has “room to improve.” He also said Wells and Snipes, current owners of the Chappy Ferry, and the captains and crews of the ferry service, have “surpassed their obligations to the town for 19 years.”

“Today, I’m asking you to let me continue that service,” he said, hoping to be able to “begin the next chapter” of the ferry.

Wells and Snipes backed Scall at the meeting. “We ask that you grant the transfer of the license, so we can go home,” Wells said.

Chappy Ferry captains also voiced support for their fellow mariner. “Give this man a chance for the next two years to show you what he can do,” George Fisher, one of the captains at the meeting, said. The ferry license was renewed to Wells and Snipes in 2023 for a five-year term, and the transfer would fill the remaining time.

Art Smadbeck, select board chair, highlighted that the town received numerous letters in support of the license transfer, and many residents vocalized their approval at the meeting.

and New York City. He spent more than 25 years in art education, including more than 12 years as an associate professor at New York University and 11 years as Director of cultural programming at Montclair State University. In the 1980s, he owned the Nashua House Hotel on Martha’s Vineyard. e Vineyard was the place he cherished and proudly called home. Harry lived with light, grace, and a spirit that touched all who knew him. He was a man of great warmth, generosity, and creativity. He is deeply missed by his wife Andrea, his son Jed and daughter-in-law Meghan, his grandchildren Lena and Lem, and his stepdaughters Melina, Micaela, and Maggie.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, August 23, at noon at his home, 145 Vineyard Ave., Oak Blu s; casual attire.

“I see in Brian the future of the ferry,” Donna Eonas, Chappaquiddick resident, said. While there wasn’t opposition to Scall himself, concerns were raised over future ferry operations.

Rick Schifter, a member of the Chappy Ferry steering committee, which is an advisory group to the select board on the ferry, highlighted that the license would actually be transferred to Chappy Ferry LLC. While Scall is a part of that business, which was formed on April 20, accord-

ing to the state’s businessentity database, there is lingering uncertainty on who his financial backers are.

Scall hasn’t disclosed those investors, and he’s cited a nondisclosure agreement as the reason during meetings with the steering committee.

“This would be the first time that ownership of the ferry is being divorced from the operator of the ferry,” Schifter said. He recommended the board wait two weeks to gather the infor-

mation it needs. Wells and Snipes were sole owners and operators.

Members of the steering committee, including Dana Strayton and Thomas Tilghman, also called for amendments to the 1993 license to modernize it, such as codification of rates for Chappaquiddick residents and increased transparency.

Carmin Reiss, incoming president of the Chappaquiddick Island Association, but speaking as an individual, called the transfer proposal “an application for a monopoly license” for a service Chappaquiddick relies upon. She also raised issues about “out-of-state” investors owning the ferry, expressing doubt that Scall would be given “complete control” of business decisions as a “minority investor.”

“The potential for abuse of monopoly power against the totally captive popula-

tion on Chappaquiddick is obvious,” Reiss said. She also called for increased oversight of the ferry by the town, and availability of data from the ferry service, which she had previously highlighted to The Times as items people who took a survey from her organization also wanted.

Still, more residents echoed the call to give Scall a chance.

“Let’s take a risk, but let’s also realize that this board has a lot of resources behind it,” Woody Filley, Chappaquiddick resident, said, noting that the select board won’t “sell this town down a river.”

Town officials were also scheduled to meet Tuesday in executive session about the Chappy Ferry, according to the agenda.

Town officials agreed to return to the matter of the Chappy Ferry after Memorial Day.

Services Sunday for Helen Leon-Guerrero

Please join us as we celebrate the life of a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend, Helen Leon-Guerrero. Her kindness, strength, and love touched so many, and she will be deeply missed but forever remembered. Feel free to bring a photo or story to share as we honor her memory together. Casual, colorful attire is suggested. e celebration of life is on Sunday, May 17, from 11 am to 2 pm, at the Farm Neck Cafe on Farm Neck Way in Oak Blu s.

OBITUARIES

e Martha’s Vineyard

The Edgartown Select Board will return to the matter after Memorial Day.

NICHOLAS VUKOTA

Rich Schifter speaks on behalf of the Chappy Ferry steering committee.

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2026

VISUAL STORYBOOKS

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look?

So begins the Beatles song “Paperback Writer,” which was released 60 years ago this month, and quickly became a No. 1 hit. It was written by Paul McCartney with John Lennon’s input. McCartney revealed in a 2007 article in the New Yorker that “he imagined the song as a would-be author’s pleading letter to a publisher.”

It’s a thousand pages give or take a few I’ll be writing more in a week or two I can make it longer if you like the style I can change it ’round

While much has changed since 1966, the drive to write and publish books is still going strong. In 1966, an estimated 300,000 books were published in the U.S. According to Publishers Weekly, more than 4 million books were published just last year. That’s over a million more than were published in 2023, and 3 million more than were published in 2014, the year we launched Islanders Write. I suppose we could make the case from these numbers that Islanders Write has had an impact on this upward trend. However, correlation is not causation, and it’s unlikely that this large a literary tidal wave could come from such a small, triangular Island, even with its oversize reputation. What has been incontrovertibly proven since the first Islanders Write is that there are an impressive number of extremely talented writers who live on the Vineyard and visit the Island. It has also become clear that there is a lot to discuss when it comes to the art, craft, and business of writing.

Islanders Write is not a book festival. We focus on the writing. That said, many, if not most, people who speak at the event have published a book or two. It’s also not the type of writers’ festival where we ask you to speak only if you have a new book out. However, we do enjoy celebrating and spotlighting new releases by Islanders Write authors — all of whom have a connection to the Vineyard, whether they live here or are frequent visitors — which is why I am delighted to announce the speakers at this year’s event who, as of this writing, have published books within the past year. Belle Burden, the author of “Strangers,” which is the breakout memoir of the moment, will be joining us. Burden was on the Vineyard during the early days of the pandemic when she found out her husband was having an affair. He left the Island, left his marriage, and left his kids. She will be speaking with Keisha Lance Bottoms, who just released her memoir “The Rough Side of the Mountain,” and is currently running for governor of Georgia. Not only is she running, according to the latest polls, she is in the lead! I have yet to meet her, but I love the way she was described in a recent article in Essence magazine, written by Bridgette Bartlett Royall:

60 years on

We still want to write.

BY KATE FEIFFER

“Keisha Lance Bottoms is a lot like your favorite friend, auntie, niece, or sister. You know, the one who is super-smart and successful, but never pressed to broadcast her grades or accomplishments. You’re more likely to learn that she made the dean’s list (again) or landed yet another promotion from anyone but her. She’s not a bragger, but she exudes confidence. She doesn’t shrink to accommodate any space, be it personal or professional.”

Two very funny essayists who have new books with fabulous titles will also be part of a panel discussion about using humor to make difficult topics come alive. Bestselling humorist and author Cazzie David writes about the angst of early adulthood in her new book of essays, “Delusions: Of Grandeur, Of Romance, Of Progress” (St. Martin’s Press). Actress and best-selling author Annabelle Gurwitch’s new book

“The End of My Life is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker” (Zibby Publishing), chronicles the carpe diem approach to life she embraced after being diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.

Elisa M. Speranza’s second novel, “Triage,” will be published in May. It is the story of a woman dealing with the aftermath of her time as a combat nurse during World War II. As readers of Spreanza’s first novel, “The Italian Prisoner,” are aware, she has a gift for creating impactful and memorable characters, so I asked her if she’d be part of a panel discussion about writing memorable characters.

Essayist and book reviewer Brooke Allen will also be joining us at Islanders Write to talk about reviews and writing book reviews. A Wall Street Journal review praised Allen’s own book “Good Bones: Glorious Relics from the Age of Reading” (Tivoli Books) for paying attention to lesser-known writers: “Many of Ms. Allen’s favorite writers have been damned with the label ‘minor’ and exiled to the literary gulags, far away from the reading public. She frees them from this fate.” The review, quite a laudatory one at that, also stated that “‘Good Bones’ is literary criticism at its best.” We are delighted to have the writer of “literary criticism at its best” on hand and in person to discuss just that.

There is still a whole lot of dreaming happening on this sixtieth anniversary of “Paperback Writer,” and if you're among those working on a book project or thinking about starting one, we hope you’ll join us at this summer’s Islanders Write.

If you really like it you can have the rights It could make a million for you overnight. If you must return it, you can send it here But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer

Islanders Write will take place at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Wednesday, July 15, at 7:30 pm and all day on Thursday, July 16. Islanders Write is free to attend. Kate Feiffer is the director of Islanders Write. For more information, go to islanderswrite.com.

Engage with writers and publishing professionals for discussions about the art, craft, and business of writing.

For more details scan here or visit: islanderswrite.com July 15 for our kick-off event at 7:30 pm and all day July 16 at Featherstone Center for the Arts.

Free to attend!

Roasted vegetable orzo with hummus dressing

Delicious, easy, and quick. BY

ALLISON ROBERTS

I’m a roasted-veggies fan. And I’m a fan of easy meals. Roasted vegetable orzo with hummus dressing checks both these boxes. This recipe can be altered in a few ways, especially for those who can’t tolerate dairy or gluten.

Roasted Vegetable Orzo with Hummus Dressing

Serves 4.

1 red pepper, sliced

3 large carrots, diced

1 zucchini, cubed or chopped

1 (or ½) red onion, chopped

2 Tbsp. olive oil

garlic powder

2-3 cups of orzo, (or rice or quinoa)

1 15-oz. can chickpeas

½ cup feta (I used plant-based feta)

Hummus dressing

½ cup of hummus

(You can make your own or buy some. I bought a caramelized red onion hummus that rocked.)

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp, water

2 Tbsp. olive oil

garlic powder

Get all your ingredients

Preheat oven to 425°. Chop your veggies and throw them in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Once mixed, spread veggies out on a baking sheet. Cook for 30 minutes. While the veggies roast, cook your orzo, rice, or quinoa to the package directions. Put your chickpeas in a microwave-safe bowl, drizzle with olive oil and a

Writing From The Heart

BY NANCY SLONIM ARONIE

My husband is the opposite of a wine snob. We just watched “Drops of God,” a TV series on Netflix. Wine is at the center of it, but it isn't only about wine. It’s a great story, written well and filmed out-of-this-world gorrrgeous! I loved it. But when characters

would swish the wine around their glasses (and there was a lot of swishing) and talk about the legs in slow motion, and oak barrels versus cherry, and these tannins are too complex, my husband, if there were a championship eye-rolling contest, would win. He doesn't understand the whole wine world. He just doesn't get it. There’s a Zen poem that begins, “The

little salt, and warm them up. Once your rice, orzo, or quinoa is done, drizzle it with a little olive oil to keep it from clumping up. When veggies are done, put them back into a large bowl and add the chickpeas and orzo, rice, or quinoa. To make your dressing, mix all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and pour it over the veggies and grain of choice. Mix it all up, and if you want to get fancy, garnish with parsley. Yum.

great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.” That’s him. He is pleased with anything you put in front of him. He’s not a foodie. My mother-in-law (whom I loved, and who had a million other talents) was the worst cook on the planet. She would serve something unrecognizable, and all four sons and my father-in-law would say, almost in unison, “Mum, this is delicious.” And they meant it. I would add, “It's unbelievable.” I also meant it.

My husband has tasted $7 wine and $200 wine, and I witnessed him shrugging his shoulders and saying, “I see no difference.” The guy with the $200 bottle of wine shook his head back and forth and said, “I give up.”

Over the years, if friends started talking about which vineyard and which year and mention the nice, velvety mouthfeel, I knew to expect the kick under the table. Translation: Where did you find these people? And God forbid anyone would ever send their wine back — he would probably either leave the restaurant or end the friendship, or both. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but he has always had a disdain for folks who spend an inordinate amount of time discussing wine. (Re-

began reading the title: “How to Be Cultured.” It was one of those quiet Sunday mornings, reading our separate chosen sections (him with “Opinion” and me with “Book Review”), and out of the silence, suddenly I hear the following: ”How to be cultured while we bomb the shit out of people. And what does that even mean, how to be cultured?” I started to answer, “Ya’ know, wearing the right thing, saying the right thing, knowing which spoon to use,” but I realized it was just a rhetorical

My husband helps me have gratitude and reminds me to be amazed.

When people bring wine to us, when the dinner is over and the guests have gone home, Joel takes the leftover wine from the two or three bottles and combines them. He calls it Chilmark Wine. To date, I have never let him actually serve it, and ultimately, it either becomes an interesting vinegar or out she goes.

member, this is the guy who would rather debate thorium molten salt reactors versus wind and solar. This is the guy who worries constantly about the Doomsday Clock, and these days, what the obsession going to Mars is all about. And I might insert here, the wine people may be eyerolling at his obsessions.)

And why not?

Last week, while reading the New York Times Style Magazine, he stopped as he

question, and his bombing line started to sink in.

Getting an answer was the last thing he wanted. What he wanted — and what he's always wanted since I met him in 1965 — is for people to care about the environment and to get along with each other and have peace, rather than all the distractions that keep us from feeling compassion and empathy.

He has always been straddling the fence between

enjoying his life while being fully aware of people who are suffering. Often before we eat, when I have already glommed my first five bites, he’ll say, “We are so lucky to eat when we’re hungry.” Or, “Isn't it amazing that when we turn on a light switch, we get light?” He helps me have gratitude and reminds me to be amazed. But now with the war and the possible annihilation of the whole of humanity, even the “All the News that’s Fit to Print” New York Times is a trigger for my poor energy czar. His straddle has always had enough balance that he could enjoy much of his life. But now I think his worry is getting worse. What can I do? I swear he’s going to drive me to drink some of that famous Chilmark Wine.

And if you become a fly on my wall, you might just see me swish my glass, and if you listen hard, you might just hear me say, “There's a plush texture to this wine, sort of a crisp savory taste — and these tannins? They're not complex at all.”

Plated and ready to eat.

together.

Vegtables chopped and ready to be roasted.

PHOTOS: ALLISON ROBERTS

TOWN COLUMNS

Tisbury

By Taylor Stone tisburycolumnist@gmail.com

Heard on Main Street this week: There’s a new Tisbury columnist in town.

Hello, world, Tisbury, and Tisbury-adjacent enthusiasts. My name is Taylor Stone, your newest MV Times columnist, and this marks my very first time writing to you all. While I admit I’m new to town columns, I’ve been studying the trails of footprints set out by all the current columnists, and I’m excited to share my own perspective as a yearround resident of Vineyard

Haven. Because such a thorough introduction was published here last week, I’m going to skip right to what you really care about:

For the past 40 years, Kay Mayhew shared her stories with you week after week, representing her personal view of Tisbury with pride. She started writing in 1986, and five years later I was born over in New Hampshire. Then, to add insult to injury, my family had the gall to move to Edgartown when we came to the Island full-time in 2001. So I write

Edgartown

By Marnely Murray marnely@gmail.com

Is it just me, or does it seem that May might just be as busy as August in Edgartown? For business owners reopening and managing everything from employee visas to housing and scheduling, plus inventory ordering, receiving, and pricing; for local families organizing what the summer will look like for them; for the summer families arriving at their second homes; and for everyone in between — I see you, and see how hard you’re all working toward making the summer of 2026 not only a profitable one, but one

when you might be able to also enjoy some beach days and downtime yourself.

On May 16, from 10 am to noon, head to Edgartown Books for a book signing.

“Sailing with Angels,” by Laura Briel Sullivan, is a story about a young girl navigating the loss of the genera-

to you as a humble Edgartown School graduate, who lucked into Vineyard Haven about 10 years ago when a customer came into EduComp (where I worked at the time) asking if we sold rental agreements. The answer was no — but I’d be happy to tour the place on my lunch break! And I’ve been here ever since.

Congratulations to my fellow Tisbury residents for surviving two long nights in the Tisbury School Gymnasium bonding through the annual town meeting. I was sitting right along with all

of you, sketchbook in hand. Shout-out to everyone who came, listened, and voted, with honorable mentions to the committed attendees sitting in the “nonresident” section each night; to Bow Van Riper for his impromptu lesson on ballast stones and the historic significance of our stone walls around town; and to all the noteworthy hats on display at the mics both evenings.

As Memorial Day weekend draws closer, more and more stores open back up for the season. Lani Beach Club, Rinpo, Lennox &

Harvey, Island Vintage, the newly revealed India Rose Collective, and more all welcomed visitors with open doors last weekend.

Walking through town you can feel the days warming, and listen to the springtime soundscapes of rustling critters, returning birds, morning leaf blowers, and through-the-night roadwork as the entire Island wipes off its spring pollen and prepares for the soonto-be summer season.

Tisbury School's annual March to the Sea parade in recognition of Memorial

I write to you as a humble Edgartown School graduate, who lucked into Vineyard Haven about 10 years ago.

tion she grew up with on the shores of Edgartown. Guided by a talisman, she journeys across sea and Island, meeting wise characters, from the Judge to the Alchemist to the Harbormaster, each offering wit and wisdom. This weekend is one where you can start enjoying the town to its fullest, with the second annual Edgartown Porchfest. As seen in towns across the country, it is a musical event for the community and by the community. Shout-out to all the businesses that are opening up their space to musicians: 19

Raw, M.V. Boys & Girls Club, Edgartown library, Eisenhauer Gallery, Sea Spa Salon, Harbor View Hotel, Hob Knob, Town Bar & Grill, Bad Martha's and Donaroma's, Edgartown Inn, Federated Church, Vintage Wine and Spirit, Edgartown Books, Kenworthy, Kismet, Salte, Rainy Day, Rosewater Market, and Memorial Wharf. Events like these are not only fueled by the organizing committees, but by the local businesses that say yes, and open their doors to these opportunities, so to everyone on the list above — thank you!

Part of my goal this season is getting my 10,000 steps daily, and this Edgartown library walking group on Wednesdays sounds like a good addition to my week.

Oak Bluffs

By Joanne Lambert joannelamber@gmail.com

“Your problem isn’t the problem, it’s your attitude about the problem.“

–Ann Brashares

Oak Bluffs will celebrate the arrival of the first ferry of the 2026 season in style this year!

On May 14, the ferry will dock to a welcome ceremony, followed by a celebration with coffee, doughnuts, and live music by the Mike Benjamin Band.

The lucky passengers will receive “keys to Oak Bluffs,” plus discount coupons and informational flyers to make their visit more informed and fun. This is a wonderful new tradition planned by the town of Oak Bluffs and the Oak Bluffs Economic Development Council. I love it! I think that we should keep it up — how about if we greet every first boat on Thursdays like this! I mean, imagine how we could turn attitudes around this way, especially in August!

Save the date: The P.A. Club is hosting the MDW Craft Fair on Saturday, May 23, from 11 to 4. Vineyard Artisans will fill the space with their art, clothing, jewelry, and goodies. Great time to shop local!

Featherstone Center for the Arts opened its annual “Art of Flowers” exhibit on May 3. This gorgeous and inspiring show will be up through May 24, so don’t miss it. The gallery is open daily from noon to 4 pm. While you are there, check out the companion ex-

hibit by the children of Garden Gate Preschool, “The Art of Flowers Through the Eyes of Children,” in the Schule Chapel Gallery.

Featherstone has also published the schedule for its summer 2026 concerts on the lawn, one of my favorite summer activities! If you like to plan ahead, check the schedule at featherstoneart.org. It’s all happening!

Porchfest Edgartown is happening on Saturday, May 16. I know this is all the way over in Edgartown, but if you

The rain date will be Sunday, May 17, and you can view the full lineup online at visitedgartown.org/porchfest.

Next up is Martha’s Party on May 18, with tickets still available online. If you’re planning a celebration of any kind on Martha’s Vineyard, this experience will help you understand venues, vendors, and the Island way of putting on an outstanding event. You’ll get to tour multiple premier venues, meet top planners and vendors in person, experience real event design in action, enjoy curated food, wine, and specialty tastings, and build connections that go a long way when planning an event on an Island. All the scheduling and hard work is done for you, all you have to do is attend and learn! Ticket sales and more details online at marthasparty.com

love our local live music like I do, don’t miss this chance to see just about everybody perform in one day. Starting at 1 pm, the musicians play throughout the town on various porches and squares, right though 6 pm with the Dock Dance band at Memorial Wharf. Check out the schedule at visitedgartown. org. And remember, the VTA bus is still free, making it easy to get there! Tom Dresser has published his newest book, “Historic Storms of Martha’s Vineyard.”

The lucky passengers will receive “keys to Oak Bluffs,” plus discount coupons and informational flyers to make their visit more informed and fun.

Day is on Friday, May 22. Students leave the school at 12:15 pm, and parade to Owen Park via Spring Street and Main Street. On Monday, May 25, from noon to 4 pm, Tisbury’s annual Memorial Day Picnic will be held at Tashmoo Waterworks. Come enjoy live music, boating, games, and more! Do you have something you want shared in a future Tisbury column? Email me at tisburycolumnist@gmail. com with your own stories of our town, favorite memories from Kay’s columns, and anything coming up that you want spotlighted here. I certainly don’t want to miss anyone’s rightful “big bunches of birthday balloons,” or the next event not to be missed in our corner of the Island.

Part of my goal this season is getting my 10,000 steps daily, and this Edgartown library walking group on Wednesdays sounds like a good addition to my week and helpful to my goal. Join library Director Lisa Sherman for a walk around town! You’ll meet at the library’s rear entrance at 8:30 am to stretch. The walk is between 2.5 and 3 miles through the downtown area, and will take about 60 minutes. No registration required; see you there! Birthday shout-outs to the following friends: Jim Gibson on May 14, Susanna Herlitz-Ferguson on the 15th, Amanda Clampitt on the 16th, Jamie LeBlond on the 17th, Julia Spiro on May 18, Casey O’Connor on the19th, and Erin Hegarty on May 20! Wishing you all the best today and always!

Tom describes his book as “not just an historical tome but a warning,” as bigger and stronger hurricanes are likely in the future. This fascinating book chronicles storms battering the Vineyard dating back to the 1600s. It’s available at local bookstores and through Tom’s website, tomdresser.com.

Happy birthday to Kelli Pecararo on May 14! Marie Doubleday celebrates her day on May 17. Birthday hugs and dragonflies to Angella Henry on the 19th. Henry Diodati blows out his candles on the 20th. He shares the day with Annie Parsons — shout-out across the pond! Sending heavenly birthday wishes on the 20th to a woman who knew how to celebrate, my dear friend Dee Moyer. Send me your news!

TOWN COLUMNS

Aquinnah

By Kathie Olsen aquinnahcolumn@gmail.com

I’m writing this on Sunday, May 10. It is Mother’s Day, and the day after the third annual Aquinnah Variety Show. For Mother’s Day, I’m just appreciating all that it takes to mother. And, because I’m so full of love for my community as a result of that show, I’m spending the day filled with gratitude for all. The show was an extravaganza without precedent. Performing before a packed house at Town Hall, there were 20 acts, and a cast of 66, ranging in age from 2 to 87, including 29 from Aquinnah. There were too many acts for

me to give you a complete reprise (please forgive me if I have not included your act), but here’s a brief sampling: The show opened with Kate Taylor and Laura Jordan’s beautiful voices singing “All You Need Is Love,” then more singing (including opera by Jessica Goodenough) and show-biz tap-dancing by Cathy Weiss. The music of Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me” rang around the hall, accompanied by the swing dancing of Janet Holladay and Tom Carberry. Isaac Taylor helped us all catch our breath with the

Chilmark

By Claire Ganz cganz@live.com

The daffodils are fading. The redbud is blooming. The outdoor shower is hooked up. Outdoor spaces are calling for visits, music, and dancing. This season has been rugged, and the cleanup from the winter storms is a lot, along with necessary upgrades because what were once considered luxuries are necessities — dryers, larger refrigerators, and washing machines, personal electrical appliances, indoor showers, high-speed internet, cell phones, and constant

connection. It is hard to compete. There is something valuable about checking in with neighbors, the tide, the weather, and the library. Our community is made up of incredible individuals.

Magical Fairy Sculpture Trail, created by ceramic artists Bill O’Callaghan

haunting sounds of his beautiful voice responding to the sound of the shruti box. Little Coco Decker played “Chopsticks” on the piano. Young teens wowed us belting out music, one act singing in French, and another written by the performers as part of their original mini-musical. There was dance by Zuzu Sauer and Wren Forté. But it wasn’t just music and dance. The Hookers presented their goods (don’t worry, these were rug hookers displaying their hand-tied rugs). There

were storytellers and poetry and tributes to those we’ve lost. As we approached the closing of the evening, we were treated to the absolutely classiest version of “In My Life,” sung by Tobias, Faith, and Naushon Vanderhoop, all clad in elegant clothing and harmonizing like angels, accompanied by Edward Fantasia. Then there was explosive basketball displayed to the thumping music of Kurtis Blow, sweetened by seeing the handsome teenage players lifting little Clay Col-

ter up to the net so he could dunk it, and including a wickedly smooth breakdance performed by little Haile Forté to music provided by Sebastian Caldwell (a.k.a. DJ Dreamland). The night ended with a reprisal of “All You Need Is Love,” performed by the whole cast.

The entire thing rested on the shoulders of the indefatigable Laura Jordan and Kate Taylor, who both deserve medals. They were supported by Assistant Producer Barbara Wallen; by

As we approached the closing of the evening, we were treated to the absolutely classiest version of “In My Life,” sung by Tobias, Faith, and Naushon Vanderhoop, all clad in elegant clothing and harmonizing like angels.

and Heather Goff, is open for the season from 9 am to dusk. The Pottery Shop is open Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday afternoons, 2 to 5 pm.

Nothing can replicate the connection that comes from a book that draws you in, and our library is an incredible resource. Through the interlibrary loan program, it is able to get publications and books from libraries across the country, including universities.

The Chilmark library started in 1882 as a book rental in the Mayhew Bros.’

store in Quitsa, with 33 books donated by the prominent journalist, suffragette, and socialist Alice Stone Blackwell and her cousin Florence Blackwell Mayhew (Mrs. E. Eliot Mayhew). The fee was 3¢ a week.

In 1890, Massachusetts committed to encouraging towns to establish free public libraries, and gave Chilmark 171 books. By then the store and rental library had grown, and was where the Chilmark Store stands. On August 15, 1891, with a collection of 263 volumes, “the library moved into the new part of E. Eliot

The Chilmark library started in 1882 as a book rental in the Mayhew Bros.’ store in Quitsa, with 33 books.

West Tisbury

By Hermine Hull hermine.hull@gmail.com

Achilly springtime wind blew through town last week, keeping me in a sweater as I watched branches sway in my woods. Otherwise, spring is progressing as expected. Takemmy Farm, North Tisbury, and Morning Glory have voluptuous bouquets of tulips of every color and variety for sale. New leaves are emerging, and shadbush is blooming in delicate puffs. My dogwood trees are flowering now, too, planted in memory of my Connecticut childhood. There was an article on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times, “Reviving U.S. Waterways by Removing Failing Dams.” Interesting reading, as I think it

might apply to the debate over our Mill Pond. Worth taking a look at.

Mike and I had a houseguest over the weekend.

A dear longtime friend, Melanie Winsten Hall, came from New York’s Hudson Valley. We met when Melanie brought artwork for me to look at when I had my gallery, and we have been friends ever since. She is a painter, teacher, and children’s book illustrator. It’s true that having company makes us look anew at the Island. Melanie and I took a drive up-Island, and reminisced about places we have loved, and painted. I haven’t painted outside in some while; didn’t real-

ize how much I missed it until I revisited some of my favorite spots. Lobsterville. Red Beach. Squibnocket. Moshup Trail. The Allen and Keith farms. Mermaid Farm and Brookside. Polly Hill’s. So much still looks the same, and we appreciated its untouched beauty that allowed the illusion that nothing has changed.

I had wanted to stop in at Merry Farm Pottery, which opened this past weekend, but we ran out of time. Another day. Micah Thanhauser will have his studio open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11 to 5 pm, and anytime by appointment: micah@

merryfarmpottery.com

The Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living’s Walk for Dementia and Caregiver Services is Saturday, May 16. Meet at Nomans Restaurant in O.B. at 10 am, and walk to Jaws Bridge and back. There is a 20 percent discount on your meal with walk registration. For information: 508-939-9440.

West Tisbury’s Richard North Patterson has a new book, “Tripwires: Fifteen 21st Century Events that Undermined American Democracy — and How to Reclaim It,” which will be published on Sept. 1. It is based on a series of essays he wrote online,

Mayhew's store."

“The Devil Wears Prada 2” is brilliant and fun, something to see with friends. I’m wondering if my favorite quote from the movie, “May the bridges I burn light my ways,” delivered by Emily Blunt’s character, Emily Charlton, is in the book. I’ve requested “Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns” through interlibrary loan.

The family of William (“Will”) P. Steranka invites us to an informal celebration of his life at the Chilmark Community Center, 520 South Road, on Sunday, May 31, from noon to 2 pm. Come out and share your stories, smiles, and your memories of Will. Open to all who knew him.

Colin Ruel’s exhibit reception at the M.V. Museum is May 15, from 5:30 to 7 pm. Ruel writes, “This exhibi-

“America on the Precipice.” Books and reading have always been my retreat and succor. Here are some other suggestions: P.G. Wodehouse is always a good bet. Spending any time in his world of wacky characters in even wackier situations, all told in a plummy British upper-class voice, cheers me right up. Wodehouse must have been laughing hysterically as he typed these stories.

Reading American history, the combination of glorious Enlightenment ideals balanced by hard-headed realism, the writing of our Constitution, the rending of our nation that led to the

I haven’t painted outside in some while; didn’t realize how much I missed it until I revisited some of my favorite spots. Lobsterville. Red Beach. Squibnocket. Moshup Trail. The Allen and Keith farms.

Scott Crawford and Keren Tonnesen, who did the complicated lights and sound; by Wes Nagy on piano; and by the backstage support given by Richard Wagner and Jim Vercruysse. Jeremy Berlin was at the piano for one of the numbers; Claire Page did choreography; Liz Witham handled videography; and David Stanwood was the piano tech. It was a whole lot of going on for one night of joy, this outpouring of community energy, creativity, and love. But it was wonderful. Be grateful, and may it inform and sustain you as we move ahead. Meanwhile, life goes on. Reservations are open for Outermost Inn, which opens on June 10 for the season. Up on the Cliffs, construction is in its final stages, while Berta

Continued on B7

tion places my life and work beside that of my grandfather, Capt. James Douglas Morgan — a family man, fisherman, and folk artist. He went to sea at 13, harpooned swordfish, and later owned and fished the dragger Mary & Verna out of Menemsha. He worked as a commercial fisherman until he was 81, and continued to carve, draw, and paint long after … Today … housing is unattainable for working families. Rural identity is aestheticized and sold, while the people who formed it are displaced. What once required endurance and community now requires capital. The exhibit does not romanticize the past, it does not offer nostalgia as a remedy. Instead, it insists on attention to the present, to community, to labor, to memory, to inequity, to inheritance.”

Civil War, Reconstruction and its aftermath, two world wars, Jim Crow and antiimmigrant prejudice, our greatest times, and our worst. It is instructive to read about how we Americans came through periods of seemingly insurmountable discord before now, as well as periods of unity and achievement. Jon Meacham has published an anthology of documents, speeches, and essays called “American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union.” Chris Matthews’ “Lessons From Bobby” is about Robert F. Kennedy, a man who showed great moral clarity in his efforts to make America fairer for all Americans. Then I reread President John Kennedy’s book “Profiles in Courage,” a book I first read in the 1960s. Anything by David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin is always readable and instructive. Happy reading.

“It’s like a snowball rolling.”

The Readers Program began in 2021 and continues today. Walton notes that approximately 10 percent of our schools’ educational staff are people of color, including fewer than 0.03 percent who are Black or Native American. “So there is very little opportunity for children on our Island to see people of color as role models. We decided to invite friends and colleagues of color to visit the elementary schools and read to the students. Joe Carter, the retired Oak Bluffs Police chief, is one of our readers. I even have two people from off-Island who come each month to read. They have also donated a bundle of books.” The teachers and readers select the books together. “It’s not as much about the book, but the interaction,” says Walton.

Collaborations across the community

M.V. Diversity Coalition’s education committee promotes justice, health, and education. BY ABBY REMER

In these times, laying the groundwork to eradicate racism is more important than ever. So too is developing collaborations across the community. And this is exactly what the Martha’s Vineyard Diversity Coalition (MVDC) has been doing since 2020. The all-volunteer group partners with Island organizations and institutions to promote access to justice, health, and education, equipping every child to face the world with confidence. The education committee works on many fronts to support Island schools and ensure that each child gets the education they deserve in an environment that makes them feel safe and valued.

Jocelyn Coleman Walton, Lisa Pimentel, and Andrew Italiano chair the committee, which is comprised of multigenerational, multicultural artists, musicians, writers, and photographers. I recently spoke with Walton about just some of their impressive initiatives over the years.

The M.V. Living Legends: BIPOC and Immigrant Elders Oral History Project began in 2021 with support from Mass Humanities, M.V. Community Foundation, M.V. Bank, and the local cultural council of Mass Cultural Council. The project is a collaboration of the education committee, the Island branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, MVTV, the regional high school, and Charter School students. Former M.V. Museum oral historian Linsey Lee and educator Lynn Ditchfield, with the help of student mentors, teach students to research, prepare questions, and record interviews with

senior Islanders of color to honor the oral history tradition and support multicultural, intergenerational dialogue. Walton, one of the original interviewees, says, “In my case, they had my book, ‘The Place My Heart Calls Home,’ as a resource, and picked up ideas in developing their questions from that, two of which were: What has being on the Vineyard meant to your life’s work? And did you have an experience that inspired you to become a teacher?”

The project has continued over the years, and a 30-minute video featuring several of the student interviews will be screened during the MVDC Truth and Joy Program on June 27 at the PAC. This annual free event promotes racial justice, educates the public on the Island’s oftenuntold history, and celebrates diversity through cultural performances and festivals.

The 2022 Honoring the Native People of Noepe endeavor came about when Walton and Pimentel, with input from Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal members, presented it to the All-Island School Committee, which resulted in Columbus Day being removed from the school calendar and Indigenous Peoples’ Day being added. “That was very thrilling for us,” Walton says.

The committee and M.V. Public Schools also sponsored a summer

professional development curriculum workshop for teachers in 2024 and 2025. Oak Bluffs thirdgrade teacher Tonya Katz led the workshop, titled “Strengthening Classroom Discourse by Including Diverse Perspectives.” The accolades were strong, with one participant commenting, “[This workshop] was thought-provoking and honestly life-changing … Frankly, when I walked into the

class, I assumed that, as a ‘nonracist, nonbiased’ person, I didn’t need to learn anything about it. I now understand that I have a long journey ahead to become an antiracist and antibiased teacher, member of my community, and citizen of the world.” As a result of the workshops’ success, Katz has been asked to lead additional ones for the district. “We’re ecstatic about that,” says Walton.

Practicing Our Activism Discussions for teachers and community members originated when the education committee was first formed. “Initially, we were getting a sense of what we could do. Sometimes you just need to shore each other up for the work you’re doing. In 2023, one of our members facilitated conversations with the Seeing White podcast.” This set of powerful podcasts explores solutions and responses to America’s deep history of white supremacy: “We went through the school year listening and discussing it.” Last year, members read ‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,’ in which Isabel Wilkerson examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America, and shows how a hierarchy of human divisions still defines our lives today. Coming up, MVDC’s education committee, with the NAACP, is sponsoring the Marie B. Allen Juneteenth Creative Arts Project. It is open to grades seven to 12. The theme is “What freedom looks like, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” Entries may include all forms of the arts, including essays, poetry, and visual art. The prizes will include cash and other awards totaling up to $250, to be awarded in June. (For more information, contact davidmiltonallen@gmail.com). All the other endeavors the education committee has undertaken and continues to pursue can be found on its website. Walton stresses that everyone in the community, whether or not you are an educator, is welcome to participate. She says, “We’d love to have you join us. We are a dynamic and caring group dedicated to laying the groundwork to eradicate racism.”

M.V. Diversity Coalition is holding an event called Truth and Joy on Saturday, June 27, at the high school’s Performing Arts Center, which will include honoring Richie Smith as he leaves his position as superintendent of schools. A special oral history project will also be screened. For more information, visit bit.ly/MVDC_EducationComm. Email mvdceducationcommittee@gmail.com to be added to the mailing list. education committee, with the NAACP, is

B. Allen Juneteenth Creative Arts Project. It is open to grades seven to 12. The theme is all forms of the arts, poetry,

Joe Carter reading.

Readers Program participant Darline White-Dottin is swarmed.

Native American Heritage Month book project.

PHOTOS COURTESY JOCELYN COLEMAN WATSON

May is National Inventors Month, celebrating the contributions of inventors, and encouraging creativity and innovation.

New products often come to fruition based on a specific need. Take the three-position traffic signal, for example, invented by Garrett Morgan in 1923, improving road safety by adding a caution light. In 1902, Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers because her streetcar driver had to keep getting out and clearing snow off the windshield.

On the Island, we’ve had several brilliant inventors over the years. In 1904, Edgartown inventor Elmer Bliss was issued a patent for a life-size battery-powered automa-

On the Island, we’ve had several brilliant inventors over the years.

tion device designed to advertise tobacco products. Like Groucho Marx, the device smoked real stogies, drawing in and releasing smoke. It even had lifelike cheeks, which is a tad creepy, but cool.

And let’s not forget retired Pratt & Whitney nuclear engineer and Island inventor Joel Aronie, who, along with his brother Alan Aronie, has invented many popular products. One successful Aronie invention is the Ball-O-Tissue, which sold around 400,000 units. The Ball-O-Tissue is a molded ball about 5.5 inches in diameter, with an opening to put tissues in. It rolls, which makes it handy for groups of people who may cry a lot, like those in the Not Terribly Good Club, who are, well, not particularly good at anything. Participants can take a tissue, wipe their tears, and from the comfort of their own chair, roll the

Aquinnah

Continued from B5

and Carla at Stony Creek Gifts and Martha at Hatmarcha have their shops open from 10:30 to 4 pm every day for your shopping pleasure. The Aquinnah library book group will be discussing the book “Spare Parts” on Saturday, May 16, from 2 to 3 pm, and on May 21 at 3 pm at Town Hall, it will be presenting a performance of the Great

Product epiphanies to the rescue. BY

Ball-O-Tissue to the person snortcrying across from them. Though I’ve never invented anything tangible, I’ve no shortage of ideas. Not long ago, someone left a ripe-smelling gift on my front lawn. Given the size of the excrement, I wasn’t sure if it had been dropped by a dog or a Clydesdale. I nearly pulled a hammy bagging it and carrying it to the trashcan. While I was daydreaming about

American Songbook with David Mintz.

By the time you read this, town meeting will be done, but I want to remind you to vote this Thursday, May 14, at Town Hall. Voting opens at noon and goes until 8 pm. On May 15, birthday greetings go to Eddie Stahl. Then on May 16, it’s Leigh Vanderhoop, May 17, it’s Aquinnah Witham and Tom Seemon, and on May 18, it’s Genie O’Donnell who get our birthday hugs.

Joshua De Sá Felix

Ewellen De Sá and Geremias Felix of West Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Joshua De Sá Felix, on May 2, 2026, at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Joshua weighed 7 pounds, 10.2 ounces.

Marshall Warren Morris

Hana and Michael of Edgartown announce the birth of a son, Marshall Warren Morris, on May 6, 2026, at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Marshall weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces.

A little humor: The Gladiator series

ALLISON ROBERTS

throwing it at the dog’s human, I had an unexpected idea for a new product, the “Canine Gladiator.”

The beauty of the Canine Gladiator is that it would stay hidden in the ground until someone tries to walk off without picking up after their best friend. Designed to recognize animal droppings, it pops out of the grass, and releases a metal hand that picks up the excrement and chucks it at the person’s head as

they globetrot down the street. As I was joyfully toying with my Canine Gladiator idea, it occurred to me that there could be an entire line of Gladiators. For example, the For the Love of God, Stop Talking Gladiator, which looks like a candle.

Let’s say you are having a gathering at your house, and feel obligated to invite your neighbor, Bob the psychologist, who never stops talking. Once you see Bob corner someone

COMMUNITY NOTES

M.V. Environmental Film Festival

The Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, in partnership with the Vineyard Conservation Society, the Island’s oldest environmental advocacy organization, is hosting the 12th year of the Martha’s Vineyard Environmental Film Festival. The event begins May 21 and runs through the 24th, and includes films and speakers exploring environmental issues, advocacy, nature, and wildlife.

Visit mvfilmsociety.com for the festival program. M.V. Film Center, 79 Beach Road, Vineyard Haven.

Milkweed and Merry Farm CSA

Milkweed and Merry Farm on the Island are launching a partnership for a community-supported agriculture program (CSA) to deepen the connection between Island agriculture, seasonal eating, and the home kitchen.

The CSA will run in two seasonal formats: full season, June 9 – Oct. 27, and summer season June 23 – Sept. 1. Members can choose between Veggie CSA, a weekly share of freshly harvested, seasonal produce from the farm, or Dinner and Dessert CSA: a curated seasonal offering developed in partnership with Salt Rock Chocolates, pairing farm-grown ingredients with locally made desserts. Weekly pickups will take place on Tuesdays at the Agricultural Hall from 3 to 5:30 pm. In addition, the farms will have a presence at the West Tisbury Farmers Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the season. Although not regularly open to the public, Milkweed Farm will host a special joint plant sale onsite (142 Quenames Road, Chilmark) on May 16 and 17, 9 am to 4 pm, offering an early opportunity for the community to engage directly with the space.

at the food table, and get on a tear about something obscure, like the behavioral psychology of traffic cones, pretend you’re going to light the candle, touch the ON button, and a stream of super glue will shoot out from the wick. Try to aim for Bob’s mouth. If successful, his lips will be sealed shut for at least 24 hours, or if you’re lucky, a week. But wait, there’s more. The Stop Doing That Gladiator makes a perfect gift. Though weighing in at a mere two pounds, it packs a solid punch, and comes with the following settings: Scream, Slap, and Poke. To re-establish kitchen rules, simply place the Stop Doing That Gladiator on the counter near the sink, set it to Slap mode, and go about your day! The minute one of your kids puts down the half-empty glass of curdled milk they found in their bedroom without rinsing it out, the Stop Doing That Gladiator releases a silicone hand (which comes in a variety of colors) that slaps them.

I was really excited about the possibility of my Gladiator series, and set about sketching them out, but as so often happens, the idea fizzled when I remembered that I am light on patience and have no knowledge of electronics. I can’t even remember how to multiply. But I do think this product has potential.

If you’re interested in collaborating, let me know. You should probably be good at stuff like statistics and enjoy reading books on mechanical engineering and weather patterns. Think of the possibilities! No, really — think of all the possible things you can invent!

If you have an idea, but need inspiration or assistance, Joel Aronie has some suggestions: “First, check with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to see if your idea already exists. Next, make a prototype and do some initial marketing. If it looks good so far, find a patent attorney, but above all, don’t give up!” Go for it!

Hard Winter

By Clark Myers

Spring none too soon — What passed, a hard winter Cold as a sharp breath Ice like a fist to the chest And a good dog

Buried out by the shed Where now

The first green tips of tulips Are just breaking ground

Clark Myers is a poet who lives in Tisbury with his wife and two children.

Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to community@mvtimes.com. Please include a two to three sentence bio.

Up to the minute

Joel and Nancy Aronie with the infamous Ball-O-Tissue. MV TIMES

VISUAL STORYBOOKS

The lively black-and-white world of Marthe Rowen.

BY ALLISON ROBERTS

Part-time Islander, architect, artist, and teacher, Marthe (“Marty”) Rowen has always had a pencil or pen in her hand: “I’ve always done art. My older sister is a prodigy and artist who drew all the time. I tagged along beside her. But I never considered myself an artist until recently,” Rowen says. The Granary Gallery in West Tisbury began carrying her art in 2013. “When I showed Chris Morse my work the first time, he said yes. He immediately understood that it would work in the Granary because it’s unique. The work there is unique,

and very specific and representational. Since I’ve been showing at Granary, I feel like I can now call myself an artist,” she continues. “I feel honored to be in the Granary, and the people there have been so supportive.”

“It is remarkable how her mind is able to interpret a landscape with such technicality and such beauty,” Granary Gallery owner Chris Morse says. Rowen discovered architecture in college, and headed in that direction professionally: “Since architects are always drawing, I had

boxes of sketchbooks that mostly didn’t see the light of day for decades.” That eventually changed: “10 to 15 years ago, I was asked to do a lecture on women in architecture. I showed my drawings, and the architects were all inspired, and I thought, ‘I have to draw again.’ Then I had an opportunity to teach drawing to architects, and I became devoted to it. I really created a pedagogy, insisting my students draw what they see at the moment they see it. I don’t allow erasers.”

Her pen illustrations explore wide-open

spaces. She does not use cameras, computers, erasers, or her memory. She uses archival ink, and flexible Moleskin folding sketchbooks are her canvas. Her work includes drawings from New York, Rhode Island, and the Vineyard. The scenes can be read like visual storybooks: Viewers can turn pages and see a sequence of images, or an “accordion,” which can be squeezed, expanded, or unfurled into a single, long image. Black-and-white illustrations are not everyone’s cup of tea — the world loves color

By mid-afternoon, Rowen rotates to draw the many buildings across the street from Oak Bluffs Harbor.

Vineyard Haven Harbor

Owen Park, Oak Bluffs

Oak Bluffs

PHOTOS: DENA PORTER

— but by reducing visual noise, the interplay between light and dark is emphasized, and invites the viewer to engage with the contrast, negative space, and texture, evoking a sense of timelessness or nostalgia.

Standing in one spot, Rowen quickly captures what she sees in all directions: “I try to find a balance between loose and precision. I move quickly with my pen and my eye instead of making it perfect, as it might be with an architectural drawing. Pen is precise, and I use fine pens because they allow me to get

to a lot of detail and specificity.”

Rowen’s goal is that the viewer should feel like they’re standing right there with her.

“Loose lines on people makes it look like they’re moving,” she says. “If a sailboat goes by, you can see the difference in things that have passed by. There could be one drawing of the harbor where the boats are stationary, but if a boat goes by, it’s often transparent — they were there and then they weren’t. The other thing is that I rotate the panoramas so the perspective changes. Architects under-

stand perspective, but your eyes move in life, so as I’m moving, the perspective changes, and that too is very imperfect — paradoxically imperfect.”

Her favorite time to draw on the Island is in the shoulder seasons. “There will be fewer people or cars. I love to draw when it’s just warming up — early April, when there are fewer boats. I love that if you know the Island you can tell what season it is by looking at the drawings.“

Private collectors have been Rowen’s big-

“I try to find a balance between loose and precision. I move quickly with my pen and my eye instead of making it perfect, as it might be with an architectural drawing.”

— MARTHE ROWEN

gest clients. “The people who commission me ask if I’ll do their house, or a specific landscape,” she explains. “I’ve drawn the Edgartown and O.B. harbors, as well as the ferry, and the gingerbread houses. Menemsha is very popular. The combo of the landscape, horizon, and the familiarity of the buildings and boats is popular.”

Future endeavors for Rowen include playing with color: “I have just started painting, and I’m really loving it. My ambition is to translate my sketches into paintings. I hope to do some really long panoramas in color.” Rowen also continues to teach and draw. “I draw when I travel — on trains, planes, and boats. I draw when I am at rest, I draw for myself, and to share my simple joy of capturing a moment and place.”

On Friday, June 26, from 4 to 6 pm, the Granary Gallery will be holding a premiere of Rowen’s work along with that of Nancy Aronie, Whitney Cleary, and Cindy Kane. granarygallery.com, 636 Old County Road, West Tisbury; 508-693-0455

Rowen holds up her pen to gain perspective and more accurately measure proportions in her drawing.

Rowen meticulously draws the details of the harbor and buildings in Oak Bluffs.

Menemsha

Event spotlight for the week of 5•15 — 5•21

SAT 5/16 FRI 5/15 SUN 5/17

Kayak and Stand-Up Paddleboard Quest

Experience Sengekontacket Pond from a different perspective on a self-guided tour. Rhyming quest clues (think: treasure hunt) will help uncover the story of the pond's people, places, and wildlife.

Single and double kayaks and two standing paddleboards are available.

Please call to reserve up to three hours, 9 am to 3:30 pm. Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, 100 Felix Neck Drive, Edgartown. 508-627-4850, bit. ly/FNWS_KayakQuest.

LWalk for Dementia and Caregiver Services

ove walking? Then join the M.V. Center for Living for a Walk for Dementia and Caregiver Services. Participate as you are able, by walking from Nomans to Jaws Bridge and back, riding our shuttle, or cheering from the sidelines. A celebration will follow at Nomans, with live music and 20 percent off food with your walker registration. From 10 am to 1:30 pm. Suggested donation is $30; kids walk free. Regis-

ter to walk, or invite others to support you by creating a pledge page. To register: bit.ly/MVCL_DementiaWalkRegister. Create a pledge page: bit.ly/MVCL_ DementiaWalkPledges. Rain date is Sunday, May 17. Nomans, 15 Island Inn Road, Oak Bluffs.

C‘The Giving Garden: Tour, Taste, and Take-Home’

heck out the food forest at the Charter School. Learn about perennial sources of food, and take away seedings and rootstock divisions. Learn the basic principles of forest gardening, and taste and discuss perennial spring crops like sorrel, salad burnet, sea kale, sweet cicely, red orach (mountain spinach), and perpetual spinach with Roxanne Kapitan. Free, 1 to 2:30 pm. Sponsored by Cedar

TUES 5/19 MON 5/18 THU 5/21

Rhododendrons and azaleas lecture

Rhododendrons are diverse and beautiful, and provide us with a variety of opportunities to enhance our gardens. They collectively produce flowers in a kaleidoscopic range of colors. During this presentation, participants will look at this diverse genus, touching on botany, conservation, cultivation, and care, but will focus more heavily on the merits, characteristics, and uses of a broad range of rhododendrons

THURSDAY, MAY 14

Dance Fitness and Strength

Training with Kris Martin

and azaleas well-adapted to our climate and growing conditions. From 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm; free to MVGC members, $10 at the door for visitors. Wakeman Center, 57 David Ave., Vineyard Haven. Registration required: marthasvineyardgardenclub.org.

‘Defending the Seacoast: M.V. in the Revolution’

When war broke out between Britain and the 13 colonies on April 19, 1775, life on the Island became precarious. Britain had the largest navy in history, and coastal Massachusetts towns were vulnerable to attack. Rebel forces in Dukes County did their best to keep their neighbors safe and the British at bay. Join M.V. Museum Research Librarian Bow Van Riper for a look at the first three years of the

Revolution, when blockade runners, citizen soldiers, and sailors in armed whaleboats took on the most powerful empire in the world. From 5 to 6 pm; arrive early at 4 pm and check out the First Light Café for drinks and light bites. Price: $15 to $25. MVM members get discounted pricing. Martha's Vineyard Museum, 151 Lagoon Pond Road, Vineyard Haven, mvmuseum. org/event/defending-theseacoast.

Events

Found Foods Supper Club

Chef Jenny DeVivo will host a handson culinary experience that celebrates zero-waste cooking and seasonal ingredients from local farmers, fishers, and food purveyors. Each session features a curated, on-the-spot menu dictated by the surplus ingredients available that week. Participants will learn about upcycling techniques, cook, gain culinary skills, and take their homemade dishes home at the end. $36 for

7-8 am, Airtport Fitness, West Tisbury. A creative blend of rhythmic resistance, cardio conditioning, manageable mobility and core strength exercises all set to crazy-FUN music. 508-696-8000, info@airportfitnessmv.com.

Virtual Kripalu Flow Yoga

7:30 am, West Tisbury Library. On Zoom with Yogijay. Sign up for free by emailing wt_mail@clamsnet.org. 508-693-3366. Mindfulness & Meditation Open Practice Group

8-9 am, Aquinnah Town Hall. Mindfulness & meditation practice group, open to anyone interested in being more intentional and practicing with others. 413-575-0110, ruthfolchman@me.com. Kaiut Yoga

8:30-9:30 am, Peaked Hill Studio, Chilmark. Kaiut Yoga works through chronic pain and injuries, general aches and stiffness, and is good for the inflexible, hyper flexible and the aging body. 774-5638282, valerie@peakedhillstudio.com.

Balletics

9-10 am, Up Island Council on Aging, West Tisbury. Total body conditioning, learning body’s strengths & weaknesses, how to prevent injury. coa-staff@ westtisbury-ma.gov, 508-693-2896. Fit for Flow with Maggie Bucci 9-10 am, Stillpoint, West Tisbury. This fitness class, led by Maggie Bucci, is designed to get you fit to flow with the journey of life info@stillpointmv.org. Kayak & Stand Up Paddle Board Quest

9 am-3:30 pm, Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Edgartown. Enjoy Sengekontacket on this self-guided kayak tour. Clues lead you through the pond. Call to reserve for up to 3 hours; returning the boats by 3:30. 508-627-4850, felixneck@massaudubon.org.

Alida O’Loughlin Photography

9 am-5 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Community Television, Oak Bluffs. The Show, “Forms, Shapes and Patterns” allows for many sights unseen in Nature and in Daily Life. 508-560-2648, alidamv@comcast.net

Wiggle with the Words Storytime 10:30-11 am, Edgartown Library. Fun props and interactive stories. Geared for ages 1-5, but all are welcome. No sign-up. programs@edgartownlibrary.org, 508-627-4221. Tech help

11 am-1 pm, Up Island Council on Aging, West Tisbury. Free tach help 508-6932896, coa-staff@westtisbury-ma.gov. Family Yoga Play

11-11:30 am, West Tisbury Library. Playful, fun yoga for littles & their caregivers. Rec. for ages 0-5! Free and no registration needed. Thursdays 11:00-11:30 WT Library 508-693-3366, hburbidge@clamsnet.org “In Good Humor” Art Exhibit 11 am-4 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, Vineyard Haven. “In Good Humor” Art Exhibit 508-6966300, boxoffice@circuitarts.org Spring Spectacular Show

11 am-4 pm, Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven. Annual Spring Group Show: Sean Roach, Christie Scheele, Teek Eaton-Koch, Juliean Jarreau, and Paul Beebe. 508-6937373, louisa.gould@gmail.com

Tick Talk Thursdays: Community Q&A with the Martha’s Vineyard Tick Program 12-1 pm, Vineyard Haven Public Library. Open office hours: ask questions, share experiences, and learn more about ticks and tick-borne diseases. Register on VH Library event calendar. 508-696-4211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org Mah Jongg for Beginners Course 12:30-2:30 pm, Edgartown Library. Learn the fundamentals of American Mah Jongg. Registration is required. 508-627-4221, programs@edgartownlibrary.org. Discover Belly Dance! 1-2 pm, Tisbury COA, Vineyard Haven. Discover Belly Dance! Thursday, May 14th at 1PM 508696-4205, tisburycoa@tisburyma.gov. Red Dragon Mah-Jong 1-3 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Come join us for a fun weekly Mah-jong meetup! Bring your board or use one of ours, subject to availability. 508-693-9433, cphelan@clamsnet.org. Community Knitting Circle 1-3 pm, Chilmark Library. Join us for a relaxed afternoon of knitting in the Martha’s Vineyard Room. Our knitters love to share their knowledge and beginners are welcome! 508-645-3360, chil.programs@gmail.com.

Virtual Art History Series: The Painter’s Palette–A History of Color 2 pm, Vineyard Haven Public Library. Led by art historian Mary Woodward. Register on Vineyard Haven library event calendar. 508-696-4211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org

Wings of Fire Book Club

2:45-3:30 pm, Edgartown Library, Come read and discuss the Wings of Fire books with other kids who love the series! 508-6274221, programs@edgartownlibrary.org.

Book Buddies

3:30-4:30 pm, West Tisbury Library. High schoolers reading to kids! 2nd and 4th Thursdays 3:30-4:30 WT Library 508693-3366, hburbidge@clamsnet.org.

Library Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting

3:30-5 pm, Edgartown Library. The Board’s monthly meetings are scheduled for the second Thursday of the month 508-6274221, programs@edgartownlibrary.org.

Needle Felting for beginners ages 12-adult

4-5 pm, West Tisbury Library. Thurs 5/14 at 4pm we have a beginner needle felting class

members, $45 for nonmembers, 5:30 to 7 pm. The FARM Institute, 14 Aero Ave., Edgartown. Registration required at bit.ly/TTOR_FoundFoodsMay.

for ages 12 to adult and class size is limited, please email or call to register. 508-693-3366, lhearn@clamsnet.org. Anime and Manga Club 4-5 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. For kids and tweens is grades 4th-7th Come talk about your favorite anime and manga! Draw and snack. Take a look at our manga collection. 508-693-9433, mlynch@clamsnet.org.

Common Thread: Social Needlework Meetup

5-6 pm, West Tisbury Library. Bring your own project or learn a new skill. We can help with needle felting, knitting, crochet, visible mending or needlepoint. 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org.

Table Tennis

5 pm, Tisbury Senior Center, Vineyard Haven. Table tennis for all ages and skill levels. 508-728-5898, raeobmv@gmail.com. Parenting with Support 5:15-6:30 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Parenting with Support 508-6939433, cphelan@clamsnet.org.

Tree Foundation. M.V. Public Charter School, 424 State Road, West Tisbury, bit.ly/ MVAS_GivingGarden.

Archaeology I.D. Day

2-4 pm, West Tisbury Library. Bring any artifacts you may have discovered for expert identification and discussion. 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org.

All Ages Chess Club

2-3:30 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Join us in a fun and welcoming environment. oakb_mail@clamsnet.org, 508-693-9433.. 5 Career Navigation Office Hours with AceMV

3-4 pm, West Tisbury Library. Visit the West Tisbury Library downstairs conference room on Saturdays in May from 3-4pm to learn about the career navigation resources of ACE MV 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org.

High School Building Tours

3-4 pm, MVRHS - Library, Vineyard Haven. The Martha’s Vineyard School Building Committee is hosting informational tours of the existing high school 518-369-6224, mary.korba@mvyps.org.

Sound Bath with Trish Ginter

4-5 pm, Stillpoint West Tisbury. Trish Ginter guides this restorative sound bath using crystal singing bowls info@stillpointmv.org. Wine n Write: The Wedding

4:30-6:30 pm, Vineyard Gardens nursery, West Tisbury. Free writing workshop inspired by Dorothy West’s The Wedding: film clips, reflection, wine & hors d’oeuvres in West Tisbury. 774-310-6871, nydiasimone@gmail.com.

Tarot Exploration

5-7 pm, Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Haven.

Join CUUPS MV to explore Tarot! Drop in: 2/17, 3/18, 4/17, and 5/16 at Stevens Chapel, 238 Main St., VH, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Free! 508-479-6321, cuups.mv@gmail.com.

Mike Block Trio

7-8:30 pm, The Strand Theatre, Oak Bluffs. Experience Mike Block Trio at the Strand Theatre for an exciting live performance blending American roots, contemporary, and global influences. 508-426-9825, mvcms@vineyard.net.

SUNDAY, MAY 17

“Ordinary Wonder - Full People” with Rev. Vicky Hanjian

10 am, Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Haven. Please join us on Sunday at 10 am in person or online.uu.society.mv@gmail.com.

Community Greenhouse Plant Sale!

10 am-3 pm, Community Greenhouse, Oak Bluffs. Community Greenhouse Sale! Get your annual and perennial plants! Beautiful herbs and flowers. Discounts for members and memberships available on site. 774-563-8417, smiller8690@gmail.com. Spring Spectacular Show

11 am-4 pm, Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven. Annual Spring Group Show: Sean Roach, Christie Scheele, Teek EatonKoch, Juliean Jarreau, and Paul Beebe. 508-693-7373, louisa.gould@gmail.com. Sunday B-Side Brunch

11 am-2 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Vineyard Haven. Sunday B Side Brunch: 11–2 at First Light Café. Great food, views, and soulful vinyl by DJ Vincent Patricola. Free and open to all. 508-627-4441, rpierce@mvmuseum.org.

4-H Paint Club Art Show

11:30 am-12:30 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, West Tisbury. 4-H art will amaze you! 508-693-9549, programs@mvagsoc.org.

The Giving Garden: Spring Tour, Taste, and Take-Home with Roxanne Kapitan 1-2:30 pm, MV Public Charter School, West Tisbury. A tour of the spring perennials at the Charter School’s food forest 508-693-9549, programs@mvagsoc.org. Opera Club: Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West”

1-4 pm, Edgartown Library. Set during the California gold rush, the opera revolves around Minnie 508-627-4221, programs@edgartownlibrary.org.

Ceramic Flower Vase Workshop

2-4 pm, Featherstone Center for the Arts, Oak Bluffs. In this two-hour beginner friendly workshop, students will make a vase using leaves and natural elements while learning hand building techniques! 508-693-1850, featherstone@featherstoneart.org.

Death Café 2:15-3:45 pm, West Tisbury Library. A respectful, thought-provoking, and life-affirming conversation on the topics of death, dying, and bereavement. 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org.

Local Off-Season Dancing & Music with Darby & Sam, Rose-coloured Glasses

3 pm, Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Haven. Join the MV Ballroom Dancers for an afternoon of off-season music and dancing at UUSMV. Come to dance or just to listen. Everyone is welcome!. 508-696-4211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org.

MONDAY, MAY 18

Dance Fitness and Strength Training with Kris Martin 7-8 am, Airtport Fitness, West Tisbury. A creative blend of rhythmic resistance, cardio conditioning, manageable mobility and core strength exercises all set to crazy-FUN music. 508-696-8000, info@airportfitnessmv.com.. Virtual Chair Yoga with YogiJay 7:30-8:30 am, West Tisbury Library. Accessible to all levels and ages. Sign up for free by emailing wt_mail@clamsnet.org. 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org.

Core Stability, Strength and Balance with Alyson Parker 8:30-9:30 am, Airport Fitness, West Tisbury. A class featuring core stabilization, strength and balance; we target all major muscle groups and include some intermittent cardio. All levels welcome 508-696-8000, info@airportfitnessmv.com. Kayak & Stand Up Paddle Board Quest

9 am-3:30 pm, Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Edgartown. Enjoy Sengekontacket on this self-guided kayak tour. Clues lead you through the pond. Call to reserve for up to 3 hours; returning the boats by 3:30. 508627-4850, felixneck@massaudubon.org Alida O’Loughlin Photography

9 am-5 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Community Television, Oak Bluffs. The Show, “Forms, Shapes and Patterns” allows for many sights unseen in Nature and in Daily Life. 508-560-2648, alidamv@comcast.net. Spring Spectacular Show

11 am-4 pm, Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven. Annual Spring Group Show: Sean Roach, Christie Scheele, Teek Eaton-Koch, Juliean Jarreau, and Paul Beebe. 508693-7373, louisa.gould@gmail.com. Online Balance with Kanta Lipsky 11:30 am-12:30 pm, West Tisbury Library. To strengthen our connection to Earth and maintain balance. To sign up, email wt_mail@clamsnet.org. 508-693-3366. The Wonderful World of Rhododendrons and Azaleas Lecture

12:30-2:30 pm, The Wakeman Center, Vineyard Haven. Mount Holyoke Botanic Garden Director Tom Clark will speak on rhododendrons and azaleas at the month MG Garden Club meeting. 617-543-7898, kjskin@comcast.net. West Tisbury Book Sale Donations 1-2 pm, Friends of West Tisbury Library Shed, West Tisbury. Donate your lightly used books for the annual Friends of the West Tisbury Library Book Sale. 617-543-7898, westtislibraryfriends@gmail.com. Drop-in Mah Jongg 1-3 pm, Edgartown Library, Edgartown. Mats, tiles, and cards provided. No formal instruction. programs@edgartownlibrary.org, 508-627-4221. 5 Switch Games for kids and teens 3-5 pm, West Tisbury Library. Switch club Mondays from 3-5pm in the Community Room 508-693-3366, lhearn@clamsnet.org. MVRHS Building Project Community Information Sessions

5:30-6:30 pm, West Tisbury Library. Representatives from MVRHS and the building project team will share the latest design updates, outline next steps, and answer questions from attendees 518-369-6224, mary.korba@mvyps.org. Virtual - “Banning Books in America: Not a How To” with Author Samuel Cohen

7 pm, Vineyard Haven Public Library. A view from the trenches of the wars on reading. Register on Vineyard Haven Library event calendar. (5085) 696-4211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org.

TUESDAY, MAY 19

Events

Cardio and Conditioning with Alyson Parker 7-8 am, Airport Fitness, West Tisbury. Cardio and strength work with weights and conditioning using your own body weight for resistance. 508-6968000, info@airportfitnessmv.com.

Kaiut Yoga

8:30-9:30 am, Peaked Hill Studio, Chilmark. Kaiut Yoga works through chronic pain and injuries, general aches andstiffness, and is good for the inflexible, hyper flexible and the aging body. 774-5638282, valerie@peakedhillstudio.com.

Pilates Flow with Camille Beauzile 9-10:15 am, Stillpoint, West Tisbury. This upbeat Pilates class blends preventative medicine, mind-over-matter focus, and joyful movement info@stillpointmv.org.

Kayak & Stand Up Paddle Board Quest

9 am-3:30 pm, Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Edgartown. Enjoy Sengekontacket on this self-guided kayak tour. Clues lead you through the pond. Call to reserve for up to 3 hours; returning the boats by 3:30. 508-627-4850, felixneck@massaudubon.org.

Alida O’Loughlin Photography

9 am-5 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Community Television, Oak Bluffs. The Show, “Forms, Shapes and Patterns” allows for many sights unseen in Nature and in Daily Life. 508-560-2648, alidamv@comcast.net.

Little Naturalists

9:30-11:30 am, Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Edgartown. Let curiosity lead the way in this playful program for children and caregivers. Explore nature through free play, sensory activities and time outdoors 508-627-4850, felixneck@massaudubon.org.

Tour of the Rhododendrons

Collection with Tom Clark

10 am-12 pm, The Polly Hill Arboretum, West Tisbury. 508-693-9426, pollyhillarboretum.org.

Play Kitchen and Store

10 am, Oak Bluffs Library. Come enjoy watching your kids be creative and solve problems! For ages 2-6. Drop in between 10am-noon. 508-693-9433, mlynch@clamsnet.org.

Free Range Fun

10:15-11 am, West Tisbury Library. Enjoy a room filled with parachutes, scarves, bubbles, music and more to explore!

Recommended for ages 0-5 508-6933366, hburbidge@clamsnet.org.

Spring Spectacular Show

11 am-4 pm, Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven. Annual Spring Group Show: Sean Roach, Christie Scheele, Teek EatonKoch, Juliean Jarreau, and Paul Beebe. 508-693-7373, louisa.gould@gmail.com.

SQUAD FITNESS with Triva Emery • BeWell-MV 11 am-12 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. SQUAD FITNESS with Triva Emery • BeWell-MV 508-693-9433, cphelan@clamsnet.org. Balance with Kanta Lipsky 11:30 am-12:30 pm, Stillpoint, West Tisbury. This is a one-hour class based on the gentle, flowing movements of Qigong (Chi Kung) info@stillpointmv.org. Lego Club

2:45-4 pm, Chilmark Library. Kids Lego Club 508-645-3360, chilmarklibrarykids@gmail.com.

Basics of Silversmithing: Earrings or Pendant

3-6 pm, Featherstone Center for the Arts, Oak Bluffs. In this class you will either create your own pair of silver earrings or a necklace pendant while learning basic metal smithing skills. 508-693-1850, featherstone@featherstoneart.org.

Drop in for our Teen and Tween Art & Craft Class

3:30-4:30 pm, West Tisbury. Teen and Tween Art & Craft Class at the librarymeets every Tuesday, from 3:30-4:30pm. ages 10-18, supplies provided. 508693-3366, lhearn@clamsnet.org. kundilini Yoga

4:30-5:30 pm, The Red House PRSC, Vineyard Haven. Ancient spiritual energy rising through chakras for awakening consciousness 508693-2900, jtau@mvcommunityservices.org.

ASL Practice Group

4:45-5:45 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Want to learn ASL? Come drop in on our conversational practice group! No experience necessary. 508-693-9433, sschofield@clamsnet.org. Knitting Group 5-6 pm, West Tisbury Library. Creativity and conversation. Use supplies provided or bring your own. Adults and teens. No sign-up. wt_mail@clamsnet.org, 508-693-3366. Ticks on the Vineyard: What We Know 5-6 pm, Vineyard Haven. A five-part online series with local experts exploring tick trends, health risks, and prevention strategies on Martha’s Vineyard. 508627-4441, events@mvmuseum.org. Table Tennis 5 pm, Tisbury Senior Center, Vineyard Haven. Table tennis for all ages and skill levels. 508-728-5898, raeobmv@gmail.com. Defending the Seacoast: Martha’s Vineyard in the Revolution 5-6 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Vineyard Haven. Explore the first years of the American Revolution on Martha’s Vineyard and how Islanders defended their shores. 508-627-4441, events@mvmuseum.org. Poetry Reading/Competition 5-7 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Poetry Reading/Competition 508-6939433, cphelan@clamsnet.org.

Agriculture Book Club: Reaping What She Sows by Nancy Matsumoto

5:30-7 pm, Agricultural Hall, West Tisbury. A oneoff book club about women in the island food system 508-693-9549, programs@mvagsoc.org. Open Mic Night at the Katharine Cornell Theatre! 6 pm, Katharine Cornell Theatre, Vineyard Haven. Come to play, or just to listen. Sign-up on arrival, free and open to all! 508696-4211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20

Library Walking Group

8:30-9:30 am, Edgartown Library. Join Library Director Lisa Sherman for a walk around town! 508-627-4221, programs@edgartownlibrary.org. Barre Fusion with Maria McFarland 8:30-9:30 am, Airport Fitness, West Tisbury. Ballet styled flows, barre work, balance and weights using disks, loop bands and Bender balls. Come with sneakers, barre sox, or bare feet 508696-8000, info@airportfitnessmv.com. Play Reading at Tisbury Senior Center 9 am-12 pm, Tisbury Council on Aging, Vineyard Haven. Play Reading for Artistic, Literary and Dramatic Pleasure 201-2077568, monahennessy1@gmail.com. Historic Cemetery Tour with Tom Dresser 9-10 am, Oak Bluffs Library. Historic Cemetery Tour with Tom Dresser 508-6939433, cphelan@clamsnet.org. Kayak & Stand Up Paddle Board Quest 9 am-3:30 pm, Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Edgartown. Enjoy Sengekontacket on this self-guided kayak tour. Clues lead you through the pond. Call to reserve for up to 3 hours; returning the boats by 3:30. 508627-4850, felixneck@massaudubon.org. Alida O’Loughlin Photography

9 am-5 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Community Television, Oak Bluffs. The Show, “Forms, Shapes and Patterns” allows for many sights unseen in Nature and in Daily Life. 508-560-2648, alidamv@comcast.net. Outside Storytime 10:15-10:45 am, Oak Bluffs Library. Join us for a fun-filled storytime with stories, songs, scarves, and a parachute. All ages are welcome. We’ll be inside with poor weather. 508-693-9438, mlynch@clamsnet.org. Children’s Storytime 10:30-11 am, West Tisbury Library. Join Hannah for silly songs and stories. Ages 0-5 508-693-3366, hburbidge@clamsnet.org. Spring Spectacular Show 11 am-4 pm, Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven. Annual Spring Group Show: Sean Roach, Christie Scheele, Teek Eaton-Koch, Juliean Jarreau, and Paul Beebe. 508693-7373, louisa.gould@gmail.com.

Tummy Time

11:30 am-12:30 pm, West Tisbury Library. Join Pediatric Physical Therapist Dr. Katy for a Circle Group Newborn-Walking 508-683-3366, hburbidge@clamsnet.org.

Mah Jong

1-3 pm, Up Island Council on Aging, West Tisbury. Come join us for Mah Jong every Wednesday from 1-3:00 @ The Up Island Council on Aging 1042 State Rd West Tisbury 508-6932896, coa-staff@westtisbury-ma.gov. West Tisbury Book Sale Donations

1-2 pm, Friends of West Tisbury Library Shed, West Tisbury. Donate your lightly used books for the annual Friends of the West Tisbury Library Book Sale. 617-543-7898, westtislibraryfriends@gmail.com.

Virtual Reality for Tweens & Teens 3-5 pm, West Tisbury Library. For ages 10-18. Each participant’s time depends on the turn-out. lhearn@clamsnet.org, 508-693-3366.

Drop-in Knitting Group .with Cindy Bonnell

3-5 pm, Edgartown Library. All levels are welcome to bring their projects for support and inspiration. programs@ edgartownlibrary.org, 508-627-4221.

Fit Camp with Bonnie Kingsbury 3-4 pm, Edgartown Library. This fun afterschool youth fitness program 508-627-4221, programs@edgartownlibrary.org.

Kids Crafts -Mini Catapult

3:30-5 pm, EMS Building, Vineyard Haven. Make a miniature working catapultjrapuano@clamsnet.org.

The Shenandoah Model: Raising Confident, Connected Youth 4:30 pm, West Tisbury Library. MVOA presents how hands-on experiences, responsibility & reflection help youth thrive & how parents can bring these principles into everyday life. 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org.

The Ripple Effect: Islands, Watersheds, and Change

5-6 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Vineyard Haven. Discover how Island ponds reflect climate impacts and how local actions influence watershed health and resilience. 508-627-4441, events@mvmuseum.org.

Quilting Circle

6-7:30 pm, West Tisbury Library. All are welcome. For details, email Wendy atwgnierenberg@ yahoo.com or call the library at 508-693-3366.

Virtual: Shakespearean Explorations with Professor Philip Weinstein 6 pm, Vineyard Haven Public Library. Join Professor Philip Weinstein for this four-part literary lecture series focused on two of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Hamlet and King Lear. 508-696-4211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org.

Evening of the Arts!

6-9 pm, MVRHS, Oak Bluffs. The annual showcase of the visual and performing arts students at MVRHS. Art, Design, Technology, Music, Performance, and more! 508-560-4305, cbaer@mvyps.org.

High School Building Tours

6:30-7:30 pm, MVRHS - Library, Vineyard Haven. The Martha’s Vineyard School Building Committee is hosting informational tours of the existing high school 518-369-6224, mary.korba@mvyps.org.

Free English Classes

7-8 pm, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints, Vineyard Haven. Free English Classes offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Basic conversational classes offered. To register text 774-563-0460. brentbrown81@gmail.com.

Adult Board Game Night

7:30-10 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Adults are welcome to join us at the Barn and Bowl Bistro for a variety of board games and socializing. 508-693-9433, cphelan@clamsnet.org.

THURSDAY, MAY 21

Dance Fitness and Strength

Training with Kris Martin

7-8 am, Airtport Fitness, West Tisbury. A creative blend of rhythmic resistance, cardio conditioning, manageable mobility and core strength exercises all set to crazy-FUN music. 508-6968000, info@airportfitnessmv.com.

Virtual Kripalu Flow Yoga 7:30 am, West Tisbury Library. On Zoom with Yogijay. Sign up for free by emailing wt_mail@clamsnet.org. 508-693-3366, wt_mail@clamsnet.org. Mindfulness & Meditation Open Practice Group

8-9 am, Aquinnah Town Hall, Aquinnah. Mindfulness & meditation practice group, open to anyone interested in being more intentional and practicing with others. 413-575-0110, ruthfolchman@me.com. Kaiut Yoga

8:30-9:30 am, Peaked Hill Studio, Chilmark. Kaiut Yoga works through chronic pain and injuries, general aches andstiffness, and is good for the inflexible, hyper flexible and the aging body. 774-5638282, valerie@peakedhillstudio.com. Balletics

9-10 am, Up Island Council on Aging, West Tisbury. Total body conditioning, learning body’s strengths & weaknesses, how to prevent injury. coa-staff@ westtisbury-ma.gov, 508-693-2896. Fit for Flow with Maggie Bucci 9-10 am, Stillpoint, West Tisbury. This fitness class, led by Maggie Bucci, is designed to get you fit to flow with the journey of life info@stillpointmv.org.

Kayak & Stand Up Paddle Board Quest

9 am-3:30 pm, Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Edgartown. Enjoy Sengekontacket on this self-guided kayak tour. Clues lead you through the pond. Call to reserve for up to 3 hours; returning the boats by 3:30. 508-627-4850, felixneck@massaudubon.org. Alida O’Loughlin Photography 9 am-5 pm, Martha’s Vineyard Community Television, Oak Bluffs. The Show, “Forms, Shapes and Patterns” allows for many sights unseen in Nature and in Daily Life. 508-560-2648, alidamv@comcast.net. Social Security Assistance for J1 applications

10 am-3 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Social Security Assistance for J1 applications 508-693-9433, cphelan@clamsnet.org. Wiggle with the Words Storytime 10:30-11 am, Edgartown Library. Fun props and interactive stories. Geared for ages 1-5, but all are welcome. No sign-up. programs@ edgartownlibrary.org, 508-627-4221. Tech help 11 am-1 pm, Up Island Council on Aging, West Tisbury. Free tach help 508-6932896, coa-staff@westtisbury-ma.gov. Family Yoga Play 11-11:30 am, West Tisbury Library. Playful, fun yoga for littles & their caregivers. Rec. for ages 0-5! Free and no registration needed. Thursdays 11:00-11:30 WT Library 508-693-3366, hburbidge@clamsnet.org. Spring Spectacular Show 11 am-4 pm, Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven. Annual Spring Group Show: Sean Roach, Christie Scheele, Teek Eaton-Koch, Juliean Jarreau, and Paul Beebe. 508693-7373, louisa.gould@gmail.com. Tick Talk Thursdays: Community Q&A with the Martha’s Vineyard Tick Program 12-1 pm, Vineyard Haven Public Library. Open office hours: ask questions, share experiences, and learn more about ticks and tick-borne diseases. Register on VH Library event calendar. 508-6964211, vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. Red Dragon Mah-Jong 1-3 pm, Oak Bluffs Library. Come join us for a fun weekly Mah-jong meetup! Bring your board or use one of ours, subject to availability. 508693-9433, cphelan@clamsnet.org.

K.L. Walther’s new novel

K.L. Walther returns to Martha’s Vineyard in her new novel for young adult readers, “The Summer of Second Chances” (Sourcebooks Fire). It’s easy enough to guess why Walther decided to write about young love on the Island again. Her 2021 novel, “The Summer of Broken Rules,” which was also set on the Vineyard, was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. So why not book a return trip?

“I write a lot about grief, and the Vineyard feels like the safest place to delve into such an ever-changing feeling. ‘The Summer of Broken Rules’ is an ode to my late father, who could never get enough of the Island, even working here one summer in college. Now ‘The Summer of Second Chances’ pays tribute to my grandmother,” Walther explained in an email. Walther doesn’t simply use the Island for eye candy. She has been spending summers on the Vineyard since she was a child, and clearly knows the terrain well. While “The Summer of Broken Rules” hits well-known hotspots, like Jaws Bridge, it also takes readers down Oyster Watcha Road into a more exclusive enclave, and onto the undeveloped farm of an old-time Vineyard family.

“The Vineyard is, and forever will be, my happy place,”

BOOKS

Walther has said. “I have three decades' worth of cherished memories, from long days on the beach to twilight tractor rides to laughter-filled dinners in Alchemy … If magic exists, it lives on this Island.”

“The Summer of Second Chances” explores young love, loss, and feeling like a foreigner in your own family. Olivia Lupo has taken a year off before starting college to spend time with her beloved grandmother, Annie, who helped raise her after her mother died. Annie’s

memory is rapidly slipping away, and she now lives in an assisted living facility. It is the summer before Olivia is supposed to start her freshman year, and the thought of leaving Annie is tearing her apart. To make matters worse, she is expected to go to Martha’s Vineyard for three weeks in August for her stepmother’s family reunion.

Her mother died when Olivia was 7, and her father, a pilot, remarried a few years later and had twins with his new wife, Erica, whose family is gathering on the Vineyard: “Life in the Lupo family was about prioritizing the twins. The house which my dad and Erica ended up buying? It had five bedrooms, the smallest of which was gifted to me.”

Even the way Erica talks to Olivia about her father makes her feel like an outsider. “It was always Chris, not your dad. It sounded like I wasn’t his daughter; instead, I was just some adult who lived with them, an au pair, perhaps.”

Before Olivia leaves for the Vineyard, her grandmother tells her that the Island has a special place in her heart. Olivia thought she had heard all the stories of Annie’s travels, but doesn’t recall her ever mentioning the Vineyard. This conversation propels Olivia into action to find out more, and sets the stage for a story of young love, the second story of young love in the novel. The primary story is between Olivia and the swoony Connor, who was hired to take care of the younger kids during the family reunion, and ends up sharing a bedroom — albeit with bunk beds — with Olivia.

Since this is Olivia’s first trip to the Vineyard, Walther has an opportunity to describe the Island with fresh eyes and exacting details, and she does so with an insider’s knowledge and, thankfully, without making it feel like she’s a tour guide driving a bus of tourists to Aquinnah.

Walther, who is only 31, is already the author of seven contemporary romance novels for young adults, and a bestselling author. In interviews she has talked about being an avid pop culture fan, and her books are sprinkled with pop culture references that are clearly connecting with readers. Welcome back to the Vineyard, K.L. Walther.

K.L. Walther will be signing books at Edgartown Books on May 23 at 1 pm.

February 27

Lucas Laureano D. Bento, 28, Edgartown; vandalized property, operating motor vehicle with license suspended, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to bench trial.

March 16

Reeve Biggers, 71, Oak Bluffs; operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, arraigned and held, bail set at $100 with potential for revocation, continued to discovery compliance and jury selection.

March 19

Dana R. Spencer, 44, Edgartown; operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, disorderly conduct, arraigned and held, bail set at $100 with potential for bail revocation, continued to pretrial conference.

Michael T. Governo Jr., 59, Vineyard Haven; fourth or greater offense operating under the influence of liquor, failed to stop/yield, marked lanes violation, negligent operation of motor vehicle, arraigned and

held, conditions to remain alcohol free, submit to SCRAM alcohol testing, and engage in a substance abuse evaluation, bail set at $2000 surety with potential for revocation, continued to pretrial conference.

March 20

Ronei Dacosta, 56, Vineyard Haven, operating motor vehicle with license suspended, motor vehicle lights violation, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

March 27

Jhenefer A. Dasilva, 29, Oak Bluffs; uninsured motor vehicle, operating motor vehicle with registration suspended, no inspection sticker, arraigned and released, case closed.

Iracildo M. Dasilva, 33, Vineyard Haven; operating motor vehicle with license suspended, no inspection sticker, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

March 30

Zachary D. Magid, 46, West Tisbury; second offense operating under the influence of liquor, negligent opera-

tion of motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, possession of open container in motor vehicle, vandalization of property, arraigned and held, bail set at $1,000, with potential for revocation, continued to pretrial hearing.

April 3

Weverton S. Santos, 41, Edgartown; operating with license suspended, no inspection/sticker, speeding in violation of special regulation, failed to stop for police, possession of class B drug, arraigned and held, bail set at $1000 with potential for bail revocation, continued to pretrial hearing.

April 9

Peter L. Jackson Jr., 56, Edgartown; operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of motor vehicle, no inspection/sticker, possession of open container of alcohol in motor vehicle, continued to pretrial hearing.

April 10

Josenildo D. Dasilva, 38, Vineyard Haven; operating with license suspended, speeding in violation of special regulation, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

April 16

Emery E. Johnson, 54, Quincy; three counts of violating abuse prevention order, two counts of intimidating a witness, juror, police, or court official, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, bench trial.

Suvarna Maya B. Thataputi, 32, Evanston, IL; violated harassment prevention order, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

Jermaine E. Sharpe, 36, West Tisbury; two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

April 17

Eduardo Enrique C. Costa, 31, West Tisbury; operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

Shivi Datta, 36, Oak Bluffs; violation of abuse prevention order, case closed, dismissed prior to arraignment.

Alvia O. Sawyers, 39, Edgartown; assault and battery on pregnant victim, arraigned and held, bail set at $400 with potential for bail revocation, continued to pretrial hearing. /*-

Christina M. Colarusso, 35, Vineyard Haven; indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over, assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, breaking and entering for misdemeanor, trespass, arraigned and released, sentenced to probation.

Valdenii A. Delima, 47, Oak Bluffs; operating motor vehicle with license suspended, arraigned and released, case closed.

April 22

Alexandre C. Florencio, 26, Vineyard Haven; no inspection/sticker, operating motor vehicle with license suspended, arraigned and held, bail set at $100 with potential for bail revocation, continued to pretrial hearing.

Clarence H. Goncalves., 42, Oak Bluffs; disorderly conduct, arraigned and held, bail set at $500 with potential for bail revocation, continued to pretrial hearing.

MARTHA’S VINEYARD DISTRICT COURT REPORT

Roder A. Herrera, 24, Vineyard Haven; operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of motor vehicle, unregistered motor vehicle, number plate violation to conceal ID, uninsured motor vehicle, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

Raiane Q. Dossantos, 29, West Tisbury; assault and battery, assault and battery with dangerous weapon, assault and battery on family/ household member, arraigned and held, bail set at $500 with potential for bail revocation, conditions to stay away and not contact alleged victim, continued to pretrial hearing

April 30

Henry Ndaula, 55, Edgartown; improper operation of motor vehicle, operating motor vehicle with license suspended, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

Derrick E. Jemison, 28, Panama City, FL; breaking and entering for misdemeanor, vandalizing property, arraigned and released on personal recognizance, continued to pretrial hearing.

Summer love and a return to the Vineyard. BY KATE FEIFFER

K.L. Walther