Set on the uppermost floor of Windsor Park Residences, this spacious three-bedroom home with high and vaulted ceilings as well as generously sized windows enjoys exceptional natural light. West-facing views sweep over a lush tropical panorama of the Intracoastal Waterway’s Indian River Lagoon and the treetops of Pelican Island. Interiors are masterfully crafted with details including elegant decorative millwork, custom cabinetry, and 7”-wide oak flooring throughout all living areas. Advanced home technology streamlines and simplifies everything from Wi-Fi and lighting to window treatments and sound systems.
A Thriving Nantucket Begins with Us.
If you love this Island and want to make a positive impact on the quality of life for people in the community, donate to The Nantucket Fund — The Community Foundation’s permanent grant making fund that provides grants to the Island’s most critical needs and initiatives.
Our goal is to raise $3 million in 2025 to fund more of the requests received from local organizations who are on the front line assisting those coping with personal struggles, in need of food, a safe place to call home, searching for childcare, or aging in place gracefully.
Make a difference now. Donate to The Nantucket Fund at CFNAN.org
Photographer: Kit Noble
Wendy Hudson, CFN Donor & Board Member, Owner/Founder of Nantucket Book Partners, and Founding Partner of Cisco Brewers
EDITOR’S NOTE
Baseball. Fishing. The beach. Can anything be more symbolic of summer?
As this issue went to press, summer on Nantucket was in full swing. Sun-filled days, humidity-free nights with a cooling breeze, it reminded me of my introduction to the island more than 30 years ago. I wasn’t here too many days before I knew I was home. I grew up summers on the Jersey Shore and in the sun-baked hay fields and cattle pastures of upstate New York.
Not too hard to say Nantucket has them both beat. The best.
This issue is something of our homage to summer on the island, but it’s also a reflection of the best Nantucket has to offer. Kicking us off you’ll find the results of our Best of Nantucket readers poll, a tradition at The Inquirer and Mirror stretching back to before I ever set foot on the island. Our readers have spoken, and given us their thoughts on what’s truly the best of Nantucket, from restaurants to retail, summer fun to who to turn to when you need a plumber or an electrician.
And the best charter fishing captain. It’s always a tight race, and this year our readers named Marc Genthner of Just Do It Too, a well-deserved accolade. But on page 64, you’ll find Cam Gammill’s profile of Tom Mleczko, one of the elder statesmen of the island’s charter fleet, and one of the first to base himself out of Madaket Harbor. Cam’s heartfelt tribute to the godfather of west end fishing reminds us that there’s more to life than just work.
Other oceanfront communities often take the beach for granted. After all, it’s been there for millions of years, right? On Nantucket, we don’t have that luxury. Shifting sands alter the beaches in front of our eyes from season to season, sometimes giving, but more often than not, taking away. Not just favorite spots, but sometimes houses and parking lots. Ginger Andrews, whose father co-authored one of the definitive research papers on the island’s changing shorelines, lays out the history of our ever-evolving beaches in a way even the least-scientifically-minded of us can appreciate on page 48.
And let’s not forget baseball. As this issue went to press the Red Sox were coming off a hot stretch that had them back in contention for the playoffs. But closer to home, Nantucket High School graduate Matthew Holdgate was on the job in central Florida, crunching numbers in the front office of the Tampa Bay Rays. Inquirer and Mirror sports editor Jamie Cushman catches us up on what he’s been doing in the big leagues on page 72.
There’s plenty more in this issue symbolic of summer, from the intensely vibrant lighthouse photos of Sam Hill to I&M staff writer Sarah Roberts’ look at the Stark family’s decision to reopen Robert Stark Jr.’s iconic Old North Wharf gallery, where maritime scenes dominate the walls.
Enjoy the rest of the summer. Fall will be here soon enough.
Joshua H. Balling Editor
CONTENTS: AUGUST 2025
12 BEST OF NANTUCKET
Our readers have spoken in more than 70 categories.
42 GUIDING LIGHTS
Sam Hill used to build some of the finest high-end homes on the island. Now he takes amazing photographs. Photos by Sam Hill
48 EASY COME, EASY GO
Nantucket’s changing shorelines. by Ginger Andrews
56 REKINDLING A FAMILY TRADITION
The Stark family reopens an iconic island gallery. by Sarah Roberts
64 TOM MLECZKO
The west end’s fishing godfather. by Cam Gammill
72 NANTUCKET TO THE BIG LEAGUES
Matthew Holdgate is crunching numbers for the Tampa Bay Rays. by Jamie Cushman
80 CRAMPED OFF CROOKED LANE
NiSHA looking for more spacious digs. by Kaie Quigley
Na ntucket
Published by The Inquirer and Mirror Inc. 1 Old South Road Nantucket, MA 02554 508 228-0001 nantucketmag.com
five
In response to this increasing demand for services, A Safe Place has been conducting a quiet $10 million CAPITAL CAMPAIGN to purchase our first permanent home. Over 70% has been raised. Now we are reaching out to YOU, the entire community, to help us reach our goal.
Publisher Robert Saurer rsaurer@inkym.com
Editor Joshua H. Balling jballing@inkym.com
Production & Design Peter Halik plhalik@inkym.com
Advertising Director Mary Cowell-Sharpe msharpe@inkym.com
Advertising Sales Alexandro Sforza asforza@inkym.com
Circulation Karen Orlando korlando@inkym.com
Contributing Writers & Photographers
Virginia Andrews
Jamie Cushman
Cam Gammill
Sam Hill
Kaie Quigley
Karen Quigley
Contact Us: Nantucket Today, P.O. Box 1198, Nantucket, MA 02554. Phone 508 228-0001. Fax 508 325-5089. Advertising and subscription rates online at www.nantucketmag.com
These are just some of the people who bring their talents to the pages of this magazine, and allow Nantucket Today to reflect genuine island life.
Jamie Cushman is the sports editor of The Inquirer and Mirror. A Plainville native and graduate of UMass Amherst, Jamie can usually be found at a ballfield or watching sports on TV.
Kaie Quigley came to the island fresh out of Lasell University in Newton two years ago and has since been a full-time staff writer and photographer for The Inquirer and Mirror. If a notebook or camera isn’t in his hand, a golf club or pickleball paddle probably is.
Cam Gammill has been chasing bluefish since he was a little boy. He is the co-owner of Bill Fisher Tackle and co-owner of Fisher Real Estate. He also fishes with Bill Fisher Outfitters, owned by his twin brother Corey.
Every year readers of The Inquirer and Mirror vote on who is the best in multiple categories.
Read on to see who this year’s winners are!
BY JOHN SEIP
PHOTO
BEAUTY
Barber (Tie)
RJ Miller Salon & Spa
Scissorhands
Wilbert Barber Shop
Hair Salon
RJ Miller Salon & Spa
Massage
Life Massage
Nail Salon
On-Glaze
Spa
Darya Salon & Spa
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT
Asian Dining
Bar Yoshi
Bread
Something Natural
Breakfast
Island Kitchen
Breakfast Sandwich
Born & Bread
Brunch
Island Kitchen
Burger
Brotherhood of Thieves
Cake
Nantucket Bake Shop
Caterer
Island Kitchen
Chef, Fine Dining
The SeaGrille: Tucker Harvey
Chicken Wings
Faregrounds Restaurant
Clam Chowder
The SeaGrille
Cup of Coffee
Handlebar Café
Doughnut
Nantucket Bake Shop
Family Dining Brotherhood of Thieves
Fast Food
Stubby’s
Fine Dining
The SeaGrille
Fish Market
Glidden’s Island Seafood
Food Truck
167 Raw
French Fries
Brotherhood of Thieves
Fried Clams
Sayle’s Seafood
Healthy Eating
Lemon Press
Ice Cream
The Juice Bar
Italian Restaurant
Ventuno
Latin Dining
Millie’s
Lobster Roll
Cru
Lunch
Something Natural
Outdoor Dining
Galley Beach
Pizza
Pi Pizzeria
Romantic Restaurant (Tie)
Ships Inn
The Chanticleer
Sandwich
Something Natural
Seafood Restaurant
The SeaGrille
Smoothie
The Juice Bar
Sushi
Bar Yoshi
Waterview Dining
Galley Beach
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Chiropractor
Dr. Nicholas Ouellette, Island Chiropractic
Health & Wellness
Lavender Farm Wellness
Physical Therapist
Nantucket Cottage Hospital
Rehabilitation Services
HOME SERVICES
Architect
Chip Webster
Attorney
Glidden & Brescher
Bank
Cape Cod Five
Builder
Cheney Custom Homes
Cleaning Service
Pioneer Cleaning
Electrician
Ryder Electric
Interior Designer
Melanie Gowen Home + Design
Landscaper
Ethan Fey, Fey Landscape
Plumber
Mark O’Banion Plumbing and Heating
PLACES & ACTIVITIES
Beach
Ladies Beach
Conservation Property
Great Point
Farm for Island-Grown Produce
Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm
Fishing Charter
Just Do it Too
Fundraiser
Boston Pops, Nantucket Cottage Hospital
Island Tour
Gail Johnson, Gail’s Tours
Kids Water Activities
Nantucket Community Sailing
Museum/Historic Site
Nantucket Whaling Museum
Theater
Dreamland, Nantucket’s Film & Cultural Center
SHOPPING
Antiques Store
Sylvia Antiques
Art Gallery
Artists Association of Nantucket
Bicycle Shop
Young’s Bicycle Shop
Boat Yard & Marine Supplies
Madaket Marine
Drugstore
Nantucket Pharmacy
Furniture
Nantucket Looms
Garden Center
Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm
Gift Shop
Four Winds Gift Shop
Jewelry
Jewel in the Sea
Kids’ Clothing
Pinwheels
Men’s Clothing
Murray’s Toggery Shop
T-Shirt Shop
Annie and the Tees
Wine Store
Hatch’s Package Store
Women’s Clothing (Tie)
Erica Wilson
Murray’s Toggery Shop
TRAVEL
Auto Rental
Nantucket Windmill Auto Rental
Hotel
The Nantucket Hotel
Inn
Greydon House
The Nantucket Dreamland is a nonprofit arts center built by this community, for this community.
Top: Brant Point Light at sunrise.
Right: A “created” photo. Brant Point Light as seen through an antique window frame in one of the oldest houses in Sconset.
Left: Brant Point Light with the moon low in the night sky.
Guiding Lights
PHOTOS BY SAM HILL
Before he was a builder of some of the finest highend homes on the island, Sam Hill studied fine arts and painting at the Art Institute of Boston. He bought a digital camera when they first hit the market to take pictures of his building projects, and slowly started to dabble in nature photography. At first it was birds in flight, then moonrises, and lately, it’s been lighthouses.
Hill’s works are true pieces of photographic art. He works with what in the world of digital photography are called “stacks,” taking multiple pictures of the
same subject at different settings and focus. A script in Photoshop examines each image pixel by pixel, and he chooses the best luminosity and detail to create the finished image.
His mission, he says, is to show the viewer something they might not have seen before, and create an image he would feel good hanging on his own wall.
Visit www.nantucketmag.com for a more in-depth exploration of Hill’s process and inspiration, and https://1-sam-hill.pixels.com/ for more of his work.
Brant Point Light at moonrise.
Photo by Carla Eberly
Great Point Light at night.
Brant Point Light at sunset as seen from Cathcart Road.
Great Point Light as seen from its northeast side.
Top: Brant Point Light at sunrise.
Right: Brant Point Light with Alerions in the foreground. Sam Hill once worked at the Sanford Boat Company, which built the iconic island sailboats.
Left: Brant Point Light at sunset.
Easy Come, Easy Go
Nantucket’s ever-changing shorelines
STORY BY GINGER ANDREWS
Mentioning the words “sea level rise” or worse, “climate change” in mixed company can evoke an emotional reaction. It is strange but true that some people take these concepts personally. It has ceased to be about natural phenomena and almost a flag of tribal identity.
This is too bad, because the coastal process is one of the most fascinating and unpredictable studies in geology.
Geology usually deals in eons. Climate operates beyond the usual scale of human life, but movement on the coast is something that can be watched in the course of a single lifetime or even a single year.
Erosion has become a dirty word. It sounds like a disease. But like some diseases, it has its remissions and intermissions, its lacunae and its sudden shifts.
It’s better – and more correct – to call it “sand transport.” Most beach-goers don’t realize it’s happening. This is in part because the most dramatic shifts happen in winter.
The ocean is rougher, the wind stronger, the winter beach steeper, the upland under the dunes more exposed. As the weather moderates in the summer, beaches broaden and flatten. The beach always looks like the beach, as long as there is a beach, no matter where it is.
In the 1950s we used to say that what washed away from one place on the island would just be deposited somewhere else. This made it seem more benign, perhaps, something we gave tacit acceptance to, even permission for.
And although still true, in a way, it is not the whole story. It doesn’t come back as upland. This is what makes
the study of historic shorelines so fascinating. And inevitably, it leads us to study maps.
“If Nantucket is washing away, why hasn’t the map changed?”
The answer is that it has changed, in places tremendously. Maps are only symbolic representations of different aspects of the world. They can show whatever the maker is interested in. Draw an isosceles triangle, tilt its sharpest point to the left, take a shark-bite out of the interior on the upper right and you have a representation of Nantucket that can be used for anything.
Sketch in every ice cream shop, draw the road to grandmother’s house and yes, it’s a map. But symbolism is not the same as measurement, and measurement depends on tools. So, accuracy varies, depending on available technology.
Possibly the first attempt to measure the Earth was done by Eratosthenes, librarian of Alexandria.
Babylonian astronomers had already observed the angle of the elliptic and concluded the Earth was round. Sometime around 200 B.C. Eratosthenes heard of a deep well far down the Nile where direct sunlight only reached the water at noon on the summer solstice. This formed a point for geometrical calculation.
Opposite: The eroding bluff below Baxter Road in Sconset. Above: Wave action cuts into the beach on the south shore.
“Charting a beach is like measuring the frenetic activity of a new puppy with a flashlight. It is more like how it was on that particular day.”
Long-Term change transects (1840s-2018)
Accreting Eroding No Statistical Change
He measured the sun’s angle at Alexandria on the appropriate day. He calculated the distance by estimating how long it took a camel train to go between the two places. True, he was off by 6,000 kilometers, but perhaps the camels were tired.
It is a long way from Ptolemy III to LIDAR. But until the 18th century, any European holding the radical idea that the Earth revolved around the sun could still be burned as a heretic.
As European explorers circled what was finally recognized as a globe, rather than a flat plate held up by elephants, their tools improved and much time and effort went into surveying.
The telescope, the quadrant, the plane table, the theodolite and the chronometer were steps along the way to real charts.
Maps give an illusion of stability, of permanence: “this is how it is.”
But charting a beach is like measuring the frenetic activ-
ity of a new puppy with a flashlight. It is more like “how it was on that particular day.”
Although 19th century navigation was still subject to error, surveys made using astronomical observations made for much better maps. In 1849 Nantucket astronomer Maria Mitchell was hired to make calculations for the U.S. Navy’s nautical almanac, a job she held for almost 20 years.
One hundred years later, the space program demanded even greater precision. The Global Positioning System (GPS) changed map-making yet again. This is not to say that we can dismiss older maps as irrelevant.
William Mitchell (father of astronomer Maria) drew a map of Nantucket in 1838. It doesn’t show the land west of Tuckernuck. But that the Gravelly Islands had some substance is suggested by the Selectmen’s permission for a doctor to set up an inoculation station there in 1771.
Smith’s Point stretched well past Tuckernuck, and it was said that cattle could be driven there at low tide. In 1846
the first official coastal survey map was made, showing Nantucket shoals.
Reverend Francis Ewer’s 1869 map shows considerable distance between the seaward tip of Ram Pasture, a peninsula jutting between two lobes of Hummock Pond and the ocean beach. The distance shrank as the barrier beach retreated over time.
The Blizzard of 1978 pushed the ocean beach up to and over Ram Pasture, making Hummock into two unconnected ponds. The position of Great Point Light, centered in the lobe at the end of the spit, is notable. A Historic Nantucket bulletin in 1980 noted that continuing erosion endangered the lighthouse. Built in 1818, it fell down in a spring storm in 1984. It was rebuilt, again in the center of the point, and now once again nearing the beach.
The south shore, with direct exposure to the long fetch of Atlantic Ocean waves, consistently loses the most ground. Attempts to run a train from Steamboat Wharf to Sconset began in 1884 and were finally given up in 1917.
The tracks continually had to be re-laid, the Surfside Hotel was fatally damaged in a storm.
The Madaket Lifesaving Station, built in 1890, was decommissioned in 1947. In the early 2000s a house at Smith’s Point with 75 feet of beach in spring found the ocean in the cellar by the Fourth of July.
Ames Avenue, the access to Smith’s Point, is currently threatened. In 1961, Hurricane Esther breached Smith’s Point, making the western section into “Esther’s Island.” By 1988 enough sand had come down by longshore drift to fill the gap. It opened again from 2007 to 2009. It is currently connected. But a series of sloughs denotes over-washing every winter, cutting through the dunes and spilling sand into Madaket Harbor to the north.
The Navy base at Tom Nevers is also gone, spilling debris buried more than 200 feet away from the ocean at its decommissioning onto the beach.
But perhaps no place speaks more eloquently of coastal process than the area from Low Beach to Codfish Park,
Codfish Park in Sconset when the beach was much broader and rows of waterfront homes overlooked the ocean.
Courtesy of Nantucket Historical Association
Nantucket is a heap of glacial till, shaped by wind and tide. As the ice ages passed the first people most likely walked here. Nantucket was a hill. When a company tested Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, potentially a site for a wind farm, they found a layer of mud covering remains of birch trees.
which has eroded and accreted more than once. There is a tendency to regard sea and dry land as two different places.
But the beach is only a temporary intermediary between them. In the early 1800s the ocean met the foot of the bluff at Sconset. In a big storm in the 1850s, a barn washed away and the horse with it, indicating, as erosion “tour guide” Wes Tiffney remarked, “that it was a surprise.”
But then the area below the bluff began to grow a beach. Fishermen, launching their dories, began to build small shacks for gear and shelter. These became houses for the servants of bigger houses above, before becoming summer cottages and year-round homes.
But in October 1991 the so-called “Perfect Storm” began the process of demolishing two rows of houses and the street between. One exceptionally well-built home floated intact for three minutes and 20 seconds before the force of the waves broke it apart.
Nantucket is a heap of glacial till, shaped by wind and tide. As the ice ages passed the first people most likely walked here. Nantucket was a hill. When a company tested Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, potentially a site for a wind farm, it found a layer of mud covering remains of birch trees. Not only was it once dry land, the climate was cooler.
Three years ago, a researcher studying the effects of sea clam dredging on Great Round Shoal discovered that
a month of stormy weather had radically changed the bathymetry: the shape of the sand at the bottom. It also exposed a resistant mud layer below. Carbon dating of the vegetation gave a date range of 6,500 to 8,000 years old. This agrees with other data.
Spartina, the grass that anchors saltmarshes, grows perpetually to the level of high tide. The surface of the marsh builds up year after year, showing by its depth where – and approximately when – salt water arrived.
The Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory visited Nantucket and determined the deepest ponds and marshes are about nine feet above sand level. Nantucket was not always an island.
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and U.S. Geological Survey have created marvelously detailed and meticulously measured maps of changes to the entire Massachusetts shoreline. It assimilated all available information, from old maps to today’s ultra-high-tech ones. Using what stable reference points it could find and adjusting for differences in scale, it created historic shoreline maps. Nantucket County has over 2,200 transects, spaced 50 meters apart, still being updated periodically. The result is a fascinating study in mutability, showing the dance of erosion and accretion. Muskeget moved east, Great Point wiggles west.
What of the north shore? It too is eroding, although at a slower rate. In 1720 the harbor at Capaum Pond closed, forcing the town to move to its current location. In the 19th century, shoals formed across the current harbor, forcing shipowners to develop a “camel” to help them float over the bar at high tide. Could Nantucket be acting as if it were a barrier island? Moving north, protecting Cape Cod?
At a coastal conference in 1991, Tiffney and Andrews (my father) presented a paper showing how Pochick Rip and Old Man Shoal affected the shoreline at Low Beach.
Sand is the best absorber of wave energy. Storms are the agents of major change. Their unpredictability is a temptation for gamblers. Nantucket’s shoals can act as natural breakwaters, allowing deposition, but also can direct erosion toward an area, making it even more vulnerable.
Perhaps the answer to “resilience” lies offshore. But the danger of unintended consequences is large. Easy come, easy go.
Virginia “Ginger” Andrews writes the “Island Bird Sightings” column for The Inquirer and Mirror and is a frequent contributor to Nantucket Today.
Your Trusted Local Real Estate Experts
Stark Gallery reopens on the waterfront Rekindling
STORY BY SARAH ROBERTS
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROBERT STARK III
Robert Stark Jr. gave up a successful career on Wall Street and moved his family to his hometown of Nantucket to paint and open his own art gallery in 1972.
It’s an unlikely story: a man with a successful career in the city leaving it all behind to be a painter on a quaint New England island.
“I don’t know what his friends or family thought of that. You know, that was quite a big jump from Manhattan to Nantucket year-round. Hardly anybody lived here year-round back then,” his daughter-in-law Andrea Stark said.
But he did it despite what others might have thought and for 30 years he ran Stark Gallery.
“He had a way of focusing and just figuring stuff out. He just put everything into it. Because all his friends and I’m sure his family thought maybe he was crazy, but he made it work,” Robert Jr.’s oldest son, Robert “Bob” Stark III said.
Robert Jr.’s journey to fine art was truly one of a kind. Before his Wall Street career, he played professional baseball for two years before joining the Navy and serving in the Korean War.
He started studying under Harold Stevenson in the 1960s during his business career. Stevenson was a prolific painter who studied at the Arts Students League in New York City in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
“Harold ran a proper atelier, you know, you would sign up and you’d spend, I believe it was three years, and he just started right from the bottom. He just had him drawing circles for a while, and then taught color theory, tone theory and all that. And they remained very good friends,” Bob said.
Brothers Dylan Stark, right, and Robert “Bob” Stark III.
a family tradition
This
“He had a way of focusing and just figuring stuff out. He just put everything into it. Because all his friends and I’m sure his family thought maybe he was crazy, but he made it work.”
- Robert Jr.’s oldest son, Robert “Bob” Stark III
image: A maritime scene by the late Robert Stark Jr. Below: A maritime scene by Dylan Stark.
Robert Jr.’s decision to open a gallery on Nantucket didn’t come out of nowhere. He had grown up on the island, graduated from Nantucket High School and had many connections that ultimately brought him back home.
“I know it was the same for my father, obviously, and for my brother. I don’t think we would be doing what we’re doing, were it not for Nantucket,” Bob said.
Many of Robert Jr.’s paintings capture the natural beauty of Nantucket with simple – often red – sailboats on a calm ocean that blends into a hazy blue sky. His luminous oil paintings are still highly sought after by collectors of Nantucket art.
Reopening the gallery was an idea that had always sat politely in the back of the Stark brothers’ minds. Bob and Robert Jr.’s youngest son, Dylan, decided it was time to reopen the gallery’s doors full-time.
Earlier this summer, Dylan, his wife Andrea and their two kids, Lily and Henry, set off for Nantucket from their home in Saco, Maine, to get the gallery back up and running.
“My brother and I just decided that it was something we finally wanted to do,” Dylan said. “We both have been really busy and didn’t really have the time to devote to what it would take to get it right and everything.”
Bob currently lives in Johns Island, S.C., but will be on-is-
“Twilight,” by Bob Stark.
One of the late Robert Stark Jr.’s iconic red sailboat paintings.
A maritime piece by Dylan Stark.
land to take over running the gallery from August and into the fall.
The gallery is open through October Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“This is the first year we’ve done it and I think it’s been relatively successful. Foot traffic down there in the North Wharf kind of started falling away around the early 2000s … But my brother says he’s been getting quite a bit of traffic,”
Bob said.
Three out of four of Robert Jr.’s children adopted the artistic gene. Bob studied fine art in college and started painting as a career right after graduating.
“1995 is about when I started and I was lucky enough to kind of have things start selling right away. I quickly quit my day job and concentrated on painting,” he said.
He got his big breaks from the Artists Association of Nantucket and Nantucket Looms selling his paintings. Bob later moved to Maine for a time before finding himself in Johns Island with his wife.
Bob finds inspiration in objects that seem mundane to the untrained eye. Still-life objects were where he first practiced his technique, but it turns out he has a passion for the detail he can apply in the simplicity of objects like fruits, shells and flowers. He encourages viewers to look for depth in ordinary objects.
“Turnkey”
“1995 is about when I started and I was lucky enough to kind of have things start selling right away. I quickly quit my day job and concentrated on painting.”
– Bob Stark
“Repear” by Bob Stark.
by Bob Stark.
“It was just easier to go to the store and buy some fruits and vegetables, go to the flower store and buy some flowers … I just started doing still-lifes, and they kind of took off, you know, as far as people liking them enough to buy them, and I enjoyed painting them, I still do,” Bob said.
Dylan, like his father, didn’t find his way to art right out of school. He went to school for film and worked in the industry doing lighting, cinematography and directing. He decided to shift careers and hone his art skills when his kids were young.
“I kind of decided I wanted to switch careers and stay home with them, and developed my skills,” Dylan said. When he started painting again, he turned to his father for lessons.
“He was Dylan’s biggest fan. It was very, you know, at that time a dad staying home wasn’t as common, but he was always super-supportive and really just there for Dylan, trying to help him make a go of this,” Andrea said.
Dylan’s work showcases landscapes and seascapes inspired by the natural beauty of Maine and Nantucket. He often features a sailboat in the foreground of serene seas and slightly cloudy skies. He invites his viewers to pause, observe and appreciate overlooked moments of life through his art.
Dylan’s daughter Lily grew up knowing she wanted to have a career in a creative field. After graduating from Lasell University with a degree in film last year, she moved to Los Angeles, Calif.
“I do digital marketing for a few companies. I always wanted to be in a creative field, I do some film photography now and will hopefully show some in the gallery; get it framed and touch it up,” Lily said.
Bob suggested that the oldest Stark sibling, Alison, might be the most talented artist among the Stark children.
“Keeping the family legacy going, that’s the main thing.”
–
However, she paints as a hobby rather than a career.
“My older sister was probably the most talented out of us, but didn’t really pursue it,” he said. “And she’s got, you know, an interesting kind of a more abstract take on things … I think people will really enjoy it. She tends to paint on paper, and it’s a little more loose than my brother and my work, but it’s definitely got something to say.”
During the pandemic, Alison was recognized by The New York Times for creative ways people were coping with the pandemic. Bob said her art will be featured in the gallery next season.
The Stark family’s creative interests go back to Robert Jr.’s mother as well.
“My grandmother, his mother, was a pretty prolific amateur painter. I don’t know if she taught him anything or influenced him to get started, he never really talked about it, but she definitely had that bug as well,” Dylan said.
In the early 1980s Robert Jr. moved the gallery from a spot further down Old North Wharf to 5 Old North Wharf. When his health began to decline in 2012, the gallery shifted to being open by appointment only.
The new Stark Gallery still sits at 5 Old North Wharf, welcoming visitors and islanders alike to stop in and digest the art across multiple generations of the Stark family as it begins a new chapter and revives a long-time Nantucket legacy.
“Keeping the family legacy going, that’s the main thing,” Dylan said.
Sarah Roberts is a staff writer at The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket’s newspaper since 1821.
The late Robert Stark Jr.
Dylan Stark
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$11,995,000 | Penny Dey
EAST
This Tom Never’s East private 3-bedroom 2.5 bath home is on a beautiful 1.3 acre lot. The high elevation offers a peek of the ocean. Lush landscaping and beautifully maintained gardens overlook a wonderful entertaining area with in-ground pool and multiple patio and deck spaces.
$2,975,000 | Linda Bellevue
Penny Dey, Principal Broker, GRI, ABRM
Linda Bellevue, GRI, CBR
Heidi Drew, ABR, RSPS, SRS
Peter DuPont
Centrally located antique home with Five bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Historic details intact, including six fireplaces, raised paneling, original doors and wide pine floors throughout. Patio, off-street parking, and garden area. Large, attached accessory structure and spacious third floor offer expansion opportunities. Excellent location, close to all that Town has to offer. New cedar roof, interior and exterior painting and oil tank. Offered furnished and ready for occupancy.
$3,750,000 | Penny Dey
Over 4300 sf of spacious interior, 5 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, 2 car garage, plus a 2 bedroom cottage and significant outdoor space that invites imagination for landscaping and a pool.
$4,195,000 | Heidi Drew
Angel Conrad Frazier
Mary D. Malavase, GRI, ABR, SRS, RSPS
Jane B. Miller, ABR, RSPS
Meg Ruley, ABR, RSPS
Lisa Sherburne, ABR, RSPS
Melinda Vallett
Geri Walker, RSPS, SFR
A true blend of charm, functionality and comfort, this move in ready home offers four beautifully finished floors of living space including two bedrooms, three full baths, one half bath and two car parking. A private deck and landscaped yard provide an outdoor escape.
$1,695,000 | Angel Conrad Frazier
Mary O’Donnell, Office Manager
Erikka Perkins, Rental Manager
Yesenia Valer, Office Assistant
Enjoy your Nantucket summer in this turn-key, spacious and special home, nestled in the heart of Monomoy. The 6 bedroom 6+ bathroom professionally decorated property was completed by Kathleen Hay Designs. The house boasts second floor water views of Nantucket harbor, a beautifully landscaped yard, 16x38 infinity edge pool and spa, outdoor porches, patios and a fire pit. Just bring your bathing suit!
Fishers Landing is a charming neighborhood, offering a blend of natural beauty and recreational amenities. Residents can enjoy a scenic path through conservation moors, leading to a serene beach along Nantucket Sound with gentle surf. The community features a common area with a tennis and pickleball court, as well as a space for storing small boats. Surrounded by extensive conservation land, Fishers Landing is an ideal retreat for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. This 4-bedroom, 3.5 bath home is located on 1/4 acre, and is offered furnished. The abutting .23-acre lot at 36 Ridge Lane can be purchased with the house for an additional $1,495,000.
$16,250,000 | Meg Ruley
Imagine having the best of both worlds, the privacy of sprawling grounds and the convenience of proximity to downtown and the beach. This rare offering consists of over an acre of land, located just a short stroll to the shops on Centre Street and Steps Beach. When not exploring town, the four bedroom, two and half bath home and outdoor living area will provide space for entertaining or relaxing in the large private yard surrounded by mature vegetation. The home is offered for sale fully furnished with an established rental history.
$3,075,000 | Penny Dey
Nestled amidst serene conservation land, this exclusive property offers breathtaking views of Long Pond and Nantucket Sound. Enjoy private, deeded beach access with your own set of stairs leading to the sand. Experience the tranquility of nature, the beauty of panoramic water views, and unforgettable sunsets from the comfort of your own home. This is coastal living at its finest – your perfect escape awaits!
$6,495,000 | Linda Bellevue
$3,895,000 | Linda Bellevue
Charming ‘Sconset cottage on large lot in the heart of the village. Short jaunt to tennis, fine dining and the Atlantic Ocean. Living room with fireplace, large kitchen with dining bar, screened-in porch for al-fresco dining, three bedrooms and two full baths. Yard and off-street parking. Offered fully furnished and with established rental history.
$2,695,000 | Penny Dey
Tom Mleczko: Godfather of west end fishermen
Tom Mleczko embodies the spirit of Nantucket: unwavering devotion to the sea, a boundless love for family and a fierce respect for the island.
For over 50 years, Capt. Tom has been the irreplaceable soul of fishing on the west end of Nantucket.
Hailing from Maine, he arrived on the island in 1970, initially running a children’s camp. But it took just one night filled with stellar striped bass fishing to hook him for life.
By 1973, at the suggestion of his wife Priscilla “Bambi” Gifford – who would handle bookings, bookkeeping and so much more – Tom purchased an old 26-foot bass boat and launched his charter business.
Mleczko’s current story and his roots have not veered much off-course. Like always, he puts family
and friends first – unless you ask him to help you at 4 a.m. when the bass bite is on. I feel blessed to be one of those individuals who has felt like friend and family to Capt. Tom.
Growing up, Mleczko was my hockey coach, my science teacher and one of my best friend’s dads. I’ve lived with his family for years and loved being part of his day-to-day life. I’ve watched this incredible human being deliver puppies, make his patented peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches and entertain his friends with stories old and new. Tom is perhaps the most infectious individual I know and his genuine love for life is something I can only hope to emulate.
STORY BY CAM GAMMILL
A younger Mleczko family on the Priscilla J.
When we think of head coaches in football and their impact, we often think of their coaching tree. While Bill Parcells may have forever changed the league, perhaps his bigger impact has been on those he mentored who have also had their influence on the NFL, starting, of course, with Bill Belichick, but also Tom Coughlin, Sean Payton, etc.
The same can be said for Capt. Tom. Most of the active charter captains on the west end of the island got their start under his tutelage.
Mleczko is perhaps the most natural teacher I’ve ever encountered. He has taught me in school, he has coached me in hockey and he has taught me on the water.
Historically, most of the Nantucket charter fleet has focused on the north shore and east side of the island. Tom, however, would prefer to spend time on his 29-foot Hawk in the white water around Madaket.
Further, most of the charter fleet used to primarily troll lines behind a moving boat in an effort to catch fish. While this method is incredibly effective and fun, Capt. Tom bucked the trend and focused on casting from the boat.
He invested in the perfect bass boat, Priscilla J, which was stable and wide open, allowing clients to easily cast while in a boat, even while it was in motion.
While Tom did not pioneer this type of fishing, he was the one who made it a common practice among the charter fleet. Tom believed that clients would want a direct connection to the fishing experience and his natural tendencies as a teacher allowed him to teach his anglers how to fish effectively.
Currently on the west end, there are at least eight active charter captains and dozens more who are not active who learned directly from Tom’s tutelage.
Tom taught us how to run an edge and fish an edge.
He taught us how to read the water and decipher how to fish it and if it was safe. He taught us that the overall experience was just as important as catching fish, and watching him interact with clients and friends was the greatest gift he gave me.
Tom is genuine and caring. When he gives a big hug or a belly laugh, they are sincere. His connections are real and those relationships only enhance the fishing experience.
Capt. Tom was also one of the first to bring fly-fishing to Nantucket. He would often quietly sit on the flats on his small Whaler and float with the tide in shallow water. His tall stature allowed him to see fish cruising on the flats and without pause, he would lay a perfect cast in front of a happy fish.
Tom was so protective of this fishery early on, he would always have his clam rake with him in case someone was checking him out. He’d put everything down so that no one would know about this fishery that sat right out in the open.
As much as Tom in many ways feels like the godfather of fishing on the west end, his role of father and husband is perhaps his greatest accomplishment and gives him the most pride. Tom and his wife Bambi raised three incredible children in a very unique lifestyle.
They toggled between two lives and both worked endless hours. In winter, Tom was a teacher and coach in Connecticut, while Bambi managed her store Together, from afar.
In the summer, Bambi was in her Main Street location 24/7 and Tom was on the water even more if possible. They even traveled every weekend in the shoulder seasons to support this life. When you’re in it, it seems reasonable but looking back, it seems like it wasn’t possible.
Tom is genuine and caring. When he gives a big hug or a belly laugh, they are sincere. His connections are real and those relationships only enhance the fishing experience.
While they had crazy lives, they would always make time for their kids and loved ones. I still cannot believe with their frantic schedules that they would coach their kids in every sport and be a part of their everyday lives.
Each of the kids even worked with Capt. Tom on the boats and their son Jason is now running the business.
Their home was a place a love and respite. You could always count on a cold beer on the deck, a story to be told and usually there were chores to be done, but when done together, it was always fun.
Capt. Tom is by far the fishiest human being I have ever been around. It’s as if he has a sixth sense which detects fish.
I’ll never forget a cold October day when we pushed to the eastern rips. I had been fishing with Tom all season and we had not been out there since early July. There were fish at Great Point and we just kept going further and further.
Tom had a sense that there would be big fish further east and wanted to give it a try. We abandoned our traditional way of fishing to use wire line and heavy jigs. We
were patient for about 10 minutes until one of the rods doubled over.
The pull was something I had never felt. After about 10 minutes the biggest bass I had ever seen came into view. I lipped this fish and Tom needed to pull me into the boat by my belt.
The fish measured 52 inches and without a scale, it was tough to say it was 50 pounds, but man, it must have been close if it wasn’t.
We caught a few more big fish but none that big and headed in. We never went back out that season, but how he had the hunch to focus on the big one and come through, I’ll never know.
Tom has given himself to fishing, friends and family and has been repaid in spades. Everything he puts in he gets out more and this is something I admire about this incredible and unique man.
Cam Gammill writes the “Fish Finder” column for The Inquirer and Mirror, which runs weekly from Memorial Day to Labor Day. He is a regular contributor to Nantucket Today and the co-owner of Bill Fisher Tackle.
From Nantucket to the Big Leagues
STORY BY JAMIE CUSHMAN
Back in 2018 during Matthew Holdgate’s sophomore season with the Nantucket High School varsity baseball team, the island native had the unenviable task of being the Whalers’ scorekeeper.
Teammates would tease Holdgate about how quickly he could record the stats from each play.
“I was always a pretty good stat keeper, which translation means I wasn’t that good at baseball,” Holdgate said with a laugh.
But just a few short years later Holdgate is the only one from the team who’s made it to the big leagues, though he’s still not swinging a bat or throwing a ball. The 23-yearold is settling into his second year working for the Tampa Bay Rays as a CRM (customer relationship management) administrator, providing a vital link between fan engagement and business operations through analytics.
Much of Holdgate’s work involves producing and analyzing reports for all of the various business departments in the Rays’ front office. Collaborating with the sales representatives to determine the most effective sales practices, identifying high-value leads through data, tracking campaign performance and streamlining workflows to improve efficiency and customer outreach are all part of the job.
“Everyone read ‘Moneyball’ back in the early 2000s and thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool. Let’s try to do some number-crunching for some players, trying to figure out who’s the fastest, who throws the ball the hardest with the most spin rate, all that,” Holdgate said.
“But the business side was kind of a niche that really hasn’t been explored until the last five to 10 years, so I kind of saw that it was a big opportunity for growth in the industry where I could also touch all the different aspects of the sports world. It’s kind of like a nice little intersection where you get to work every single part of the sports world. Not
Nantucket High School grad crunching numbers for the Tampa Bay Rays
Photo by Melinda Reed
going too deep in one area, but also kind of having a nice little knowledge of everything.”
Holdgate is the son of Fred and Heidi Holdgate. His father worked for years as an air traffic controller at Nantucket Memorial Airport and his mother worked for the town, most recently Wannacomet Water Company.
He realized his passion for the world of analytics while studying in the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s sports management program. Before graduating, he worked for the Boston Bruins as a business strategy intern, which reinforced his belief in the importance of business analytics in the world of sports.
“Through that internship, it kind of made me realize there’s a niche to be made on the business side and
being able to do analytics while not having to worry about some 20-year-old having a bad day or tearing his ACL,” Holdgate said, noting the added job security on the business side versus working in the baseball operations department.
“I kind of see these analytics departments growing exponentially across sports teams where instead of like three to four people on a team, you’re looking at 10 to 15 analytics guys per organization providing insights.”
But even with a degree in sports management, there’s no guarantee of finding a job in the competitive world of professional sports. Of the 120 or so students in Holdgate’s graduating class from the UMass sports management program, considered one of the best in the
Matthew Holdgate and his father Fred.
Courtesy of Heidi Holdgate
“Through that internship, it kind of made me realize there’s a niche to be made on the business side and being able to do analytics while not having to worry about some 20-year-old having a bad day or tearing his ACL.”
– Matthew Holdgate
country, only five or so actually landed a job with a professional sports franchise.
Holdgate said coming out of college, he was willing to take a job with any team from one of the major professional sports leagues. It just happened to turn out that the team that came calling was a division rival of the baseball team he grew up following, the Boston Red Sox.
“My family definitely understands. Where I do get the most crap is from those college and high school friends who are big-time Boston Red Sox fans,” Holdgate said. “Of course I’m still watching the Red Sox from afar and appreciating that, but at the end of the day, the Red Sox don’t pay the bills, the Tampa Bay Rays do. I’m still loyal to the Celtics, Patriots and Bruins, of course, but I’ve become a Tampa Bay Rays fan.”
Holdgate joined the Rays at a pivotal point in the franchise’s future. The team, which has played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg since joining Major League Baseball in 1998, was working to build a new $1.3 billion stadium in Tampa Bay but withdrew its plans for the ballpark earlier this year. Recent talks of a potential sale of the team revived the possibility of a new stadium, but nothing has been finalized as of late July. Complicating matters was Hurricane Milton, which ripped the roof of “the Trop” in October 2024, forcing the team to play its 2025 home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training ballpark.
“One of the reasons I chose to come to the Rays is that it was such a pivotal point in the organization’s timeline,” Holdgate said. “With these massive deals, there’s a lot of big decisions that need to be made. And being able to use analytics to help that is extremely impactful.”
“It’s nice while I’m young being able to provide insights to people who are selling lots of dollars worth of tickets and lots of money worth of sponsorship
Photo by Melinda Reed
While Holdgate knew he didn’t have the athletic chops to turn pro, the sense of community he found with his teammates encouraged him to seek out a career in sports, and that’s what he tries to bring to others in his role with the Rays.
Courtesy of Heidi Holdgate
deals. So it’s definitely nice being young in my career, but still having some nice impact where I can make a difference and try to provide as much insight as possible for these other departments.”
Growing up on the island, Holdgate comes from both a theater and a sports background. He would be acting on stage with Theatre Workshop of Nantucket one day and skating at Nantucket Ice or running around the baseball diamond the next. While Holdgate knew he didn’t have the athletic chops to turn pro, the sense of community he found with his teammates encouraged him to seek out a career in sports, and that’s what he tries to bring to others in his role with the Rays.
“We’re selling that kid seeing a baseball game for the first time. We’re selling someone catching a foul ball, someone getting to see themselves on the Jumbotron,” he said.
“That experience where I had so much fun growing up in sports, playing with my teammates, friends, peers, that was something that was just so magical and something that I wanted to continue on in my career doing.”
Jamie Cushman is the sports editor of The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket’s newspaper since 1821.
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Crampedoff Crooked Lane
Animal shelter planning much needed facility upgrade
In late 2011, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced it would be shutting down its Nantucket shelter off Crooked Lane due to financial troubles. Bleeding cash, it could no longer sustain itself.
The future of the only facility on-island equipped to shelter and care for animals was briefly left unclear, until a group formed to buy the building, at 11 Crooked Lane, and open Offshore Animal Hospital, the animal emergency-care center that serves Nantucketers today.
That, however, only filled one of two holes left by the MSPCA.
Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals was formed with a mission to ensure all animals on the island were cared for until they were reunited with their families
or adopted into a new one. It formally incorporated in November 2011 and received nonprofit status in May 2012.
It was a grassroots effort led by four founding members: Jessica Castineiras, NiSHA’s current executive director; Stephanie Henke, the current associate director; Pam Murphy, currently executive director of Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket and Jan Jaeger, former owner of Geronimo’s pet supply store on Pleasant Street.
“It was the four of us, but we had a lot of help. We had a ton of volunteers. Everybody came in and cleaned cages
STORY BY KAIE QUIGLEY
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week for many years,” Castineiras said.
“In the beginning it was a Band-Aid situation. We just couldn’t have it that animals had to go to the Cape if they needed to be surrendered. So we started fundraising a little bit.” Castineiras said.
NiSHA was finally able to hire its first staff members in 2014.
“Then we just kept going. We now have 12 members of the staff, half full-time, half part-time, and tons of programs,” Castineiras said. “It’s turned into what I feel like
Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals was formed with a mission to ensure all animals on the island were cared for until they were reunited with their families or adopted into a new one.
is an animal welfare resource center. It’s really for the whole community. We’re subsidizing spay-neuter surgeries. We’re subsidizing emergency vet care for people who can’t afford it. We have a pet food pantry. We have a humane education program. We’re in all the schools. It’s pretty amazing where we’ve come to.”
While the organization has grown, the space it works out of has not.
For the last 13 years, it has packed its entire operation into five rented rooms in the back of Offshore Animal Hospital.
Photo by Kaie Quigley
Photos by Kaie Quigley
Renderings of the proposed NISHA facility
The project will be almost entirely funded through private donations. The organization has been quietly raising money for the better part of a year.
“Our main lobby is a cat room. It’s dark, it’s stressful, it’s not a nice place for them to be in,” Castineiras said of the five small kennels currently occupying one room.
That’s finally slated to change. The organization is currently in the middle of a capital campaign to fund a bigger and better facility it can call its own.
It’s a dream the nonprofit’s founders, board members and animal-lovers islandwide have shared for over a decade.
“It’s been a long time coming, a big dream, a big vision,” Castineiras said.
With approvals already in place from town boards and the land across from Nantucket Memorial Airport already cleared and staked, only one hurdle remained when Nantucket Today went to print in late July: raising the second half of the $20 million needed to fund the project.
“We are meeting with our closest supporters, look-
ing for those lead gifts right now,” Castineiras said.
The project will be almost entirely funded through private donations. The organization has been quietly raising money for the better part of a year.
The hope is to break ground in 2026. Not every penny of the funding needs to be secured for construction to start, Castineiras said, just 80 percent. That’s the benchmark NiSHA is trying to reach before the end of the year.
“We have been renting here for 13 years, and Offshore Animal Hospital, they’ve been a great landlord. We have a great relationship with them, but they need their space,” Castineiras said. “They’ll never kick us out. They’re very supportive of our mission, but they’re expanding. They’re busy. They need it. So it’s gotten to the point where we need to really, really push and get this done.”
The new animal rescue center, about 5,800 square feet in size, will include larger and more welcoming
“It’s been a long time coming, a big dream, a big vision.”
- Jessica Castineiras
kennels for dogs, cats and other small animals like ferrets and chinchillas, totaling about three times the amount of space NiSHA currently occupies.
Some of the kennels will be solely for dogs transported from out of state that need to be quarantined according to state regulations before they can be adopted.
Most people know about NiSHA’s “Mississippi mutts,” but the dogs come from overcrowded shelters in other states as well.
NiSHA takes in the pups in because otherwise they are likely bound to be euthanized. That’s what many shelters across the country resort to when they run out of space.
“We’re pulling from Georgia, North Carolina. We get probably five calls, e-mails every week begging us to help because they’re killing so many animals,” Castineiras said. “They just want us to take one or two. And they send us lists that we can go through and
pick. It’s awful. You have to be very strong to be able to look at those pictures.”
No dedicated space for quarantining exists on-island right now, so animals end up having to spend two days in an off-island facility, on top of traveling dozens of hours, before they’re allowed to come to Nantucket by boat.
The facility will also include a dedicated lab space for veterinary technician and shelter manager Johanna Black to draw blood, give vaccines and administer other care to the animals, a task currently carried out in a back room where kittens are kept and food is stored.
There will also be a community room where programming for children and adults will take place, as well as dog-training classes.
Two staff-housing duplexes are also planned on the property, which NiSHA had successfully rezoned and subdivided after acquiring the land in 2023 with fund-
ing from a private donor.
One unit is planned to be built concurrent with the shelter components and the other will be built at a later date. Another residential lot will remain open for the time being and serve as green space for animals to roam, a step up from the tiny area NiSHA currently utilizes in a wooded area behind the animal hospital off Crooked Lane.
There will also be a memorial garden where islanders can mourn the loss of and honor their pets.
Other upgrades may come down the line depending on funding, Castineiras said.
The staff is eager to upgrade from the current cramped setup.
“Running a shelter out of five rooms is not ideal,” NiSHA programs director Allison Levy said. “What
we’ve done out of five rooms is amazing. We can do much more with a building that’s actually made to accommodate the animals and their needs.”
“I told the staff, we’re going from a pretty small, cramped space to a pretty big space. You guys are going to need like roller skates and walkie-talkies,” Castineiras said.
Scott O’Connor of O’Connor Custom Builders, a previous NiSHA board member, has offered his services to oversee the project, pro bono.
Castineiras lauded his commitment to the cause. He’s been helping NiSHA’s attempt to reach this point for the better part of a decade.
It’s the cause that motivates him.
“I’m a custom home builder out here, and build all the big trophy, fancy homes. This is a lot more gratifying.
Photo by Kaie Quigley
It’s just for such a good cause. And you know, watching these guys, what they’ve done since the MSPCA bailed on the island. What they did to have what they have. Just their tenacity. It’s really about them,” O’Connor said.
And the animals, of course.
“I’m an animal person, a big rescue person. I have a couple rescues. I just lost one. It changed my whole perspective of life a little bit once we got them,” he said. “The awareness of what the problem is, and not really understanding it completely until you started looking into it. The bad stuff that’s going on in the world with euthanasia and kill shelters and all that stuff. It opened my eyes up quite a bit to how important it is.”
“We always wanted it. We need it. The town needs it,” O’Connor said of the new NiSHA shelter. “This is going
to be an amazing facility when it’s done. Hopefully next year at this time we’ll have it under construction, maybe sooner, and standing inside of it with a grand opening.”
It almost feels like a miracle to be so close to that reality, he said, considering what it took to get here.
“I never thought I’d see the day,” O’Connor said. “When I first started, if we got a $1,000 donation, it was like, let’s have a party. And now we’re getting $100,000 donations.”
To donate to NiSHA’s shelter effort, visit www.nishaanimals.org
Kaie Quigley is a staff writer and digital content manager at The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket’s newspaper since 1821.
Your Guide to Dining Out
Check out these featured restaurants from the 2025 Nantucket Restaurant Guide, considered “The Bible of Where to Eat” on Nantucket by visitors and islanders alike. Published by The Inquirer and Mirror.
took the helm of Sustainable Nantucket at a particularly challenging time: March 2020, during the onset of COVID-19. Since then, she’s worked to streamline the organization’s focus to concentrating solely on producing food on-island and helping farmers get started or ramp up their operations to feed even more islanders.
Q: Sustainable Nantucket’s mission and work have evolved over nearly two decades. What are its priorities now?
A:
“Since taking the helm in March 2020 at the onset of COVID, the transition to being fully focused on producing food and providing resources to farmers to accomplish that has become our priority. I have secured numerous grants to install infrastructure, such as our farmstand, two cold storage units, a new heated greenhouse, extraction and storage shed for our Mentor Bee program, solar panels, as well as tractors and a mobile poultry processing unit. We also focus on educating and feeding our youth in our Farm to School program in the public schools. Garden instruction, using state STEM standards and funding a sustainable agriculture/horticulture teacher in the high school to encourage older students to grow, we hope will engage the next generation of farmers.”
Q: What, if anything, would you like to see Sustainable Nantucket tackle in the coming decade that it’s not currently focusing on?
A:
“Getting more local protein into the food chain through access to grazing land and working more closely with fish and shellfish farmers to reinvigorate our harbor and waters.
Q: How would you define your role as managing director? What are your most important responsibilities?
THE QUESTIONS
A: “Developing an excellent team who love their jobs and continue to support our community. Collaborating with other organizations to garner local resources to feed our community. Fundraising and grant writing are critical to maintaining the health of Sustainable Nantucket.”
Q: Why is fostering, encouraging and supporting sustainable foodways such an important undertaking in any community, but especially on an island like Nantucket?
A: “It’s anyone’s guess what the number of days’ supply of food is cached in homes and stores here. Our island hasn’t conducted a regional food assessment and there doesn’t seem to be any disaster recovery plan in place for an island-wide food shortage Scenarios contributing to severe food insecurity include the harbor freezing over for several days, another inventory/technology snafu at Stop & Shop like last winter, supply chain, trucking or shipping strikes. Our farmers don’t grow much in the winter and there is no on-site storage anywhere for winter crops. We are therefore very vulnerable. We are conducting a regional food assessment with five South Coast Massachusetts counties this fall and hope to present our findings to the town.”
Q: How has the NantucketGrown program changed the culture of locally-grown, sold and used agricultural products on the island?
A: “Our NantucketGrown brand is a program that works to link island chefs with locally-sourced food, thereby supporting farmers and fisherfolk. We work with farmers to establish new relationships with restaurants, clubs and private caterers, who in turn introduce their guests to the fabulous preparations of our island bounty. Locavores know which dishes are sourced from which farms at NantucketGrown members. This year we are publishing a cookbook of members and three of their locally sourced seasonal specialties.”
Q: What would you consider to be Sustainable Nantucket’s biggest successes?
A: “Utilizing the grants that we have been awarded to improve the livelihoods of island farmers, including workshops, new websites, expanding access in the Farmers & Artisans Market and building our farmstand; donating thousands of pounds of fresh produce into the public schools lunch program to improve the nutrition of our youth, providing high schoolers with a much-needed vocational teacher to promote growing in their greenhouse and providing a venue for nearly 80 artisans to make a living and support small business in the market.”
Q: What are its biggest challenges?
A: “The Land Bank has been generously increasing its focus on agriculture and making more farmland available, but attracting new farmers through our Mentor Farmer program is stymied by the lack of adequate housing. We have lost several fledgling farmers who have been forced to move off-island due to lack of housing. In an ideal world, we would inherit a piece of land on which we could place several tiny houses for farmers and their workers and families, and develop our programs without any restrictions, such as limits on hoop houses. Growing more food year-round is dependent upon controlling the environment, which hoop houses are useful for.”
Q: Describe the growth and evolution of Sustainable Nantucket’s garden plots and farmstand off Hummock Pond Road. Are they a cornerstone of the mission?
A: “The Walter F. Ballinger Mentor Farmer Program was formed through the generous donations of many and a license of two acres from the Land Bank in 2014. The original concept was to hire a mentor farmer to serve as a resource to aspiring farmers who would raise crops and create wholesale and retail markets for their produce. The original 1/8acre plots have served as training grounds to a number of beginners, some of whom are now seasoned farmers who have expanded
into an additional six acres licensed by the Land Bank to us. We now host three seasoned farmers – Eat Fire Farm, Washashore Farm and Fog Town Farm – as well as In Situ native plants nursery and TT’s Hobbies, our newest mentored farmers. This initiative remains a core purpose for us, as we seek to develop a new generation of farmers who can provide food to our island.”
Q: What do you do to unwind when you’re not leading Sustainable Nantucket?
A: “I love riding my bike to the south shore for a morning dip when there is literally no one in sight. I take pictures of the beauty on my way home. I love cavorting with our laying hens around the yard and tending to my veggie garden. But my real passion is sailing on any vessel: Hobie cat, kiteboard, Nantucket Indian.”
Q: What books are currently on your bedside table, or you wish were?
A: “I joined a book club this past winter and our group has provided me with many enjoyable reads. I’m currently reading ‘The Dog Stars’ by Peter Heller.”
Q: Who would be on your dream dinner-party guest list, living or dead?
A: “Sir Edmund Shackleton to hear in person about his harrowing survival traversing the Antarctic; Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning monarch whose government was illegally overthrown by U.S. merchants and the U.S. military. This wrong has never been addressed; Michelle Obama, for her sagacity and resilience. Oh, please include your husband, who was my schoolmate; and Eric Clapton, the epitome of cool. I wish he would play a few tunes acoustically after dinner.”
Joshua Balling is the editor of Nantucket Today and executive editor of the Nantucket Media Group, which includes this magazine, The Inquirer and Mirror, www.ack.net and a variety of specialty publications.
