Down Boy!

After a Mother’s Day-–themed email that included the tag line “Mom deserves a day off the leash” landed the company in the public relations doghouse, the Black Dog clarified its position: “We simply wanted to express that moms who work so hard each day should enjoy Mother’s Day. It was in no way intended to be disrespectful of women or to compare them to dogs.”

Island Cup: MVY 549, ACK 2

In the first four months of 2018, the Steamship Authority cancelled 549 ferries to the Vineyard due to mechanical problems. In the same period, the SSA cancelled 2 trips to Nantucket due to mechanical problems. Some 219 trips to the Vineyard were cancelled due to weather. The number for Nantucket: 139.

Duly Noted:

“I have no clue what’s happening.”  
– Marc Hanover, Martha’s Vineyard representative on the Steamship Authority’s board of governors, responding to the latest breakdown of a SSA ferry, weeks after previous issues seemed to be resolved.

Further Noted:

“If there was a huge problem internally, we would know it. I think this is basically a matter of fine-tuning what we have.”  
 - Robert Jones, Barnstable representative on the Steamship’s board of governors, deflecting a call for an independent investigation into the rash of breakdowns. The board later approved the measure.

School’s Out For…Ever?

Tisbury residents narrowly defeated a proposal to replace the aging elementary school with a new building. The $46.6 million project failed at the ballot box by just twenty-one votes, throwing future plans for the school and $14 million in promised state funding into limbo. The school committee is brainstorming new options.

Preservative Free

The Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust has changed its name to Vineyard Trust. Not to be confused with Rockland Trust, the new name of the Edgartown National Bank, Vineyard Trust owns and manages twenty historic properties throughout the Island. In further rebranding, which was done with the help of consultants from Boston, their new flagship property, the Carnegie Library, will now be known as The Carnegie. Not to be confused with Edgartown hotels The Sydney, The Christopher,
and The Richard, The Carnegie will house a visitors center and rotating exhibitions about other Trust properties, including The Whaling, The Daniel, and The Flying.

He’s Psyched!

Chilmark Police Sergeant Sean Slavin received a commendation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his help cracking a 2013 case in which an elderly Chilmark woman was bilked out of millions by a purported psychic. The defendant, a Florida resident named Sally Ann Johnson, pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion and is currently serving time in a medium-security prison.

In Other News:

Lambert’s Cove Inn was sold. Island Cove Adventures mini golf is for sale. Beetlebung Restaurant and Bar is for sale. The stone bank is for sale (roof not included). Offshore Ale Co. is no longer for sale; Josh Aronie, formerly of the Home Port, has been named head chef. Ben deForest, of Red Cat Kitchen, opened a new restaurant, the Cardboard Box, across the street on Kennebec Avenue in Oak Bluffs. Black Sheep opened a second location in Edgartown at the former site of the Hot Tin Roof. Tisbury’s Danielle Ewart was named shellfish constable of the year by the Massachusetts Shellfish Officers Association. Nelson Sigelman was named that town’s assistant shellfish constable. Also in Tisbury, the search for a new police chief continues, with questions remaining as to whether the town will have to pay out the contract of its existing chief, Daniel Hanavan. A vote to spend $1.2 million to rebuild the World War II–era hangar at the Katama Airfield ended in a tie, which counts as a loss. And the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association turned 150 years old. Also celebrating milestones: the Minnesingers, who are fifty years old but don’t look a day out of high school, the Possible Dreams Auction, which is an impossible forty years old, and WMVY radio, who is a still very cool thirty-five.