Ethan Genter

1 week ago | vineyardgazette.com | Ethan Genter

The Chilmark select board took steps this week to make changes to the Chilmark Community Center, which has been a flashpoint in the up-Island town in recent years. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to have town staff start working on a request for proposals for the operations of the center in the summer of 2026. The board also voted to expand the community center advisory committee from three voting members to five. The moves come after some consternation about the running of the center.

1 week ago | vineyardgazette.com | Ethan Genter

As the Steamship Authority searches for a new general manager, the boat line could see other leadership shakeups if a new bill is passed. A proposal to put term limits on the Steamship Authority board of governors has returned to the State House this year — this time with more support from the Vineyard. State Sen. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat from Falmouth, filed a bill at the start of the legislative session that would only allow members of the ferry line’s oversight board to serve three terms.

1 week ago | vineyardgazette.com | Ethan Genter

A dispute over the permitting process for a large proposed housing project in Oak Bluffs was decided by state officials in Boston late last month, though several legal questions remain. The state Housing Appeals Committee ruled on April 24 that the town’s zoning board of appeals improperly invoked “safe harbor status” while considering the application for the Green Villa development, which would add at least 100 units of housing to Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

1 week ago | vineyardgazette.com | Ethan Genter

Massachusetts has joined forces with 16 other states to push back against the Trump administration’s executive order that halted the permitting of offshore wind energy projects. The state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston on Monday, arguing the administration has unlawfully attempted to freeze development of the emerging industry – a large portion of which has taken root in the waters south of the Vineyard.

1 week ago | vineyardgazette.com | Ethan Genter

A U.S. Coast Guard plan to remove hundreds of navigation buoys in the northeast, including about 20 around the Vineyard, Woods Hole and Gosnold, has raised concerns with some Island mariners. Of the 4,700 buoys that line the waterways from New York to Quoddy Head at the Canadian border, the federal agency is proposing to pull 350 navigation buoys.