Choose Granite Countertops in West Tisbury, MA for Elegance and Durability

The weather has stayed mild most of the past week, our lovely long temperate autumn that makes up for our endlessly cool springs. Oddly, though, I saw a few snow flurries. Just a few, but enough to make me excited for the onset of pretty winter snowfalls, and maybe even a white Christmas.

This time of year is so special, filled with anticipation for the holidays. Decorations have been going up around town, which always makes me happy. I love driving home after dark and enjoying the white and colored lights.

For a person who rarely goes off-Island, I have been away twice in the past three weekends. The first was to accompany Sue Hruby to an animal shelter in Sudbury to look for a new cat. Since Rosie, the last cat Sue had started with as a kitten, died a few years ago, she has adopted older cats. Maxine came from the shelter in Edgartown, and lived a very blessed and comfortable old age with Sue and Jared. Sue had been looking for a new senior to adopt, and found two possibilities in Sudbury. We came home with Lily, a 14-year-old gray tabby, who has fit into the household as seamlessly as though she had always lived there.

This weekend Kathy Logue and I went off for the day on Saturday to attend a handbell concert in Sandwich. Kathy’s daughter, Megan Mendenhall, is a member of New England Ringers. I had seen some of Megan’s concerts on YouTube, but having an opportunity to attend one in person was too good to pass up.

First Church in Sandwich is a lovely old building, much like our own Congregational Church in West Tisbury. Kathy and I took seats right up front, where we had an excellent view of the ringers, Megan in particular. She gave us a bit of a tutorial after the concert, showing us the refinements of the setup on cushioned tables that protect the bells. Those bells are heavy. Hefting one gave me an appreciation for the athleticism, as well as the musical ability, that ringers need to possess.

I drove into our driveway that night to see that Mike had turned on the Christmas lights along our garden fence, a perfect welcome home. I spent some time Sunday washing windowsills, unpacking the first boxes of little houses and villagers, and setting them out along the newly clean windowsills. Next will come electric candles and the preserved boxwood wreaths, the Hanukkah picture that Linda Vancour made for me, my menorah and candles, and the crèche that was a wedding present from Barry Nevin Hagerty that is one of my favorite wedding presents; I think of Barry when I set it up every year. All of our decorations are filled with memories, as I suppose most people’s are.

The Town Party will be this Thursday, tonight as you are reading this column. It’s at the Grange this year, from 5 to 7 pm. Bring your best potluck dish to share, and wear something sparkly.

There’s where holidays start to get sad. It’s so hard not to think of all the people no longer with us. Shirley Mayhew and Ben Moore sitting on the bench in front of the fire. John Alley reading his Christmas poem. John Early building up the fire. Bob and Maggie Schwartz and Tom Vogl in the kitchen, carving up turkeys and hams. Glenn Hearn greeting guests. Many too many others. I hate losses, and I grieve every one.

Still, it will be the wonderful West Tisbury gathering it always is. The Grange will be decorated with greenery and red bows, filled with so many of us celebrating the season and our long friendships. I hope the Dunkls will be playing glorious music, and George Hartman will be wearing his Christmas tie, that Phyllis Meras will be asking for ideas for her Christmas poem. It will be the same and different, our town in this moment in time.

The First Congregational Church of West Tisbury’s Christmas Faire is this Saturday, Dec. 9, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Santa Claus is coming to town this Sunday afternoon, Dec. 10, from 1 to 3 pm. He will be picked up by West Tisbury firemen and delivered to a waiting sleigh at Station 2. Gifts and treats await.

West Tisbury parks and recreation department has begun Saturday morning programs in art, sports, and theater for first through fifth graders at the West Tisbury School. Check with Peggy Stone for availability and to register: parkrec@westtisbury-ma.gov, or 508-693-0147.

The Second Sunday Jazz concert at the library will feature the Jeremy Berlin Trio at 2:30 pm. Other special programs include learning how to use a microscope on Thursday, Dec. 7, 3 to 5 pm. Saturday storytime with Clare Page will begin at 9:30 am. Note the time; the library is now opening at 9 am on Saturdays.

Brian and Brooke Hardman Ditchfield of Circuit Arts will hold readings of their adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens at the Grange between Dec. 14 and 17. Check their website for times and tickets.

Hanukkah begins this Thursday at sunset. As I light my menorah, I will pray for peace.

If you have any West Tisbury Town Column suggestions, email Hermine Hull, hermine.hull@gmail.com.

West Tisbury voters will still get a chance to weigh in on whether to install artificial turf at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school, after the town select board agreed to keep a non-binding ballot question on this year’s election ballot.

The ballot question was recommended to all six Island towns by the school committee last month, however the committee since rescinded the request after voting to drop the longstanding plan to overhaul the school’s athletic fields. On Feb. 6, the MVRHS school committee voted to give the 24-member school building committee a blank slate on their potential plans to overhaul the campus, part of the Massachusetts School Building Authority program.

West Tisbury was the only town to take up the school committee’s request for a ballot question before it was rescinded.

At their meeting on Feb. 14, West Tisbury select board members argued that keeping the question on the town’s ballot would still be useful to gauge voter’s attitudes on future projects.

“The issue is still there, it hasn’t been resolved,” said board chair Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter, also a member of the school committee. The move to drop the project, he said, had succeeded in “pushing it off onto...another group.”

“I think it is an opportunity to get public input that the public is dying to contribute,” said board member Jessica Miller, of the ballot question.

The board did not take a vote on the topic, thus allowing the question to remain on the ballot for the town election this year.

In other business, the select board heard an update from town task force against discrimination member Susanna Sturgis, who said that the group was not planning future meetings after approving their last set of minutes.

“In its current form, it’s not serving a really useful purpose,” Ms. Sturgis said, adding that efforts against discrimination had largely shifted to Island-wide organizations. The board did not vote on the issue, making plans to consider the future of the task force at a future meeting.

The board also agreed this week to modify an article on the town meeting warrant allowing the town to borrow more money to repair the HVAC system at the library. At the town meeting last year, voters approved borrowing up to $1.2 million for the project, but town administrator Jen Rand said that estimates on total project costs have since risen considerably.

Costs for a project manager, a new generator and the high cost of labor on-Island have all contributed to a higher price tag, Ms. Rand said.

The board agreed by consensus to modify a town meeting warrant article to allow for another $1.8 million in borrowing for the project, bringing total costs to a maximum of $3 million.

“It’s kind of unbelievable, but we have to do it,” board member Cynthia Mitchell said.

Updated Sept. 26

West Tisbury is looking toward improving its governance style with the creation of a new task force.

The town’s select board unanimously approved the creation of the five-person Improving Governance Task Force during a meeting last week.

“So voters, residents, have greater confidence in town governance, we outlined the process for them,” task force member Susan Silk said.

According to the document outlining the task force’s goals, the group will be creating and maintaining a town governance handbook. The group will also create a “monitoring process” to promote a clear understanding of the town’s various governing bodies, recruitment of appointees to committees that match a candidate’s skills and experiences with the work to be done, standards of conduct, adherence to rules, and high confidence among voters and residents in the town’s governmental processes.

With the gathering and researching for information, the actual implementation is expected to be done by the end of next June or July.

Residents John Christensen, Silk, and Cynthia Mitchell, who is also a select board member, are the first three appointed to the committee.

“We set a conservative timeline so we could pull this off by the next fiscal year, because there’s so many committees and so many people,” Christensen said.

Christensen, Silk, and Mitchell had already been looking into this work prior to being appointed. According to Christensen, the members were referencing Manchester-by-the-Sea’s handbook for West Tisbury’s process.

There have been times when a West Tisbury governing body, such as the town’s affordable housing committee, needed to refocus its duties after dissatisfaction regarding its processes.

The task force plans to have regularly scheduled meetings. The remaining positions will be advertised by the town.

Meanwhile, West Tisbury will be holding a special town meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 6 pm at West Tisbury School. The last day to register to vote for the special town meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 3, by 5 pm, at West Tisbury Town Hall. The special town meeting warrant will close on Oct. 10.

The select board voted 2-0 to rescind the appointments of Manter and Nancy Cabot to the Up-Island Council on Aging board. Manter abstained from voting. The board unanimously approved Mitchell to the Council on Aging board as an interim member.

A previous version of this story stated the special town meeting was on Nov. 16.

After receiving a request to fly an anti-abortion flag, the West Tisbury Select Board has unanimously adopted a new policy for town-owned property, limiting flyable flags to just a select few.

Starting Dec. 14, the only flags that can be raised on town-owned property are the POW/MIA flag, the U.S. flag, Massachusetts’ flag, and West Tisbury’s flag.

This policy comes after Robert W. Joyce, director of the Pro-Life Legal Defense Fund, asked that a flag reading “pro-life, pro-mother, pro-father, and pro-child” be flown within the town hall’s outermost circle. The select board voted at the time to refer Joyce’s written request to town counsel, which wrote the new policy.

The new policy, adopted at a Dec. 13 select board meeting, states that which flags the town chooses to fly on its property counts as governmental speech. It adds that such decisions by the town do not mean that town property is a public forum for flying such flags. “The select board’s choice of whether to raise, or decline to raise, a flag on town-owned property, the manner in which such a decision is made, and the adoption of this policy shall not be interpreted as designating any town-owned property as a public forum for the flying of such flags,” the policy reads.

“It doesn’t look like we could escape any type of controversy by adopting anything else but this,” Manter said during Wednesday’s meeting.

West Tisbury’s town administrator has been authorized to work with town counsel to respond to Joyce’s earlier request.

On May 10, Oak Bluffs’ select board changed its town’s flag policy to allow the town to use a separate flagpole solely for ceremonial flags, for up to 14 days at a time. This came after being asked to fly Pride and Juneteenth flags. On Oak Bluffs’ other, official town flagpole, only the same four flags approved by West Tisbury can be flown, as well as official military flags. Oak Bluffs’ policy also stated that flags flown by municipalities are government speech, and that it would not consider requests for any specific flag.

On Dec. 5, the Greenfield Recorder reported that Franklin County, Massachusetts, towns have limited their flags to the same four as in West Tisbury, after Joyce’s fund asked them to fly a pro-life flag.

No complaints about a lack of rain this week. I don’t know how much we had, but it definitely was enough to be spared from watering every day. Gardens are growing and thriving, producing peas, strawberries, lettuce, spinach, even the first tiny zucchini. We will be sick of them soon enough, but for now, those tender zucchini appear like a miracle.

My favorite thing this time of year is being able to go outside and pick bouquets for all around the house. Now there are abundant choices. Who doesn’t like abundant choices of flowers? I treasure having even a few flowers to place next to my kitchen and bathroom sinks, and beside my bed. Having a large bouquet on the table in front of our sofa is a big deal, at least to me it is.

There is a group of artists who paint together every Friday at the Howes House, and have done so for many years. They are Susan Silva, Susan Boass, Susan Parks, Sally Flood, Nancy Holt, Jean McCarthy, Diane Holt, Beverly Espuga, Ellen Miller, Sue Tonry, Leslie and Warren Simmons, Jeri Larson, and Nancy Cabot. A bouquet of flowers or leaves, a combination of objects, a bowl of fruit, something set up for a still life. You can see the results of their past year’s efforts at a show of their watercolors this weekend at the Howes House. Hours are Friday, June 23, noon to 4 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to noon.

The Howes House and Up-Island Council on Aging is planning a trip to see “The Book of Mormon” at the Providence Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Nov. 4. For more information or to sign up, call 508-693-2896.

Kara Taylor is opening her gallery on South Road this Thursday, June 23. Hours are Thursday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm.

Colin Ruel and Nettie Kent are opening the Ruel Gallery in Menemsha for their fourth season next Thursday, June 29, with a celebration from 4 to 7 pm.

Saturday, June 24, is Archaeology ID Day at the West Tisbury library. Bring your artifacts for the experts to identify and tell you about them. Archaeologists Jill Bouck, Richard Burt, Bill Moody, James Richardson, and Duncan Caldwell, and paleontologist Fred Hotchkiss will be at the library between 1 and 3 pm.

Other events at the library include one on Saturday at 3:30 pm, with authors and teachers Lynn Ditchfield and Janice Frame, who will celebrate the publication of their book, “Borders to Bridges: Arts-Based Curriculum For Social Justice.” On Wednesday, June 28, 2:30 pm, Deb Dunn will speak about how children learn to read, and how to help them. Parents, caregivers, and family members are invited.

The West Tisbury personnel board is in need of one or two town residents to volunteer to serve on the board. They meet monthly every second Monday at 5 pm. Responsibilities include maintaining and monitoring the personnel system, bylaws, and all procedures and practices, formulating and reviewing job classification and compensation plans, reviewing requests for reclassification of positions, and preparing an annual report to the town. Please send your letter of interest to Jen Rand at townadmin@westtisbury-ma.gov or Maria McFarland at personnel@westtisbury-ma.gov.

It’s already so busy in town. The Farmers Markets at the Ag Hall and weekly events at the Grange are in full swing. Next weekend we will celebrate the Fourth of July with a long holiday weekend.

Please be careful for yourself and your pets, as ticks are still numerous and everywhere. Also, remember not to leave your pets in a car that can heat up very quickly. It’s easy to forget, when you are driving with the windows up and the air conditioner on, and your car feels comfortably cool, that it won’t remain cool once you shut the motor off.

If you have any West Tisbury Town Column suggestions, email Hermine Hull, hermine.hull@gmail.com.