Community Corner
Tisbury Connector: Not This Year
A whisker-thin majority of 69-66 at town meeting wasn't enough to pass the $1.3 million borrowing article that would have allowed Tisbury to construct a long-discussed cutoff route to State Road. Hear from both sides in our video.
At one point during Wednesday night's continuation of the Tisbury town meeting, rainfall on the roof of the school gym was so loud that even the stentorian Clarence Barnes had to raise his voice on the microphone in order to be heard.
Barnes was speaking in favor of the proposed connector road between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and Holmes Hole Road west of town, which would give motorists a cutoff route to the Tisbury business district on State Road.
"I'm in the trucking business," Barnes told the meeting. "I go to Edgartown more times in a day than you're probably going to the bathroom." His 15 employees also drive all over the Island, Barnes continued.
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Originally opposed to the connector, Barnes said, he now supports it.
Barnes's comments came after Jim Pringle rose to urge a no vote, saying the $1.3 million in borrowing proposed on the town meeting warrant would be just the beginning of "funding Fred's freeway" (a jab at Tisbury Department of Public Works director Fred Lapiana).
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You can see and hear excerpts from Pringle's and Barnes's public comments in the video with this story.
In the end, Pringle's view prevailed — not by a simple majority, but the 69-66 vote in favor of the article fell far short of the two-thirds required to approve acquiring debt.
Did you support or oppose the connector? Tell us in the comments.
The two-night town meeting was recorded for cablecast by Martha's Vineyard Community Television, which also makes government meeting videos available online at http://www.mvtv.org/mvtv-video-on-demand/.
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