The Martha s Vineyard Times
Chilmark considers installing EV rapid chargers
Potential spaces would be located at Post Office and Chilmark School.
Chilmark is looking to install electric vehicle rapid charging stations at several locations in the center of town.
Chilmark is looking to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the town center, which will be able to charge a vehicle fully in about 40 minutes.
During a Tuesday meeting of the board of selectmen, Chilmark energy committee chair Rob Hannemann said EVs have now reached a tipping point, where General Motors, Toyota, Ford, and many other major manufacturers are all producing them, and some have even pledged to go fully electric within the next two decades.
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Manter joins housing bank 2.0 coalition
Healy disagrees with the concept, votes against Manter but doesn’t block vote to appoint him.
Skipper Manter, shown here during a 2018 town meeting, will represent West Tisbury on a housing bank coalition. -Gabrielle Mannino
In a 2-1 vote Wednesday evening, West Tisbury selectmen appointed one of their own, Skipper Manter, to the Coalition to Create the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank (CCMVHB). Selectman Kent Healy was the dissenting vote, and Manter, citing “no pay or monetary gain,” voted for himself.
Unlike the previous attempt at a housing bank, which failed to gain enough support, CCMVHB won’t seek short-term rental tax proceeds or Community Preservation funds, but will instead operate off a fraction of real estate transactions, like the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. Island Housing Trust president Doug Ruskin, a member of the town’s finance committee, told the board the coalition
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Coalition seeks to create housing bank
In 2005, one of our local papers ran a story: “The housing bank initiative has cleared its first major regional hurdle, now that all six towns have thrown their support behind the idea, which aims to create a bank of money for affordable housing using a transfer fee on most real estate transactions. The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is the model …”
Despite overwhelming support from voters in all six towns and the Vineyard real estate community, the effort failed in the state legislature due to lobbying by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which opposed the concept of transfer fees. At the time, the M.V. median home sale price was approximately $500,000.