The Martha s Vineyard Times
Town officials: No cover up, no collusion
Sewer advisory committee delves into Mansion House; increase in fees coming.
Select board member Jeff Kristal, shown here in a 2018 meeting, responded to a Times story during a sewer advisory board Zoom Thursday night.
The Mansion House met its deadline to install a leaching field, and there was no attempt to cover up the hotel’s illegal discharge of groundwater into the town’s wastewater treatment plant, Tisbury officials said during a sewer advisory board meeting Thursday.
The officials select board members Jeff Kristal and Jim Rogers, as well as town administrator Jay Grande were responding to a Times story that detailed public records and interviews with the former wastewater superintendent David Thompson, who blew the whistle on the illegal discharge. Thompson was fired within two months of his discovery, told he had not met the terms of his probationary period. Former select board
The Martha s Vineyard Times
âCorruption at its highest levelâ
Report on Mansion House illegal hookup preceded firing of town employee who blew the whistle.
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Several people said select board member Jeff Kristal applied pressure to keep the Mansion House issues quiet. Kristal did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment. â Gabrielle Mannino
Josh Goldstein, co-owner of the Mansion House, has declined to answer specific questions about the illegal hookup found in his hotel basement. â Gabrielle Mannino
An excavator digs a new leaching pit at Mansion House last week. â Rich Saltzberg
Workers install a leaching field at Mansion House. â Rich Saltzberg
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Mansion House installs leaching field
Updated 3 pm
Groundwater that was being pumped into the town’s sewer system illegally is now being diverted into a new leaching field installed at the Mansion House Inn, Josh Goldstein, the hotel’s manager, confirmed in an email to The Times.
“Mansion House has continued to work with the knowledge and approval of the Town of Tisbury to resolve the groundwater issue,” Goldstein wrote. “With the assistance of our engineers and the town, the project has been completed.”
In an email town administrator Jay Grande confirmed the work by engineer Reid Silva of Vineyard Land Survey and Engineering, the hotel’s contractor, was completed.