The Martha s Vineyard Times
Three vie for two selectmen seats in O.B.
Longtime Oak Bluffs selectman Greg Coogan is not seeking a seventh term.
Three candidates are seeking two seats open on the Oak Bluffs board of selectmen, as longtime selectman Greg Coogan will not seek re-election. Nominations closed earlier this week.
Coogan, who has served on the board since 2003, is a retired Tisbury School math teacher of 30 years.
Incumbent Jason Balboni is seeking his second term on the board. Balboni is the board’s current chairman. Two other candidates are seeking election to the town’s executive board Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group executive director Emma Green-Beach, and retired Oak Bluffs fire lieutenant and EMT Rich Michelson.
A letter of thanks was received by the Bourne Fire Department from officials with the Town of Oak Bluffs on Martha s Vineyard. The letter from Jason Balboni, chairman of the Oak Bluffs Board of Selectmen, thanked Bourne Fire and Rescue for the department s help in transporting a patient to a Boston hospital.
On February 2, an Oak Bluffs ambulance was taking a cardiac patient to Massachusetts General Hospital when the vehicle broke down on Route 25. In his letter, Mr. Balboni noted that Bourne Fire and Rescue crews not only provided assistance to the Oak Bluffs crew but âthe Bourne ambulance also transferred the patient to their own ambulance and completed the transfer all the way to Massachusetts General Hospital without delay.â
In a quick special meeting Monday, Oak Bluffs selectmen unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, ending the 17-year old “doughnut hole” land swap. The agreement gives the Land Bank an April 2 deadline to file joint legislation with Oak Bluffs and petition the state legislature to authorize the 17-year-old land […]
The Martha s Vineyard Times
So you want to be a leader?
Nomination periods open up for spring town elections across the Island.
Longtime Aquinnah selectman Jim Newman won’t seek re-election when his term expires this spring. But while Newman is stepping away, four Island candidates Arthur Smadbeck of Edgartown, William Rossi of Chilmark, Jim Rogers of Tisbury, and Skipper Manter of West Tisbury all told The Times they plan to seek re-election. Two Oak Bluffs incumbents Jason Balboni and Greg Coogan remain undecided.
“I’ve been doing this for 18 years,” Newman said, “and I want to go in a different direction with how I spend my time going forward.”
Financial losses force cuts to off-Island ambulance runs
Town working with hospital to restructure service.
Oak Bluffs is expected to cut service to the hospital for off-Island ambulance runs. Rich Saltzberg
Facing steep financial losses, the off-Island ambulance transport service the Oak Bluffs Fire and EMS provides to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is planning to cut down to one on-call ambulance.
At a selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night, Public Safety Director Erik Blake told selectmen that little or no financial reimbursement for transports to Woods Hole and Boston, the pandemic keeping sicker patients at the hospital longer, and an overall decrease in transports have created a snowball effect that has crippled the service financially.