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If someone thinks that and peace is a diche that must have been left behind in the Sixtieo,
Vl N EYh. R D
card, seven miles off southeast
,= Winter population, 15,007; in
*= ! :; miles from city of New Bedford,
nd 150 miles from New York.
Volume 164, Nu ......... taOJlshed t84o. ©2009 Vineyard Gazette Inc.
s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.
- John Lennon
GAZETTE
Devoted to the interest of the six towns on the Island of
Martha's Vineyard, viz.: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury
(Vineyard Haven), West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquin-
nab. These, with Gosnold, constitute Dukes County.
VINEYARD GAZETTE, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASS., FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2009
Twenty-Eight Pages (Two Sections).
$41 a Year, 75¢ a Copy.
David Stanwood
Jaxon White
His Rare Touch
Will Transform
Piano Playing
By MIKE SECCOMBE
David Stanwood, piano player, piano
lover, technician and innovator, recalls
being "spoiled" at an early age, by an
accidental encounter with a single in-
strument.
It was a seven-foot BOsendoffer, in
a show room, and when he played it,
he said: "I felt as if I'd put on magic
gloves."
It wasn't just the tone; it was the
touch.
Later, when he went to the North
Bennet Street school in Boston to be-
come a technician, he remained fixated
on that aspect of the craft in particular;
what they call the "action" of a piano,
the way the complex arrangement of
levers, wires and hammers resport to
the player's touch.
"It's the interface between €1 artis-
tic intention and the sound that ¢omes
out," he said.
That's a mechanically complex in-
terface; there are some 5,000 parts
between the musician and the perfor-
mance. But, at its most simplified, the
whole conundrum comes down to the
relationship between how hard the
player's fingers go down on the keys
and how hard the hammer hits the
strings as a result.
For the roughly 300 years since the
piano was invented, the adjustment
of the actions of pianos, even the best
ones, was a pretty imprecise affair.
Some pianos had light actions, which
suited certain players. Some had a
heavy action, and suited others.And the
action tended to vary not only among
instruments, but even among the dif-
ferent keys on individual instruments,
which really suited nobody.
Until now, that is. The West Tisbury
artisan, having devoted himself for de-
cades to trying to solve the problems
of piano action, thinks he now has
them licked. He has invented some-
thing that will allow any musician to
effectively customize any piano to suit
their playing style.And do it in minutes,
themselves, just by adjusting a couple
of knobs.
Think of what the system could mean
for concert pianists who, unlike most
other musicians -- violinists, for ex-
ample -- do not consistently play their
own instruments, but encounter new
ones in every hall.
Now, they can simply recalibrate
every new instrument to their personal
touch preference.
The concept is really just Grade One
physics. If one alters the pivot point of a
lever, one adjusts the mechanical advan-
tage. If the pianist twiddles the knobs on
the front of Mr. Stanwood's keyboard,
To Page Eight
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Vineyard Security Plans
'Fake Shape for President
By SAM BUNGEY
The massive security effort required
to accommodate a Vineyard vacation
for President Obama and the First
Family next month is now under way,
as recession-stricken Island business-
people fix their sights, with broadening
smiles, on August.
Local and state officials relevant to se-
curity and law enforcement on land, sea
and air have been contacted by the U.S.
Secret Service and told to direct all media
queries to its Boston headquarter
The spokesman there did not return
calls yesterday and Wednesday.
Martha's Vineyard Airport facility
managers have been told to support the
security demands of the First Family
for a presidential vacation during the
final week of August, the Gazette has
learned.
Meanwhile, a rental agreement on
an Island property for the First Family
is likely to be signed within a week, ac-
cording to sources, though there is still
no confirmation from the White House
about the visit.
Steamship Authority general manager
Wayne Lamson said the boat line is al-
ready working with government agencies
to respond to transportation needs.
"We're working with the appropriate
agencies," he said. "The Secret Service
mainly, but also the White House, to
provide whatever space and transpor-
tation they need, particularly vehicles
going over and back before, during and
after the stay."
Oak Bluffs police chief Erik Blake
confirmed that he also had been con-
tacted by the Secret Service.
Chief Blake, who was a patrol officer
during the years when then-President
Clinton vacationed on the Island, said
the local police job is chiefly to provide
trifle eoatrol during any movement of
tt ,e : Family.
j o ! elkcret Service do a really good
communicating their needs. It's
,ost] traffic enforcements.You know,
[e',s :oing ,o!fmgTuesday,' or,'There's
a gocd possibility he'll be going to
churehat this location, at this time.'"
Cl!jef Blake said his department will
s lecf a group of officers to be on spe-
cial duty for the duration of the visit.
"They volunteer to come in at short
notice, if we need five extra people on
Beach Road," he said.
Chief Blake added that while crowd
control will be a concern, Oak Bluffs be-
ing inundated with people at the height
of the summer is a given in any case.
"A couple thousand more people in
August, when town is saturated any-
way, won't change anything. But it's an
event," he said.
In Aquinnah Chief Randbi Belain.
who also confirmed that the Secret
Service had been in touch, was a special
officer when the Clintons came to dine
at the Kennedy house in his town, and
To Page Nine
African American
Community Blasts
Magazine Article
By MIKE SECCOMBE
In a perverse way, the article in a
recent edition of New York magazine
suggesting the African American com-
munity on Martha's Vineyard was seg-
regationist, elitist and even perhaps
racist, was testament to black achieve-
ment.
After all, the young African Ameri-
can author of the article, who goes by
the single name Tourr, was airing very
much the same criticisms that are more
usually leveled at the white establish-
ment. Absent a black elite, he could not
have done it.
Whether such criticisms are valid is
another matter.And the overWheting
view of a large number of Island resi-
dents, seasonal and year-round, .black
and white, is that the piece, published
June 21 under the headline Bla and
White on Martha's Vineyard, w des-
perately unfair and wrong .... ,:
Thus Abigail McGrath, of'4Oak
Bluffs, drafted a letter of respo to
the magazine and circulated it ong
her Island friends for their Signhes.
It was quite a lez£'" - ". +:
for seven generations and I don't recog-
nize MY Vineyard in the article, Black
and White on the Vineyard, written by
Mr. Tour6," she began, then went on
to condemn its "appalling inaccura-
cies which misrepresent the Island in
a divisive way."
She went on to bet "a free week in
To Page Nine
Busy Weekend Regatta in Tisbury
t enefits Sail Martha's Vineyard
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
As many as 90 sailboats are expected
to race this weekend in the fourth an-
num Vineyard Cup.Last night Vineyard
Haven harbor was full of visiting boats
for the three days of racing.
.This is the biggest summer event for
Sail Martha's Vineyard and the num-
ber of boats scheduled is up from last
year. The style of boats participating is
as varied as the sailors who sail them.
Vineyard Haven outer harbor is now
full of masts, booms and rigging. And
the shore of Owen Park will be the
staging area for many sailors.
"We've got one-design sailboats,
schooners, gaff-rigged sailboats. We've
got Nonsuch and every Friendship 40
on the East Coast," said Brock Cal-
len, program director for Sail Martha's
Vineyard. "We've got schooners with
names like Juno, Charlotte and when
and I£"
• Vineyard Cup is a sailors' regatta
designed by sailors. Coincidentally, this
is also the weekend of the Edgartown
sailboat regatta.The Edgartown Yacht
Club is hosting its 86th annual regatta.
Even Menemsha Pond will be the site
for fast sailing. Sail Martha's Vineyard
crews are running races Saturday and
Sunday and they begin at I p.m.
Many boats will race down Vineyard
Sound Saturday to a spot near Quick's
Hole, a passage between the Elizabeth
Islands of Pasque and Nashawena. And
they'll race back. The sight is best seen
from any beach on the Vineyard Haven
outer harbor. The race begins at 10
a.m.
The best sail of all is Sunday, when
the organizers put together a pursuit
race. "Everybody has a different start-
ing time based on a handicap," Mr.
Callen said. "The intent is to have all
the boats finish together at about 3:30
to 4 p.m. Unlike any other sailboat on
the race, a huge number of boats cross
the finish line at the same time.The best
viewing stand will be all along East-
ville Beach. A handicap race allows
sailors one of those rare opportunities
to compare how well they are doing in
relationship with other sailboats.
The Vineyard Cup is also a big event
ashore. Owen Park is the designated
meeting and refreshment center for
the racers. During the morning it is
where crew members gather before
they go sailing and at night it is their
place to party. The public is welcome
To Page Six
TU ESDAYS
11AM- 3FM
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SUNRISE OPENS A SILENT AND MAJESTIC WORLD AT THE FIRST SHERIFF'S MEADOW SANCTUARY.
riffs Celeb
• 'a •
She Meadow , rates 50th Anmversary
,:- Jaxon White
By MIKE SECCOMBE
GaZette Senior Writer
It owns dose to 150 parcels of land, totaling some or on our sister island, Nantucket.
2,000 acres, and holds conservation restrictions over "And," Said Mr. Lengyel, "both the Vineyard and
another 600-odd acres. Nantucket at about the same time realized there was
That is impressive growth, about to be a lot of pressure on them that was not
But the significance of Sheriff's Meadow-- which there before.
is celebrating its 50 years with a benefit gathering
on Monday evening goes beyond those statis-
tics.
Let the executive directors of two of the Island's
other conservation organizations explain it,
"Sheriff's Meadow is the progenitor of all the lo-
cal conservation on Martha's Vineyard," said James
• Lengyel of the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank,
"It was founded in response to a real need for a
local land trust, in a time before the conservation
society or the open land foundation. There was the
garden club and some regional groups. There was no
local land trust before it," said Brendan O'Neill of the
Vineyard Conservation Society.
Before Sheriff's Meadow, there were conservation
organizations, of course, but none local, either here
"Suddenly the Islands were approachable in ways
they hadn't been in the past. I would ascribe it to
post-war prosperity, the interstate highway system
and the rise in leisure hours.
"People here began to realize that if they did not
do something quickly, while they could; the situation
soon would be beyond ,their grasp," he said.
So that is what the Houghs started. Not just their
foundation, but an Island movement. After them
it developed with the Martha's Vineyard Com-
mission and town zoning to manage land use, the
land bank, with its publicly-funded land acquisition
program, the VCS, with its mission of advocacy and
education and lezal defense -- into what Mr. O'Neill
To Page Sixteen
From little things, big things grow.
A little over 50 years ago, Henry Beetle Hough
became concerned that a little parcel of land in Ed-
gartown, where he and his wife Elizabeth liked to
walk, might fall prey to land developers.
Mr. Hough, then owner and editor of this paper
and an author, used the money earned from sales of
one of his books. Once More the Thunderer, to buy
the 10 acreSwhich had been known for at least the
previous century as Sheriff's Meadow.
But when he tried to pass it into the stewardship
of one of the relatively few conservation organiza-
tions then in existence, he could find no takers for a
small parcel which had no endowment for its main-
tenance.
So Henry Hough set up his own foundation, and
named it after the piece of land.
"And," Said Adam Moore, now executive direc-
tor of that foundation, finishing the story, "Sheriff's
Meadow is now the largest private land owner on the
entire Island."
Private Beach Association Offers
Town a Million Dollars for Sand
By JIM HICKEY
Continued erosion around the Island
-- a phenomenon perhaps exacerbated
by global warming and a rise in sea
levels -- has created a booming new
industry on the Vineyard, as towns and
private groups compete for the suddenly
hot commodity of sand to use as ammu-
nition in their battle against the sea.
A plan sponsored by the Oak Bluffs
Conservation Commission to dredge
57,000 cubic yards of sand from a
channel between Little Bridge and
Big Bridge along Joseph Sylvia State
Beach already has garnered a great
deal of interest from both public of-
ficials and private citizens who are
urgently seeking sand.
Edgartown wants to get a cut of the
sand for the Bend in the Road Beach;
Dukes County wants a piece of the sandy
gold to renourish State Beach, which has
slowly eroded since the last major beach
renourishment some 15 years ago.
Meanwhile, the private Cow Bay
homeowners association in Edgartown
this week contacted Oak Bluffs select-
man Duncan Ross about buying a large
volume of sand for the barrier beach in
front of Trapp's Pond, which has been
badly damaged by years of erosion. The
barrier beach now faces the prospect of
being totally washed out to sea.
The Cow Bay association last year
paid approximately $150,000 to help
underwrite an Edgartown dredge of
Sengekontacket Pond, and in exchange
Red Sky's at
Night ....
Pinot Noir
Tonight!
508=693-0236
• Down Town Oak Bluffs
received around 17,000 cubic yards of
sand. But a powerful northeaster washed
away much of that sand in April, and the
Cow Bay homeowners are again in the
market for a large delivery of sand.
In a conversation with the Gazette
this week, Mr. Ross said Edward Ce-
rullo of the Cow Bay homeowners as-
sociation contacted him by phone this
week with a proposition to purchase
To Page Seven
Statistics Trace Boost
In Summer Rentals
By JIM HICKEY
After a sluggish off-season tied to
the sustained national recession and
an abysmal June blamed on terrible
weather, several real estate profession-
als this week reported a dramatic spike
in weekly rentals just as the weather
improved and reports of an August visit
from President Obama were revealed.
A recent report compiled by the
web-service Weneedavacation.com,
which matches people with weekly
rentals, found that bookings on the
Cape and Islands were down 20 per
cent in January, down 24 per cent in
February and down 3 per cent in March.
The report tracks when people book a
weekly rental, not the month whey they
take their vacation.
But the report shows the trend re-
versed in April when bookings increased
by a nominal one per cent, and then rose
sharply as bookings spiked 30 per cent in
May and a record 55 per cent in June.
To Page Seven
Mark Lovewell
COW BAY ENJOYSFINE VIEW OF NANTUCKET SOUND.
+