Putting the pirate in Galloping back in time pirate radio at WVVY B10 with the Flying Horses B14
Thursday, April 16, 2026
THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD TIMES
Volume 43, Issue No.15
2 Sections
GE threatens to walk out on Vineyard Wind
Price $1.00
Offshore wind developer sues, says this could doom the project. BY HAYLEY DUFFY
J
DENA PORTER
The Oak Bluffs Town Meeting was well-attended.
ust as Vineyard Wind 1 announced that construction was finally done after a decade of political debates and hard work, the company has filed a lawsuit against the wind farm’s central contractor, GE Vernova, after the energy company threatened to walk away from the project. The issue at the center of this latest skirmish for the controversial energy project is what GE Vernova said are $300 million in payments withheld by Vineyard Wind. But Vineyard Wind insists they don’t owe the energy company any payment. In fact, they said after the blade failure in July 2024 caused a two-year construction delay, GE Vernova owes them funds that surpass the payments withheld. This raises the spectre of what Vineyard Wind claims and what is ominously phrased in court documents as the potential of a “dormant wind farm graveyard.” The offshore wind farm is located 15 miles south of the Island, and announced in March that the construction phase was complete, more than a decade after the lease area for the project was awarded in 2015. It was a long-awaited and hard-earned achievement, made even longer and harder by several recent roadblocks set in place by the federal government. And just as the project saw the light at the end of the tunnel and was on the verge of what’s called “commercial operation,” when the farm could generate electricity for sale at a fixed price, the unexpected happened. In court documents, Vineyard Wind said its “most important contractor,” energy equipment manufacturer and services company GE Vernova, threatened to abandon the project “on the eve of completion,” or by April 28, because of withheld payments; GE Vernova sent the wind farm developer a termination notice at the end of February. Court documents from a Continued on A7
Three towns approve overrides I
n the face of staggering overrides worth millions of dollars, voters in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and West Tisbury voted Tuesday in favor of allowing the towns to increase the amount they can collect through property taxes. Town officials have said various factors, from rising costs to insurance rate hikes, have
contributed to large funding gaps that needed to be filled. West Tisbury had the highest override of the three towns, passing a $3.5 million measure. And today, voters head to the polls to ratify this decision, and to decide who will be the next leaders in their towns. Various issues went before voters in each
town on Tuesday night, from Edgartown pursuing the acquisition of the Martha’s Vineyard Boys & Girls Club property to West Tisbury approving an override for upgrades to its police station, potentially as a new headquarter for the town’s Council on Aging. Read the full coverage starting on A8.
Town meetings are one of the great rites of spring on the Island. It is where voters make important decisions that impact their communities for years to come. We celebrate the great New England tradition in our editorial “An ode to town meetings.” And we explore the history of town meetings in an essay titled “Town meeting: Spark of a revolution.” (See both on A4.)
Island family stranded in Canada after visa renewal denial
Extensive mapping of deer population is in Study shows hot spots in battle to control ticks. BY HAYLEY DUFFY
F
rom dusk to dawn, drones were flown daily this winter from more than 100 spots across the Island to collect and mark the heat signatures of deer, in what is regarded as the most extensive survey of the herd ever done. Now the results are in. The nonprofit Tick Free Martha’s Vineyard (Tick Free MV), which commissioned the study, publicly released the report yesterday that confirmed that the density of deer on the Island is approximately 53 per square mile, and that in certain hot spots, such as Chilmark and Aquinnah, there are two to three times higher densities of deer. The Continued on A15
An online fundraising campaign has been launched to support the Freezes. BY SARA CREATO
A
n Island family, stranded in Canada for the past six weeks due to a denied visa renewal following a family ski trip, has been forced to seek new documentation in order to try to return home. The family’s status continues to remain uncertain after federal border officials rejected Michael Freeze’s work visa renewal application. For the past six weeks, the Freeze family has had to stay at the house of one of Michael’s friend’s parents while they’re away. Michael said that not knowing when his family can return to the Island has been
scary. “Everything is just time and time, and the hardest part is that we don’t know when this time is going to end,” he said. Michael and his wife, Cinthya Freeze, first moved to the Island four years ago after Michael began working as a construction consultant for Rosbeck Builders Corp. in Edgartown. Originally from Alberta, Canada, Michael, 32, and Cinthya, 34, live in Oak Bluffs with their three children, Noah, 9, Olivia, 7, and Luca, 3. To work in the U.S., Michael holds a TN visa, which allows Canadian Continued on A7
The Freeze family has been stuck in Canada for months now. COURTESY FREEZE FAMILY © 2026
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