New England’s Weekly Newspaper of The Year VOL. 202 NO. 15 USPS 264-720
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The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket, Mass.
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Thursday, August 22, 2024
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Seventy-Two Pages
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Four Sections
By Dean Geddes
Surf school owner skeptical about wind farm reimbursement By Kaie Quigley kquigley@inkym.com
Promises from Vineyard Wind blade-manufacturer General Electric to compensate island business owners affected by its blade failure last month are starting to appear empty in the eyes of Gaven Norton. “I think it’s a false promise,” said Norton, who runs ACK Surf School on the south shore. “I’ve reached out to people and just heard, ‘Yeah, we’ll figure this out.’ It’s been a month. I don’t expect anything to get done in a month, these are uncharted territories. But it doesn’t seem like anybody’s in a huge rush,” he said. Norton had to cancel all his surfing lessons for two days during one of the busiest weeks of the summer last month because floating fiberglass and Styrofoam debris from the broken blade closed all south shore beaches to swimming. Different factors can cancel a day of lessons, he said. It’s generally assumed that a few days will be lost per
dgeddes@inkym.com
MAILING LABEL
Our Island Home, which had been plagued with a one-star rating from Medicare and Medicaid Services since 2021, learned this month that its rating from the federal agency had jumped to four stars out of a possible five, qualifying as an “above average” nursing home. The new rating indicates a major
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“Short-term rentals are customarily incidental to as-of-right principal residential uses in the Residential Old Historic District.”
As the Zoning Board of Appeals marches closer to a ruling declaring that the short-term rental of a vacation home is acceptable in residential neighborhoods, questions are being raised about the impartiality of the board. The linchpin to this wider decision is the case of Cathy Ward, who sued her neighbors over their use of their vacation home as a short-term rental in a residentially-zoned area. This all comes as the case appears likely to end up back in court, according to Ward’s attorney, Nina Pickering-Cook, who said she and Ward anticipate appealing the ZBA’s likely decision once it is final. Land Court Judge Michael Vhay
ruled earlier this year that the town’s zoning bylaw does not allow for the primary use of a home to be a shortterm rental, but it is allowed as an accessory use. He sent the matter back to the ZBA to determine if Peter and Linda Grape’s rental usage was primary or accessory. Anne Dewez, a long-time critic of commercial short-term rentals, spoke during public comment at last Thursday’s ZBA meeting. She said that given the gravity of the situation, there should be a review of the conf lict-of-interest status of all of the board members relating to short-term rentals, before they render
ZBA, PAGE 5A
Legal wrangling over wine festival ramps up By Dean Geddes dgeddes@inkym.com
File photo
Gaven Norton, owner of ACK Surf School on Nobadeer Beach. season to bad weather or shark sightings, for example. Floating fiberglass, and people’s fear of the beach because of it, however, was a first. “This was not one that I anticipated happening,” Norton said. That was the week of July 13. Since
then, Vineyard Wind has maintained that a renewable energy subsidiary of General Electric, GE Vernova, is responsible for the blade failure and damages caused by it, because it manufactured and installed the parts that
“It feels great. I think what happens on the island, we all get isolated and we lose perspective on what it’s like compared to the rest of the state. This is far and above better than most nursing homes that we work with.”
and we lose perspective on what it’s like compared to the rest of the state. This is far and above better than most nursing homes that we work with.” When asked if he thought the new four-star rating could hurt the town’s chances of securing the green light from voters on a new $100 million facility, Eisenstein said it was important to realize that the Medicare and Medicaid rating is about care, not the state of the building. “No, because the question is, how much better can we be?” he said. “We’ve kind of been held back in certain respects. As we expand and really start marketing our programs, I anticipate that we’ll have a much higher (occupancy) over the next several years.” “The space we have now is just functional for patients. There’s not enough space, and I would not want to
SKEPTICAL, PAGE 4A
Our Island Home gets four-star rating By Dean Geddes
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– Draft ZBA ruling
dgeddes@inkym.com
Photo by Kaie Quigley
www.ACK.net
ZBA impartiality questioned in STR case
Board ruling on residential use expected next week
BALANCING ACT: Surfers were out in force on the south shore this weekend as the impact of Hurricane Ernesto, passing offshore hundreds of miles to the east, generated big waves and prime conditions. It also brought with it dangerous rip currents, leading lifeguards to rescue at least two people from the surf. See story, page 2A.
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– Bob Eisentein, EF & Associates Operator, Our Island Home turnaround for the only nursing home on the island, and the sole remaining municipally-owned nursing home in the state. “It’s the result of a lot of hard work, because it takes a long time to get movement,” said Bob Eisenstein, president of EF & Associates, the company hired by the town to run the dayto-day operations of Our Island Home. “It feels great. I think what happens on the island, we all get isolated
OUR ISLAND HOME, PAGE 4A
Nantucket Wine and Food Festival executive director Nancy Bean is claiming a lawyer who worked for her on the deal that gave her sole control of the festival turned around and shared sensitive privileged information with David Gordon, the CEO of Gordon’s Fine Wine & Liquors, as part of a long-term plan to take over the festival. The claim was made in an update to the suit she has filed against Gordon’s and the White Elephant Hotel as the drama involving the long-running festival is getting even more convoluted. It all started this June when Gordon announced his company had
FESTIVAL, PAGE 4A
File photo
Nantucket Wine Festival founder Denis Toner with executive director Nancy Bean at The White Elephant Hotel during the opening reception for the 2014 festival.
Courtesy of Massachusetts Lottery Commission
LUCKY WINNER: Island restaurant owner Sean “Sushi Sean” Durnin won $1 million on a scratch ticket he bought at Old South Diner this week, the third time in less than six months the business has sold a winning ticket worth more than $1 million. See story, page 2A.