A divided Chilmark conservation commission voted last week to approve a project to install a new culvert in Mill Brook headwaters off North Road. Proposed by the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the project has kicked up a cloud of controversy.
At the end of a long dirt road in Chilmark, a huge white tent arches above the meadows at Quansoo Farm. Inside the tent is the historic Mayhew-Hancock-Mitchell House, under renovation since last year.
Jesse Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at the Rockefeller University in New York city, will deliver a lecture at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown on Tuesday, July 8, at 7:30 p.m.
Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation is applying this year for accreditation from the The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, a lengthy process involving information gathering and documentation.
The decision ends a bitter dispute over ownership of a three-acre parcel of land in Chilmark. Nisa Counter and Benjamin Ramsey bought the lot on Blue Barque Road in 2010 from a family member. Sheriff’s Meadow said the land was part of a 10-acre parcel gifted by the late C. Russell Walton.
Come summer, visitors can admire the old ice pond from new viewing platforms and walk around the pond towards John Butler’s Mudhole on new boardwalks as Sheriff's Meadow gets makeover.
In Massachusetts, land used by a charitable organization qualifies for a tax exemption under state law. But a recent case in the town of Hawley, now going before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, could have wide implications.
