A decision made by the trial court of Massachusetts to decrease the hours of the Vineyard juvenile probation officer has prompted concern from Island school officials and law enforcement personnel, who say they are worried about the long-term effects of the service reduction.
Controversy Over Nantucket Sheriff Spills Onto Vineyard Turf with
News of Assault Weapon Instruction Here
By JAMES KINSELLA Gazette Senior Writer
The Nantucket County sheriff, mired in controversy, including over
his recent decision to buy assault weapons, obtained training and
certification for the weapons several weeks ago from the Tisbury police
department.
The Dukes County Sheriff’s office expects to see a $620,000 shortfall this year.
The news comes just days after Sheriff Michael A. McCormack learned the state is refusing to send its annual supplementary funding for the county corrections facility.
On April 1, Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance Leslie Kirwan sent Sheriff McCormack a letter of notification. Supplementary funding from the state amounts to nearly 20 per cent of the sheriff’s annual budget.
Last Friday afternoon at four o’clock, a woman on a red moped tossed a clear plastic water bottle off the eastbound side of the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road.
On Tuesday morning, Steve Duarte picked it up for her.
The simple act represented a huge change in the life of a man who was sitting in Barnstable county jail 12 months ago, serving the second year of a five-year sentence for a drug offense.
After the most intense contest in memory at a county election, Dukes County sheriff Mike McCormack was back in his office yesterday, but offering the prospect of some changes in response to the criticisms of his two challengers.
As it turned out, Mr. McCormack won re-election reasonably comfortably in Tuesday’s election, receiving 4,509 votes across the six Island towns, compared with 3,251 for his main challenger, former state police Sgt. Neal Maciel. The third candidate, former Oak Bluffs Det. Warren Gosson, garnered 405 votes.
