Divided Board Kills Plan to Build Performance Stage at the Cliffs

with permission, MV Gazette

By SAM BUNGEY

Following a last-minute public campaign of staunch opposition, Aquinnah selectmen at a special meeting Monday shelved a proposal to build an outdoor performing arts stage at the Circle, leaving its architects frustrated and the board polarized on the issue.

The proposal is from Ted Cammann, a longtime music producer, and Jim Glavin of Deca Construction, who conceived the plan after organizing last August’s Aquinnah Music festival held at the Circle. The two men are now partners in Circle Productions LLC.

“We put on that festival because we wanted to do a fund-raiser for [local radio station] WVVY and there were no venues. There was nowhere to play,” said Mr. Glavin.

The project has been in the works since early spring, but a torrent of letters and e-mails against the project began pouring into town hall about two weeks ago. At a public hearing on the proposal last Thursday which ran for more than two hours, a group of detractors argued vociferously that the stage would be a blight on the natural beauty of the landscape at the Cliffs.

“There was an organized campaign to stack the deck against us,” Mr. Glavin said this week, “They won over one of the selectmen; it was a classic display of bad faith.”

Discussion at the Monday meeting of the selectmen, called to approve a May 19 special town meeting warrant, centered on a close reading of a March special town meeting article that was approved by voters, and whether or not the proposal from Mr. Glavin and Mr. Cammann met the requirements to be submitted for a second vote.

Mr. Newman argued that the requirements had not been met.

But Mr. Glavin said the selectmen had a responsibility to take the proposal back to the voters.

Mr. Newman said the proposed lease terms submitted by he applicants did not constitute a lease and therefore the article could not go on the warrant.

“You don’t have a lease,” said Mr. Newman.

“You have a proposed lease,” answered Mr. Glavin.

“There’s your mistake,” Mr. Newman shot back. “You’re saying to me that we have a proposal and you’re saying that proposal is a lease.”

“You’re not a lawyer,” said Mr. Glavin.

“I have spoken to a lawyer,” he said.

“Okay, where’s your opinion?” asked Mr. Glavin.

“Excuse me,” said Mr. Newman. “I have a motion on the table.”

“Yes, but now there’s discussion,” selectman Spencer Booker chimed in.

“Well, I’m going to call it in a minute,” said Mr. Newman.

Selectman Camille Rose said the town would be acting in bad faith by not bringing the proposal to the town meeting floor for a vote.

“Given that you’re both on record as opposing the plan do you have the intention to pursue it in good faith?” she asked.

“We can talk about it on a different scale,” answered Mr. Newman.

“But there are 40 town voters [who approved taking the first steps in March] . . . do you have any intention of honoring the vote?” she said.

Mr. Booker said the board’s request for proposals was too vague, did not ask for a business plan and should be republished.

In the end Mr. Newman’s motion to deny the application was approved 2-1, with Ms. Rose casting the dissenting vote.

The whole episode began at a March special town meeting, where voters agreed 40-15 to allow the selectmen to put out a request for proposals for a performing arts stage at the cliffs. Based on a preliminary proposal from Mr. Glavin and Mr. Cammann, the article requested that a lease be drawn up and be presented to the town at the annual town meeting on May 12. The draft article was later changed to a special town meeting for May 19 at the request of the town moderator.

Mr. Glavin and Mr. Cammann were the sole respondents to the request for proposals last month.

They attended an April 21 meeting of the selectmen at which Mr. Booker and Ms. Rose suggested minor changes to the proposal. Ms. Rose suggested that a lawyer acting for Mr. Glavin and Mr. Cammann draw up a lease agreement. The proposal was not referred to town counsel for review.

Mr. Newman did not attend the meeting, but said he would have suggested major changes to the proposal and would have insisted that a draft lease be prepared by town counsel.

“I was out of the country,” he said, “But the [Circle Productions] proposal was totally abhorrent.”

At the Monday meeting Mr. Newman laid blame with the applicants for discussing their proposal so far ahead of the deadline for the special town meeting warrant.

Later in the week though, speaking to the Gazette, Mr. Nemwan relented.

“Okay I take that back. It’s a little unfair. But I personally felt that when Camille suggested minor changes, a red light goes off, we needed great changes. I’m not prepared to go to the town meeting with a lease which I personally feel is not beneficial to the town.”

He added that he felt the proposal should have been referred to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

“This is one of the most important votes I’ve had in my six years as selectman,” he said.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Glavin said political considerations had dominated the issue.

“The board was very polarized, with Spencer in the middle,” he said. “I understand why he voted no. I probably would have sitting in his chair.”

He said that Monday’s vote effectively killed the project, for this year at least, but that he and Mr. Cammann have not given up.

“We’re a bit discouraged at the moment, but we’re not dead,” Mr. Glavin said.

Aquinnah hearing on performing arts venue at cliffs

with permission from Martha’s Vineyard Times

Following approval of the effort at a special town meeting in March, Aquinnah selectmen issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a tenant for a portion of the Aquinnah Circle.

To no one’s surprise, selectmen received just one proposal by the April 17 deadline, from Ted Cammann and James Glavin of Aquinnah. The two men brought the idea for an outdoor performing arts center adjacent to the Gay Head cliffs to the Aquinnah town meeting.

Mr. Cammann is a producer of live musical events, and Mr. Glavin is the owner of Deca Construction.

They propose to lease the circle area, beginning June 1, 2009 for 10 years with an option to renew. Events would be held between June 1 and Sept. 30, and be limited to 2,500 tickets for each event. The town would receive $1 per ticket for for-profit events.

Selectmen will hold a public hearing on the proposal described in a five-page letter and brochure at 7 pm, Thursday, April 30, in town hall.

In a letter to the selectmen dated April 17, Mr. Cammann and Mr. Glavin propose to negotiate a ground lease, operating agreement, and enabling document establishing a citizen advisory board, all of which could be presented to voters at a May 19 special town meeting.

They propose to use the land’s natural topography to provide a natural amphitheater. The stage would be placed in the lower section so that the audience would be looking out in the direction of Nomans Land.

Mr. Glavin described the project and answered questions from voters at the Aquinnah special town meeting on March 3.

Mr. Glavin told voters that the only way the men could make the plan work financially and attract needed support was if they had a guaranteed lease term within which to work and recoup their investments. At the town meeting, Mr. Glavin said the town would share in the profits, if there were any, and the town and Island organizations would gain a professional performance venue.

By a vote of 40-15 voters approved an article that authorized the selectmen to solicit requests for proposals to construct a performing arts center stage.

The proposal has faced some opposition from Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) officials, most notably from Bettina Washington, the tribe’s historic preservation officer.

Initially, moderator Walter Delaney said the circle lease proposal would be presented on a special town meeting warrant to be convened prior to the annual town meeting on May 12. Instead, anticipating extensive discussion, selectmen decided to move the special town meeting to May 19.