Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss announced on Friday the appointment of Susan Stevens as the new Chilmark head of school.

Currently a guidance counselor and special education coordinator at the Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Fla., a public magnet school, Mrs. Stevens has been a summer resident of Edgartown for 27 years. Her career in education began in 1976 and includes a wide array of teaching, from gifted to special needs, guidance and some administrative work. She has a sub-specialty in teaching children with autism.

In July of 2007, 10 months after Tisbury police chief John Cashin had begun his job, the Tisbury selectmen received a letter from the mayor of Norwalk, Conn., where Mr. Cashin had been police chief for 25 years before moving to the Island.

The letter from the mayor was responding to scathing comments Mr. Cashin had made to The Hour, a Norwalk daily newspaper, about his former job.

The letter was brief but pointed, and followed an irate phone call to Thomas Pachico, then chairman of the town selectmen.

The quahaugs of Sengekontacket lie unmolested this morning, lucky survivors of a mass taking carried out in the 48 hours prior to a summer-long closure of the pond which began Monday.

On Sunday morning Edgartown clammer Manny Jardin was pulling out quahaugs as fast as he could plant his rake.

“Hear that? That rock? Maybe it’s a rock. So you scrape,” Mr. Jardin coached as he sifted through bottom of Anthier’s Pond just east of the Big Bridge. “And . . . voila.”

The dream season for girls' lacrosse came to an end Friday on a muddy, rain-soaked field at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School against a
powerful team from Hingham. The Hingham girls prevailed 11-8 in the second
round of the state tournament. The Vineyard girls, who have been undefeated
all season and had advanced to the second round with a solid win on
Wednesday, could not get the job done before a cheering crowd on a soggy
day.

“I couldn't be prouder of the kids. They've been terrific all season
long.

HOLLY NADLER

508-274-9239

(hollynadler@gmail.com)

The Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs will see one of it’s first crowds of the summer at the upcoming Inspiration Weekend, June 5 to 7, hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Methodists. Senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Atlanta and founder and president of In Touch Ministries, Dr. Charles Stanley will lead the event, which features former members of The Fifth Dimension, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., as well as Island author SQuire Rushnell and his wife, comedienne Louise DuArt.

Smokey the Bear, the trusted and revered advocate for forest fire prevention, was brutally attacked at his Island home at the corner of Barnes and Edgartown-West Tisbury Roads sometime this winter, authorities confirmed this week.

Gas

Prices for regular unleaded gas as of May 26:

Edgartown

Airport Mobil $2.999 Depot Corner $2.999

Edgartown Mobil $3.059

Oak Bluffs

deBettencourt’s $3.019

Jim’s $3.059

Vineyard Haven

Citgo $2.939

Tisbury Shell $2.999

West Tisbury

Up-Island Automotive $2.989

Menemsha

Menemsha Texaco $2.779

Massachusetts state average (source: AAA) $2.389

Grocery Basket

With most permitting in hand and a planned roster of regional and national musical acts up their sleeves, a group of Vermont promoters plan to open doors next month on the property formerly home to the Outerland nightclub.

Remaining red tape notwithstanding, the owners of Nectar’s nightclub in Burlington, Vt., aim to launch the club mid-June, operating under the same name.

A majority of West Tisbury residents at a packed public meeting on Wednesday spoke against a plan from American Tower Corporation to build a distributed antenna system (DAS) to improve cell phone coverage in the three up-Island towns.

Many who attended the meeting cited concerns about safety, questioning whether radio frequency from the towers would pose a danger to humans, while others said they worried a series of new utility poles needed for the system would ruin scenic vistas and infringe on people’s property.