Boat Line Governors Hear Cold Truth About Money Squeeze in Years Ahead

By JULIA WELLS

Gazette Senior Writer

NANTUCKET — After seven months of chasing a futuristic service model amid visions of multi-million-dollar high-speed ferries, Steamship Authority governors learned the cold truth yesterday: If replacing the ferry Islander is a top priority, there will be no more money for large capital projects in the next six years.

By their very nature, fireworks shows have exclamation points after their name, but tonight’s event in Oak Bluffs already has a few question marks.\

Operators of rented mopeds suffered two serious accidents this week on the same stretch of Seaview avenue near Lola's Restaurant in Oak Bluffs. In both accidents, moped operators lost control, crossed the center line and crashed into oncoming auto traffic.

There's money to be made in moped rentals on Martha's Vineyard, but just a handful of people are counting the cash - seven shop owners and four landlords, to be exact.

Camp Ground Basks in Glow Of Candlelight

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A thousand happy voices sang Home on the Range and America the Beautiful, and then the lights came on. It happened this year, as it has of old, at the 132nd annual Grand Illumination on the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs.

Even the sun decided to make an appearance yesterday morning for the opening of the 140th Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair.

Fifteen minutes before the fair officially opened, carloads of big and little kids lined Panhandle Road, anxious to be the first riders on the 18 carnival rides.

With only two months to go before the Oak Bluffs wastewater plant switches into gear, the town has no one to man the operation.

Town leaders were all set to hire a private firm to take the job, but when they took a close look at bids from four companies, it was a serious case of sticker shock. Last week, both the wastewater committee and the board of selectmen unanimously rejected all bids.

"We went down [that] route, and we just got stung badly," said wastewater committee chairman Fred Sonnenberg. The numbers, he added, "scare the life out of you."

The rain will stop. The clouds will clear. And the historic circle of gingerbread cottages in Oak Bluffs will become a fairyland of lights. The Night of the Grand Illumination is here.

The 132nd Illumination Night will be held tomorrow night.

When's the last time your doctor checked with your chiropractor about that back injury? Or how about that free screening for colon cancer?

A scan across the faces of Saturday's 24th Annual Chilmark Road Race participants revealed every kind of runner. There were kids - confident that gym class laps had prepared them for the 3.1 miles of hilly stretch before them. There were moms - more concerned with making sure their flock used the bathroom before the race began. There were 70-year-olds whose love of running reached back much further than the 24-year history of this uniquely up-Island road race. And then there were those who came to win - stretching silently at the front of the line, their sprinters' thighs bulging beneath running shorts.