Joanne Nutting is one of the 27 people who crashed a moped on the Vineyard last year and ended up in the emergency room at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital.

An Agreement in Agency Talks

Community Services and Union Reach Tentative First Accord; Joint
Committee to Study Salary Parity Issues

By MANDY LOCKE

After more than 18 months of bitter division, Martha's
Vineyard Community Services leaders, nurses and mental health counselors
shook hands Monday evening moments after settling their first union
contract.

Boiled Wool: She Designs Her Jackets with a Painterly Flair

By CHRIS BURRELL

It's hard to imagine a less inspiring genesis. But for Christy
Phillipps and her burgeoning fashion empire, it started with a couple of
old blankets.

Don't Start Cutting, Developers Warned

Kupersmith's Attorney, Vowing Defiance of Cease and Desist
Order, Is Told Criminal Charges Could Come

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Attorneys for the Down Island Golf Club have clashed head-on with
top state environmental officials, declaring bluntly that the developers
will not comply with the recent cease and desist order in the southern
woodlands.

Stanley Nelson: His Oak Bluffs Story Will Air on Public TV

By JESSIE ROYCE HILL

Early in A Place of Our Own, Stanley Nelson's documentary
about the African-American community on the Vineyard, his father states
that "we didn't come to Martha's Vineyard, we came to
Oak Bluffs."

Principal Advances Her Inquiry on Drugs, Asks Students' Help

By CHRIS BURRELL

Less than three weeks after she apologized for overstating the
problem of marijuana use by students on the regional high school campus,
principal Peg Regan has put the pot issue right back on the front burner
- at student council, the school committee and her monthly parents
meeting.

Mrs. Regan's approach this week was less about gauging the
magnitude of the problem and more about formulating the best response
from the school.

Exercise Caution Over Blind Trust, Commission Told

By MANDY LOCKE

Pleas to the Martha's Vineyard Commission to slow plans for
creating a blind trust came from every possible side last night -
supporters, critics and even the agency's own members.

Three of the commission's newest members opposed the formation
of such a charitable trust, and several other members demanded further
investigation before accepting gifts from the trust.

Land Bank's Chappaquiddick ‘Prize' Will Bring
Island Trail to Pond's Edge

By JULIA WELLS

The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank announced this week that it
will buy the Wasey property on Chappaquiddick, a grassy, windblown
four-acre crest that embraces the unspoiled inner shore of Cape Pogue
Pond.

For Steamship Governor, Heated Questions About Direction,
Accountability

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Amid fresh eddies of controversy swirling around the Steamship
Authority, Vineyard boat line governor Kathryn A. Roessel came under
heavy fire this week from an array of county officials - including
members of the Dukes County Commission, her appointing authority -
who demanded better communication and more accountability.

Oak Bluffs Sign Off Didn't Follow Rules

By CHRIS BURRELL

An elected Oak Bluffs town official who is employed as operator of
two municipal sewage treatment plants on the Island may have violated
state environmental and ethics laws in the process of securing a septic
permit this winter for his new house in Oak Bluffs.

Joseph N. Alosso, member of the board of health and operator of the
wastewater treatment plants in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, denies any
wrongdoing.