It's 10 p.m. on a Thursday night. Steve Durkee, the Gazette graphics director, is in Dick Reston's office, his head stuck out the open skylight, smoking a cigarette. Dick is at his computer, writing headlines. Out in the newsroom, Chris Burrell is hunched over his own terminal, trying to get the tone just right on his West Tisbury backgrounder. I am rummaging around in the Gazette library looking for some poetry that will work for a skyline (the line of verse that runs across the top of the front page). I find an E.B.

SSA Planning to Enforce Its Policy on Late Arrivals

By CHRIS BURRELL

Steamship Authority officials plan to clamp down later this summer
on a policy that would force last-minute drivers with reservations to
change their habits, or risk getting bumped into standby.

With the advent of new electronic ticket scanners, SSA managers said
they hope to enforce the policy written in fine print on the backside of
tickets, requiring drivers to arrive 30 minutes before the boat
departure.

Crowd of 300 Convenes To Debate Withdrawing Oak Bluffs from MVC

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

Pull out, go it alone, use the assessment money to pay for a
planner, stick to the town's own knitting. Stay in, continue to be
a member of the six-town team and use the protection and power of a
unique regional planning agency created by an act of the state
legislature 27 years ago.

Prevailing winds so far have helped the Vineyard escape any real environmental impact from an oil spill Sunday that dumped almost 15,000 gallons into Buzzards Bay, killing at least five waterfowl and polluting more than 10 miles of mainland beaches along the bay.

Chunks of oil the size of hockey pucks were spotted in Vineyard Sound near the Elizabeth Islands, prompting Dukes County officials to declare a state of emergency Wednesday, but none of the oil has yet washed ashore on any Island beaches.

Bouchard Transportation Co., whose barge Number 120 deposited approximately 15,000 gallons of Number 6 diesel fuel into Buzzards Bay Sunday, is no stranger to the process they are now going through - clean-up and investigation.

Acting on Informant's Tip, Police Arrest Three in Connection
with String of Crimes

By CHRIS BURRELL

Oak Bluffs police say they cracked two cases in one day this week
when they arrested three Oak Bluffs teenagers Wednesday in connection
with the break-in at Tony's Market and then learned these were the
same teens who opened up fire hydrants on East Chop almost two weeks
ago.

Transit System Prepares for New Season; Authority Plans Adjustment
to Routes

By JONATHAN BURKE

Vineyard Transit Authority is on the verge of a new summer season,
and still sorting out problems associated with its new fare boxes.

Thomas Teller

Clerk Magistrate Retires after 39 Years of Service

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

He is a local boy, an Edgartown native with fishing in his soul and
justice in his heart and deft hands that can shuck quahaugs just as
easily as they wield the varnished wooden gavel that is the tool of the
district court clerk magistrate. For many years he was a lone Democrat
laboring in a Republican stronghold, and today, of course, all that has
changed, but after 39 years what hasn't?

On Eve of Public Forum, MVC Opponents Seek To Revive Old Threats

By JULIA WELLS

On the eve of a community meeting to discuss the highly-charged
question of whether Oak Bluffs should withdraw from the Martha's
Vineyard Commission, a citizens' group in favor of leaving is
stirring up fresh debate on an old subject: the threat of a massive
affordable housing project in the southern woodlands.

Junk Cars Spur Town Reaction

Edgartown Cites the Hall Family For Zoning and Health Code
Violations; Officials Hope Will Lead to Final Cleanup

By MANDY LOCKE

Eight months after a dangerous brush fire pushed cleanup of an
illegal car dump to the top of Edgartown's priority list,
officials finally lost patience with the property owners -
formally citing the Benjamin Hall Sr. family this week for flagrant
zoning and health code violations.