Island Commercial Flights Dip; Airport Business Still Thrives
By ALEXIS TONTI
Although airline passenger traffic on the Island is down more than
10 per cent from last year, the Martha's Vineyard Airport
continues to do strong business headlined by continued growth in general
aviation.
Airport manager Bill Weibrecht said the travel slump has not
negatively impacted the airport, where income continues to exceed
expenses. He added that the timing of the downturn comes as no surprise.
In Agency's Struggles, Historic Echoes
By MANDY LOCKE
This is not the first time Martha's Vineyard Community
Services has faced the predicament it struggles with now.
Twenty-year-old recollections paint a familiar picture of the
current battles at the Island's largest health and human services
agency.
Her voice remains low, a library voice, a bedtime story voice; a soothing, unhurried monotone whether she is talking about her six children, about the car accident she had when she was 17, or about the ghost of the late Elizabeth Vanderhoop, sister of her first husband, William Vanderhoop, who drowned in the cistern when she was four, then returned as a spirit to hover near the house.
Two Mail Units Are in Jeopardy
Satellite Stations at Alley's Store, Edgartown Visitor Center
Could Lose Delivery as Postal Service Continues to Cut Back
By MANDY LOCKE
As the United States Postal Service continues to tighten its belt,
two Island post office satellite locations are in jeopardy.
Delivery service at both Alley's General Store and the
Edgartown Visitors Center on Church street are on the chopping block as
postal officials deal with limited resources.
Mental health counselors at Martha's Vineyard Community Services are now threatening to strike as the agency remains locked in tough contract talks with unionized employees.
For seven months, tensions continued to mount at the negotiation table over pay issues.
At risk are counseling and nursing services for hundreds of Islanders served by the Island Counseling Center and the Visiting Nurse Service, the unionized units of Community Services. In a typical week, ICC handles 180 clients.
Commissioners Make It Official
No Southern Woodlands Housing; Developer Says, ‘We'll Be
Back'; Courts to Sort Out Issues in Four-Year Dispute
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
The latest chapter in the four-year battle between developer Corey
Kupersmith and the Martha's Vineyard Commission ended last night
when the commission voted without dissent to reject a 320-unit housing
plan for 270 acres in the southern woodlands section of Oak Bluffs.
Life at The Ledge: Skateboarders Soar, and Wait for New Park
By JULIA WELLS
It's a weekday afternoon in downtown Vineyard Haven, and the
sounds of early autumn are all around. On Centre street, a narrow side
lane that angles steeply west of Main street, a light breeze ruffles the
canopy of venerable old shade trees. But on this day there is also
another, more distinctive sound in the air. It's the whack of
composite hitting pavement, followed by the low thunder of wheels
rolling.
As soon as he saw Kaleena Searle swing up her right arm, the
16-year-old boy from Tisbury knew something bad was coming his way.
"I knew I was going to get stabbed," the teenager told
police last year.
It happened on a late night in mid-June. The boy had just walked out
of Cumberland Farms carrying a quart of milk, a chicken sandwich and a
Kudos bar.
When eight-year-old Asa P. Bernard came home from school a week ago
Tuesday, his parents had bad news for him. All of the family's
fishing gear was stolen. Someone, the night before, had taken all the
rods and reels and fishing tackle from the pickup truck parked next to
their home.
"I felt like I was a volcano that had just exploded. I was
very super angry, super mad and medium sad," Asa recalled this
week.
Boatline Governor Proposes a Return to Summer Standby
By JULIA WELLS
NEW BEDFORD - A $68 million operating budget, a $2.4 million
capital budget, a $3.3 million rate increase for the people of the
Vineyard and Nantucket and the prospect of a new head tax - the
talk was all about money yesterday at the monthly meeting of the
Steamship Authority governors.
Vineyard boat line governor Kathryn A. Roessel also called for
bringing back summer standby lines for cars.
