Questions Over Schools' Action

Superintendent Cash's Failure to Support Principal on Koines
Subject at Regional Meeting; Audit Critical of Lapses

By CHRIS BURRELL

Regional high school committee meetings don't typically turn
feisty, but with fallout from the Peter J. Koines case still hanging in
the air, Tisbury officials showed up to this week's meeting to
blast committee members and the schools superintendent for mishandling
the affair.

In an unqualified show of confidence for one of its own members who has been under relentless attack by the developers of the Down Island Golf Club, the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted without dissent last night that commission member Linda Sibley is free from bias and prejudice.

"I don't believe there is anybody on this board that does more homework and takes her job more seriously than Linda. For her to be accused of being a bigot is laughable," said commission member Richard Toole.

His team of Harvard scientists collected 5,000 dog ticks and trapped 35 skunks and raccoons on the Vineyard this summer. Now, parasitologist Sam Telford wants something more to bring back to the lab in Boston - human blood.

Mr. Telford is on the hunt for clues to the mystery of tularemia, the rare and potentially fatal disease that has infected 23 people on the Island in the last three years, killing one man in 2000 who didn't seek medical treatment soon enough.

Nearly all of the victims were landscapers or people who make a living working outdoors.

Boats Here Plucked from Water as Isabel Moves to Mainland

By CHRIS BURRELL

Spillover from Hurricane Isabel was forecast to hit the Island today
with 10-foot seas and wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour.

And while landfall came yesterday on the North Carolina coast, many
Vineyarders who own boats took no chances: They hauled out.

Boatyards worked overtime this week, but if you were expecting the
exodus to dry land to spell the end of the boating season, think again.

When the striped bass she caught was weighed in at Derby
Headquarters in Edgartown on Wednesday night, the gathered crowd of 30
onlookers applauded, as they only do for serious Derby contenders. The
computer driven scale read in blue letters: 40.52 pounds.

Snapshot of a Changing Neighborhood: Now, Lights Go Out in Winter
Months

By MANDY LOCKE

Boat Line Sees Price Increases

Steamship Authority Leadership Proposes $68 Million Budget; Vineyard
Passenger Fares Would Rise by 50 Cents

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Fare hikes for the Vineyard and Nantucket are now on deck at the
Steamship Authority, as boat line managers confront the realities of
keeping a $68 million operation afloat against a backdrop of anemic
revenues and rising operating costs.

Parish Center Bid Is Called a Long Shot

By CHRIS BURRELL

They escaped a town hall that was making Oak Bluffs employees sick,
but their new quarters on School street are so cramped for meeting space
that selectmen are attempting a far-fetched solution - buying back
or swapping the old school building sold to the Catholic church six
years ago.

Library Plans Need to Be Scaled Back

By CHRIS BURRELL

Construction bids to build the Island's newest and biggest
public library in Oak Bluffs came in way over budget last week, forcing
library trustees to send their architect back to the drafting table with
orders to reduce the project's scale.

All four bids opened last week topped the $4 million mark, exceeding
the $3.5 million budgeted for construction of a nearly
15,000-square-foot library on Pacific avenue. Highest of the four bids
was $4.5 million.

Is Isabel Due? Not Too Early to Talk of Her

By ALEXIS TONTI

Do not panic. Check your flashlights and buy extra batteries for the
radio. Stock up on water and nonperishable foods. Make sure you have
first aid supplies. And if you own a boat, get it out of the water.