Minnesingers Bring Broadway to Island

By NIS KILDEGAARD

It's been a common shorthand for years to describe the
Minnesingers, the elite performing ensemble of the Martha's
Vineyard Regional High School, as a singing group that also dances. This
past weekend's show at the Performing Arts Center left fans
groping not only for new superlatives but even for new ways of
describing the group. Perhaps it's best to call Minnesingers a
powerful weapon of mass entertainment, and leave it at that.

Aquinnah voters have much to talk about before their annual town
meeting on Tuesday, May 13. There is a race for selectman between the
incumbent Karl Burgess and a challenger, Jim Newman, 65, a former
educator. Both candidates have a history with the finance committee.

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.

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.