Community Services Hit with Complaint
Federal Labor Board Charges Agency with Poor Treatment of Employees
During Union Organizing Effort
By JULIA WELLS
A dormant labor dispute at Martha's Vineyard Community
Services bubbled to life again yesterday when a newly formed union
announced that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a
complaint against the umbrella social service agency.
Voters in Oak Bluffs, acting decisively yesterday, stared down at a seven-way race for two seats on the board of selectmen and put their pencil marks solidly behind Roger Wey and Greg Coogan.
Way ahead of the pack, Mr. Wey, the incumbent, pulled down 712 votes, winning a sixth term on the board. Mr. Coogan came in with 638 ballots to join Mr. Wey on the board. A total of 1,451 voters cast ballots, 45 per cent of those registered.
Citizens Reject Town Hall Plan at West Tisbury Meeting
By JULIA WELLS
Calling it a potential note of discord in the distinct rural melody
of their up-Island village, voters in West Tisbury this week scrapped a
$3.7 million plan to expand and renovate the historic town hall.
With a final vote of 160-89, the project failed to win the needed
two-thirds majority by a wide margin at the annual town meeting on
Tuesday night.
Theatre Season Invites Islanders for Auditions
By C.K. WOLFSON
"What actors, professionals and amateurs have to realize, is
that the people who are watching the audition are rooting for
them," said M.J. Bruder Munafo, artistic director at the Vineyard
Playhouse. "I'll speak for myself - I'm hoping
that they're going to come up and just be fabulous."
Oak Bluffs Backs Large Budget, Approves First Historic District
By CHRIS BURRELL
They defended their dogs, embraced their history and threw their
support behind a $17.6 million annual budget - all without an
ounce of dissension.
For a town accustomed to lengthy and often rancorous annual town
meetings, Oak Bluffs and its voters this week bucked the trend, agreeing
to shoulder their annual spending without questioning a single line item
and plowing through a combined 31 articles in just over three hours.
Martha's Vineyard Commission Probes Flaws in New Bedford Fast
Ferry Link
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
No market study.
No clear market.
The wisdom - or folly - of considering year-round
service and the range of possible impacts on the Vineyard.
West Tisbury Ousts Veteran Selectman
Challenger Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter Is Winner by Large Margin Over
Incumbent John S. Alley
By JULIA WELLS
Nine-term selectman John S. Alley lost his seat to Jeffrey (Skipper)
Manter in a surprise trouncing in the West Tisbury annual town election
yesterday.
Mr. Manter beat Mr. Alley 593 to 357.
Seven minutes before midnight Tuesday, Edgartown town meeting voters
wrapped up a long list of business - supporting a $19 million
operating budget and killing proposed house-size caps on Chappaquiddick.
But the night's liveliest debates for those in the crowded
pews at the Old Whaling Church, and perhaps the most interesting result
of the week, centered around a funding request to hire a housing
inspector to license the town's 1,500 rental properties.
West Tisbury Shows Town Hall Plans
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
A $10 million-plus annual operating budget, a laundry list of
override requests that adds up to more than $800,000 and a town hall
expansion project with a $3.7 million price tag - next week when
the voters of West Tisbury gather to conduct the annual business of the
town, the prevailing winds are expected to be out of the pocketbook.
Tisbury Approves $15.9 Million Budget; School Funds Win Town Meeting
Vote
By JONATHAN BURKE
Tisbury residents kicked off the Island's season of annual
town meetings Tuesday with a bow to education and an endorsement of the
Dukes County Regional Housing Authority.
The police department had the roughest time during the two-night
annual town meeting. Following a narrowly approved request to upgrade
from 45-calibre sidearms to Glocks, voters defeated the
department's $58,000 request for two new cruisers.
