Report Calls for Changes to Strengthen Future Role of Island
Planning Agency

By JULIA WELLS

Overhaul the review process for developments of regional impact.
Encourage districts of critical planning concern. Forge better working
relationships with the Island towns. Improve staff work. Improve public
relations. Planning, planning, planning.

These are the central themes in a comprehensive report card on the
Martha's Vineyard Commission released this week by commission
executive director Mark London.

The lobster fishery in the waters around Martha's Vineyard has
collapsed. Today a new minimum size for lobsters goes into effect. The
increase, a tiny fraction of an inch, it is being imposed in an effort
to protect juvenile lobsters. Another increase will take place on July
1, but many fisheries experts concede these steps are too late, the
horse is already out of the barn.

The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust and the Massachusetts Audubon Society closed on a land purchase last week that will protect the last key piece of undeveloped land at Felix Neck.

War with Iraq was the top subject in class and on the minds of
regional high school students and teachers on Wednesday. Close to 600
students gathered in the school Performing Arts Center to express their
opposition to the war.

Student Protest Against Iraq War Triggers Suspensions in Clash with
Administration

A peaceful student protest against war in Iraq bubbled into a
spontaneous walkout at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.

Oak Bluffs Police Receive Overtime Pay

By CHRIS BURRELL

Oak Bluffs police officers are about to receive the kind of windfall
most employees only dream of - getting paid for hours never
worked.

Acting decisively on a grievance filed by the police union back in
September 2001, an arbitrator last month ruled that former police chief
Joseph Carter wrongly bypassed regular police officers when it came to
filling overtime shifts.

Iraq Countdown Separates Young Vineyard Family

By MANDY LOCKE

Seventeen hours before Jared Meader joined his comrades in Western
Massachusetts, he sipped a whiskey sour, chatted with his buddies from
the sheriff's department and helped his daughter, Hailey, grab a
Cheeto just beyond the reach of her two-year-old arms.

MVC Election Wins Approval

State House Compromise Clears Path for Special Vote in May on a
Petition in Oak Bluffs to Secede from Commission

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

After a week of back-room politics on Beacon Hill that left one Cape
and Islands legislator openly fuming at what he called "outside
muscle," a petition by the town of Oak Bluffs to withdraw from the
Martha's Vineyard Commission is now set to come before voters at a
special election in the middle of May.

The election will be held on May 13.

Island Education Leaders Fear Budget Cut Layoffs

By CHRIS BURRELL

Bracing for the possibility of even deeper cuts to state aid for
schools, Island school leaders now say they must consider laying off
teachers and trimming both academic and extra-curricular programs.

The dire forecast came this week in reaction to Gov. Mitt
Romney's proposed budget, which included significant cutbacks to
the Vineyard's two regional school districts - up-Island and
the high school.

Five years ago, Kim Angell found herself one step away from being a
welfare mom.

"My husband disappeared. I had no job, three children under
the age of six, and it was January," Ms. Angell said this week.
"I had no money to pay my mortgage, let alone child care."