Gas

Prices for regular unleaded gas as of Apr. 7:

Edgartown

Airport Mobil $2.699 Depot Corner $2.699

Edgartown Mobil $2.759

Oak Bluffs

deBettencourt’s $2.659

Jim’s $2.679

Vineyard Haven

Citgo $2.629

Tisbury Shell $2.659

West Tisbury

Up-Island Automotive $2.609

Menemsha

Menemsha Texaco $2.599

Massachusetts state average (source: AAA) $1.981

Grocery Basket

Some 1,500 lower-income Vineyard residents face the prospect of having to find new health insurance because the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital has determined its current insurer is not directing enough patients to its affiliated hospitals in Boston.

A warrant long on articles but short on controversy awaits voters at Edgartown annual town meeting Tuesday.

Voters will be asked to approve a $26 million operating budget for the coming fiscal year along with a legion 53 warrant articles. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Old Whaling Church; moderator Philip (Jeff) Norton Jr. will preside.

Selectman Arthur Smadbeck credited early and conscientious work of town departments for the lack of fuss on the warrant this year.

Against the backdrop of a sustained national recession, the focus of the Oak Bluffs annual town meeting next week is expected to be town finances, as voters consider a $24.1 million annual budget and several hefty spending articles, including a $500,000 dredging project in Sengekontacket Pond. Substantial pay increases for the town administrator and town clerk are expected to be another point for debate.

A new wind turbine bylaw, a zoning change that would permit multi-family housing and special protection for historic byways top the 45-article warrant for the West Tisbury annual town meeting next week.

And voters will consider a $13 million operating budget that is custom tailored for debate over a proposed 3.6 per cent cost of living increase for town employees. The town personnel board backs the 3.6 per cent increase, but the finance committee and selectmen want it reduced to two per cent.

Faced with a 37-article warrant including the perennially contentious issue of beer and wine sales, and a raft of potential tax increases totaling almost $1.8 million, Tisbury voters are looking at a marathon town meeting beginning on Tuesday night.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Tisbury School gymnasium; moderator Deborah Medders will preside.

The one-day old Full Moon appears tonight in the zodiacal constellation Libra. The moon is already moving into the constellations we associate with summer. On Sunday night, the moon appears low in the Southern sky, in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius. The red star Antares appears nearby.

Ship to Shore

From Gazette editions of April, 1909:

Call it the audacity of hope. The White House media office had this to say on Monday — “The President does not have plans for a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard at this time.” But no one on the Island, let alone the national media, was going to let that stand in the way of this story.

NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)