Community Services Marks Anniversary with Tributes to Volunteers and
Staff
By MANDY LOCKE
The staff, volunteers and supporters of Martha's Vineyard
Community Services gathered together Saturday night to offer one last
happy birthday to the 40-year-old health and human services agency.
Community Services embraced middle age in style this year, and the
evening's tribute to volunteers and employees was no exception.
Cape and Island prosecutors are seeking to charge a former Tisbury
police officer with placing a fake inspection sticker on a 1979 Jeep.
The vehicle in question later crashed in an accident blamed on defective
steering, killing high school senior Eric MacLean.
New Bedford Distorts Fast Ferry Picture
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
The pitch came fast and hard at the last Steamship Authority meeting
for new high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and the Vineyard
next summer. David J. Oliveira, the freshman member of the boat line
board from New Bedford, said a new ferry was under construction and
would be ready to go by spring. He urged the SSA to move quickly on the
license request from Boston Harbor Cruises.
The leading critics of the 170-turbine offshore wind farm proposed for the shallow waters of Horseshoe Shoal made their way across Nantucket Sound to rally Vineyard opposition to the project.
"I've seen grocery stores take longer to get permitting in front of the Cape Cod Commission than it took for Cape Wind to get [a data tower permit] from the Army Corps of Engineers," said Isaac Rosen, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, to less than a dozen officials at the all-Island selectmen's meeting Wednesday night.
The women wear dresses and high heels. The men are decked out in dark slacks or double-breasted suits. The parking lot is so full that cars are lining the driveway to the Masonic Hall and pulled up on the grassy shoulders of Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank has agreed to purchase one of
Chilmark's quintessential homesteads - the Hollis Burton
Engley home off Middle Road.
The question of whether claims of sovereignty entitle the Wampanoag
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to skirt local and state laws will be
decided in Dukes County superior court, rather than a federal district
court in Boston where lawyers for the tribe wanted the case tried.
Sheriff Michael McCormack Takes Case for New County Jail Public
By JOSHUA SABATINI
Amid the uncertainty of acquiring land for a new county jail on the
grounds of Martha's Vineyard Airport, Dukes County sheriff Michael
McCormack has kept busy reminding Island officials that the present jail
and its site at the gateway to Edgartown's historic district is
simply inadequate.
He launched a similar campaign when he first took office in January
1999.
Oceans and Coastline Face Environmental Troubles; Report Urges New
Policies
By JOSHUA SABATINI
A report that details the findings of the U.S. Commission on Ocean
Policy halfway through its 18-month study of the nation's seas
paints a bleak picture of coastal waters.
"The oceans are in trouble," the report says. "Our
coasts are in trouble. Our marine resources are in trouble . . . all,
perhaps, in serious trouble."
Undercover police in Newport, R.I., have busted a ring of alleged
drug dealers from Martha's Vineyard, who traveled to Newport last
week to buy a supply of the highly addictive prescription drug,
OxyContin.