After a standoff lasting four years, the Steamship Authority and one
of its major maritime unions are expected to have a new workplace
contract within a month.
Agreement between boat line senior managers and the Marine Officers
Beneficial Association, which represents some 230 unlicensed deck hands,
was reached last Friday night, after two days at the table with a
state-appointed fact finder.
Island Plan Moves Ahead with Forums to Provoke More Public
Involvement
By IAN FEIN
Roughly 200 new homes are built on the Vineyard each year, many of
them out of scale with surrounding neighborhoods or sprawling into once
rural and open areas.
Eelgrass beds, which provide breeding habitat for fish and
shellfish, have nearly disappeared from Edgartown Great Pond and
Sengekontacket Pond in the last decade, and have decreased alarmingly
- by over 50 per cent - in Tashmoo and Lagoon Ponds.
Out-of-control classrooms, last-laugh pranks and papers being thrown to the wind as students stampede through the double doors after the last bell: those are images that come to mind when thinking about the last day of school.
Ambitious Vision for Downtown Edgartown
By MIKE SECCOMBE
The old Navigator restaurant in Edgartown - she ain't
what she used to be.
And for all the survivors of overpriced watered-down cocktails and
stuffed quahaugs that landed in the stomach like a lead sinker on a
codfish rig - that may not be such a bad thing.
While special town meetings in late spring or early summer often are
ho-hum affairs called to approve routine housekeeping matters and
spending items at the end of the fiscal year, Tuesday's meeting in
Oak Bluffs could pack as much punch as the town's annual town
meeting in April.
The special town meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of
the Oak Bluffs school.
The loss of habitat which has caused bird numbers to plummet across
America in recent decades has had an impact on the Vineyard, but not
nearly as heavily as in other places, according to local experts.
MVC Votes to Approve Chilmark Housing Plan for Middle Line Road
By IAN FEIN
Holding to its stance that the Island's dire need for
affordable housing trumps other planning principles, the Martha's
Vineyard Commission last week approved a town-sponsored subdivision
tucked in the woods of Chilmark.
They don't play for money. They don't play for their
team or their hometown or even their country. In fact, they don't
even play for a trophy.
And while this sometimes silly and always social group who play the
up-Island brand of table tennis called Quinapong may seem more
interested in chatting with their fellow players than actually playing
- don't be fooled by their casual manner. When the plastic
ball drops they are all business.
The evening easily could have been confused with a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The grill staff at P.J.'s Café sang along to Love Train and Don't Stop Believin' as they flipped mini burgers, pressed them in between golden buns and handed them off to hungry, fashionably clad patrons. Across the way, the pastry chef at Soigne wore a wide smile as she piled a cake rack high with mini cupcakes. "I noticed some of the restaurant people dancing in their booths," Christopher Scott, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust said yesterday.
Tribe Casino Plans Remain Unchanged
Aquinnah Wampanoags Are Committed to Gaming Too; But First Mashpee
Must Convince State Legislature
By IAN FEIN
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) remains interested in
developing an off-Island casino, tribal council chairman Donald Widdiss
said this week.
But before they identify or actively pursue a specific site, tribal
members are waiting to see whether the Massachusetts legislature will
vote to allow expanded gaming - a step it has consistently
rejected in the past.