The Steamship Authority appears likely to go to court to stop a Vineyard barge operator from bringing rental cars to and from the Island for the summer tourist season.

SSA general manager Wayne Lamson told a meeting of the boat line governors on Tuesday that repeated warnings to the barge operator had gone unheeded, and that any further shipments would bring legal action.

Ralph Packer, who owns Tisbury Towing and Transportation, said yesterday he believed the company was entitled to continue the practice.

There was good news and bad news this week for Vineyard home insurance customers who already pay some of the highest premiums and deductibles in the nation.

A well-known Rhode Island insurance company announced Tuesday it will expand coverage to include long-neglected markets like Cape Cod and the Islands. But also this week came bad news; the state’s top court last Friday upheld a 25 per cent increase to the rates of Cape and Islands homeowners covered under the FAIR plan — the state-backed insurer of last resort and provider for most Vineyard homeowners.

Following months of negotiations and an hour-long executive session on Tuesday night, Chilmark selectmen announced a plan to purchase a .72 acre lot off Tabor House Road. The purchase will allow the town to go forward with plans to build the Middle Line Road affordable housing project.

According to the plan, which is subject to approval from voters, the town will buy the lot from Beverly Gillis Jaksa for $275,000. The purchase will allow the town to create a new access road to the affordable housing project from Tabor House Road.

The Permanent Endowment Fund for Martha’s Vineyard announced this week that it has created a new fund and will hire its first full-time executive director, efforts designed to raise awareness of the organization and make more funds available more quickly on the Island.

Erik Blake Takes Over

As Chief of Police Chiefs

Oak Bluffs Police Chief Erik G. Blake was sworn in Wednesday, Jan. 9 as the president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.

The organization consists of police chiefs and police excecutives from 96 cities and towns in southeastern Massachusetts.

Chief Blake previously held the position of first vice president. He has been a member of the organization since becoming chief of the Oak Bluffs Police Department.

MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

During the last few weeks, North Water and Daggett streets have been turned into a construction site as the electric and telephone lines are being buried underground. The ferry line has moved back and forth between Daggett street and Dock street, depending on where they’re digging that day, so it’s been a challenge to know which route to come down to the ferry.

KATHIE CASE

508-627-5349

(kcase1@verizon.net)

First, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. My New Year’s resolution is to figure out how to take care of my computer when it goes haywire. It usually wins but eventually I get it back where I can work it.

NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)

I want to warn you there is going to be a custody battle in my neighborhood that will make Britney Spears and K-Fed look like United Parents of America.

HOLLY NADLER

508-693-3880

(sunporch@vineyard.net)

In the Agatha Christie novels someone always gets around to observing, “De mortuis nisi nil bonum,” which means, as we all know, “Speak nothing but good of the dead.” This is always in response to a police inspector (or Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot) asking, “Why would anyone want to kill your Great-Aunt Beatrice?” The object of this query always starts with the “De mortuis” bit before launching into an all-out character assasination.

For Rick Karney, director of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, 2008 is becoming the Year of the Blue Mussel.

In recent weeks, Mr. Karney’s group has received positive news about the prospects of raising blue mussels in local waters.

While the Island group already raises juvenile bay scallops, quahaugs and oysters for participating towns on a regular basis, the organization also is participating in a blue-mussel experiment that could expand aquaculture to the open water.