Tisbury voters cheered like they had just landed after a turbulent
flight when the last warrant article came up just before the stroke of
midnight last night, wrapping up three days and about ten and a half
hours of annual town meeting, which began on Tuesday.

When the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) broke ground on a community center building in the spring of 2004, tribal leaders envisioned it as an important gathering place, and said young members would be shooting hoops inside the new gymnasium by the end of the summer.

Three years later, the building is still unoccupied, sitting half-finished on tribal lands.

Voters in West Tisbury Decide Against School District Pullout

By IAN FEIN

In a strong show of support for the value of regional education,
West Tisbury voters at their annual town meeting this week opted to stay
in the Up-Island Regional School District and fully fund their share of
the $7.5 million district budget.

The two votes went against the recommendations of the town finance
committee, which has long been a critic of district finances.

State Approves Cape Wind Plan

Secretary of Environment Clears Jim Gordon's Wind Farm;
Federal Review Expected to Last Through Year

By IAN FEIN

The state's top environmental official ruled last week that
developers of the Cape Wind project have fulfilled their environmental
review requirements on the state level, and that the offshore wind farm
proposed for Nantucket Sound would provide significant benefits to air
quality and energy reliability in New England.

The cost of living on Martha's Vineyard is about 60 per cent
above the national average, and housing costs are almost double,
according to a study carried out by the Martha's Vineyard
Commission.

Across all indices, or categories measured, from groceries to health
care to transport and utilities, the Island was far more expensive than
the national average. The standout figure was housing, which scored 196,
or 96 per cent above the average.

Energy Question Goes to Voters

As Climate Change Takes Over the Conscience of a Nation, Vineyard
Towns to Decide Fate of Energy District

By IAN FEIN

When Island residents file into auditoriums next week to conduct the
annual business of their towns, voters in three towns will face a common
question and a possible turning point.

They will be asked whether they wish to take the Vineyard's
energy future into their own hands.

Peter Martell, owner of the Wesley Hotel in Oak Bluffs, is in deep
trouble with his summer staffing. He opens for the season next month,
and he has just learned he will not get the staff he needs to make the
place run.

"I'm opening May 3 and I've got three desk clerks
and I need seven. I don't know where the other four are coming
from. I need five chambermaids; I've got two," he said.

Naval reservist Matthew Bradley of West Tisbury returned home
Saturday afternoon from a 10-month volunteer tour of duty that included
seven months in Iraq, serving as a medical corpsman with a U.S. Marines
unit.

Wastewater officials in Oak Bluffs say that an article on
Tuesday's annual town meeting warrant would bring necessary
changes to the department, some critics are questioning the logic of a
proposal that would hand considerably more power to the wastewater
commission.

Edgartown Voters to Confront Increases in School Spending

By MIKE SECCOMBE

Edgartown residents will be presented with a proposed operating
budget increase of some 5.4 per cent, and ballot questions costing a
total of about $3.9 million at the April 10 town meeting.

Total expenditures for the pending fiscal year, however, are
projected to increase only $245,000, or 0.8 per cent over the current
fiscal year, due to a 30 per cent reduction in requested articles this
year.