Starting soon, Cronig's markets will offer an eco-friendly bagging alternative at the check-out counter: polypropylene shopping bags.

Cronig's bought 5,000 of the bags from 1 Bag at a Time, a company started last year by Aquinnah summer resident Lisa Foster.

"We're hoping that eventually we'll be using less of the paper bags," Cronig's general manager Sarah McKay said. "That will be cost saving for us, but also refuse saving for the Island - less will be ending up at the recycling center or the dump."

Change Eyed in School Pact

Up-Island Regional Agreement Could See a Major Overhaul if Aquinnah
Has Its Way; Cost Remains the Issue

By IAN FEIN

With tensions brewing and the fate of the Up-Island Regional School
District back in the spotlight, the regional school committee will meet
twice next week to consider changes to the agreement that formed the
district. And after the release of two separate financial studies about
the district this spring, school committee members are feeling pressure
from opposing fronts.

Chilmark Man May Plead Guilty in Rare Map Theft

By JAMES KINSELLA

A Chilmark man is expected to plead guilty next Thursday to one or
more thefts of rare maps worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,
according to published reports in Connecticut newspapers.

Both the New Haven Register and the Hartford Courant have reported
that E. Forbes Smiley 3rd, a dealer in rare maps who lives on North
Road, may make pleas in back-to-back appearances in U.S. District Court
and state superior court in New Haven.

The town of Oak Bluffs has at least 10 employees working under
personal service contracts, multiple year employment agreements
negotiated on an individual basis that usually reward the worker with
additional perks and a higher level of pay than other municipal and
union employees.

Piano notes ring out and fill the empty main room of the Outerland nightclub. Rather than enjoying the sunny Monday afternoon, the five-member cast of Ruthless!, an Off-Broadway musical that debuted here Thursday evening, is in full costume.

The epic six-year battle over control of the Martha's Vineyard
Airport has ended not with a bang, but with the mailing of checks.

In the end, the court case at the center of the battle cost at least
$608,374 - in payments to the two airport managers who brought the
lawsuit and in legal fees charged by the attorneys.

Patrolman to Chief: Meet Timothy Stobie

By MAX HART

You can call him chief, you can call him acting chief - you
can even call him police chief pro tempore if you must.

Just don't call Timothy Stobie, Tisbury's acting police
chief, newsworthy.

"I have never considered myself newsworthy, I can tell you
that," he said Wednesday. "Must be a slow news week."

A Middlesex Superior Court judge last week upheld the validity of a unique townwide planning and zoning district in Aquinnah.

The decision, which was entered on Friday by the Hon. Julian T. Houston, found in favor of the town and the Martha's Vineyard Commission against a developer who is seeking to open access to and subdivide parcels of vacant land off Moshup Trail. The developer, James J. Decoulos, has filed more than 10 different legal challenges against the town, a number of which are still ongoing.

Power Research Institute Challenges Practicality of Tidal Energy
Project

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

Engineering analysis has raised questions about
the practicality of a proposed tidal energy farm near the Middle Ground
in Vineyard Sound.

Roger Bedard, ocean energy leader at the Electric Power Research
Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., said the tidal flow through the Sound is
not fast enough to make a tidal turbine energy project feasible.

Boat Line Pursues Government Grants

Oak Bluffs Ferry Terminal Renovation Is Delayed Until Steamship
Authority Acquires State and Federal Funding

By JAMES KINSELLA

The $10.1 million renovation of the Oak Bluffs ferry terminal and
several other major Steamship Authority projects will remain on hold
until the boat line succeeds in landing state or federal government
grants.