Sheriff Took Training with Tisbury Police

Controversy Over Nantucket Sheriff Spills Onto Vineyard Turf with
News of Assault Weapon Instruction Here

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

The Nantucket County sheriff, mired in controversy, including over
his recent decision to buy assault weapons, obtained training and
certification for the weapons several weeks ago from the Tisbury police
department.

MCAS Scores Stay Even; High School Math Rises for Fourth Year
Running

By RACHEL KOVAC

Vineyard MCAS scores remained relatively flat overall this year,
although math scores at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School
and West Tisbury eighth grade rocketed well above state averages.

Scores for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam
were released by the Department of Education Wednesday, pushing
educators into a tailspin as they rushed to analyze the results for
their students, teachers and communities.

Martha's Vineyard Hospital leaders told the Oak Bluffs
selectmen Tuesday they are confident in their fund-raising abilities and
plan to begin the permitting process for the $42 million hospital
building project soon.

Vineyard Residents Pour Out Stories of Tick Illnesses Before
Wildlife Agency

By IAN FEIN

After listening to a crowd of Vineyard residents describe the high
prevalence of tick-borne diseases on the Island as a public health
crisis, the chairman of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries &
Wildlife board promised this week that the state agency will take action
to address the Dukes County deer population.

Frank Words Punctuate County Discussion

By JAMES KINSELLA

A planned goal-setting session for the Dukes County Commission was
interrupted abruptly this week when county commissioner Leonard Jason
Jr. of Chilmark questioned whether the county would even continue to
exist.

"The first thing you've got to do is determine if there
will be county government," Mr. Jason declared at the regular
county commission meeting Wednesday night.

The luxury steamship The City of Columbus sleeps deep in the shifting sands at the edge of Devil's Bridge, about a mile from the Gay Head Cliffs. The 275-foot vessel sank more than a century ago in one of the worst maritime disasters to occur in Vineyard waters, and last Sunday, on a clear autumn morning, three divers went down to see her for the first time.

Buried mostly, the ship is a shadow of herself, and only a few on the waterfront know precisely where she sits.

Chappy Landowners File Formal Appeal to State Tax Board

By IAN FEIN

More than two dozen Chappaquiddick landowners took their property
tax disputes to the state last week, filing formal appeals of their town
property assessments at the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board.

The 26 property owners are challenging the values of 46 individual
parcels, currently assessed by the town of Edgartown at a total of $116
million.

Taking Cues from Nature's Design

By TOM DRESSER

Native plants are the keynote of the landscaping at Up-Island
Cronig's in West Tisbury. There is woodland with viburnum, beach
plum, winterberry and high bush blueberry, as well as aroria and
shadbush. An intermittent wetland can be found by the parking lot drain,
where beetlebung, shadbush, iris and joepye weed flourish. Native pine,
sheep fescue, inkberry, switchgrass and little blue stem grow on the
edge of State Road.

Two Suspended County Guards Set for Criminal Trials in Court

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

Two guards suspended from the Dukes County House of Correction are
scheduled to be tried separately next month in Dukes County Superior
Court on a charge of conspiring to persuade one inmate to attack
another.

One of the suspended guards, Teejay Roginski, is set to face trial
Oct. 5. The other suspended guard, Michael Trance, is scheduled to go to
trial Oct. 17.

Gabe Bergeron almost had a great story about the one that got away.

Fishing Sunday morning with his father, Mark Bergeron, at the annual
Kids' Derby on the Steamship Authority wharf in Oak Bluffs, the
nine-year-old angler hooked a large dogfish that locked him in an
intense eight-minute battle. But the pratfalls of pier fishing cost the
young fisherman his catch.