With less than four minutes left in the Martha's Vineyard-Nantucket football game Saturday, several Vineyard players snuck up behind special teams, linebacker and tight end coach Stephen Barbee and doused him with a large Gatorade bucket full of ice water.

The traditional prank was a fitting end to the afternoon for a coach who saw all three of his units play a starring role in the Vineyard's convincing 27-12 win over the archrival Whalers on a bright but chilly day at McCarthy Field.

West Tisbury Voters Veto Legal Bills in Tax Case, Reject Town Hall
Funds

By IAN FEIN

An overflow crowd of West Tisbury voters this week delivered a
stinging mandate to town officials, rejecting a $1.8 million cost
overrun on the town hall renovation project and $250,000 in legal bills
for the ongoing tax case between town assessors and resident William W.
Graham.

The special town meeting on Wednesday night saw a record turnout of
288 voters, more than attended the annual town meeting in April.

School Budget Talks Highlight Steady Rise in Cost of Education

By RACHEL KOVAC

The merits of forming a single regional school district came to the
forefront of an all-Island school committee meeting this week, as an
increase in the budget for the Vineyard schools superintendent prompted
discussion once again about ways to manage rising costs in education.

With a town hall renovation project in tatters, unpaid bills stacked high and a legal expense account on empty, the question left hanging in West Tisbury yesterday was: What next?

Despite warnings from selectman John Early and assessor Michael Colaneri at the special town meeting on Wednesday night that a no vote on the legal bills would lead to litigation and cause the assessors' attorney to resign, yesterday there were no immediate signs that either were imminent.

With over 50 years of inter-Island competition and more than 25 years of battling for the coveted Island Cup, it is hard to believe there is a fresh angle when it comes to the Vineyard-Nantucket high school football rivalry.

What storyline remains to be written?

Home Port Purchase Set for Decision

IAN FEIN and JAMES KINSELLA

For decades, the Home Port restaurant in Menemsha has been the
epitome of a traditional Yankee seaside restaurant, with its lobster
dinners and stunning sunset views.

On Monday night, Chilmark voters will decide whether to set aside
another Yankee tradition - frugality - and buy the Home Port
from owners Will Holtham and Madeline Moore for $3.9 million.

Construction on Islander Replacement Resumes at Full Tilt After
Hurricane

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

While work has resumed on the Steamship Authority's new Island
Home car and passenger ferry, the vessel will not be delivered until a
year from now.

The vessel, which is slated to replace the Islander on the
Vineyard-Woods Hole run, originally had been scheduled for delivery next
June.

After two months of studying a scientific report documenting a severe decline in key stocks of fish from Georges Bank to the Gulf of Maine, the New England Fishery Management Council this week was unable to agree on new measures to protect the resource from overfishing.

Meeting in West Tisbury Marks Town Turning Point

By IAN FEIN

West Tisbury voters will gather next Wednesday night for what could
mark a turning point in the rural town where landowners pay the highest
average property tax bills in the region.

Island Veteran Reflects on Meaning of Holiday

As the Vineyard joins the rest of the country this morning in
observance of Veterans' Day, Curtis S. Jones of Vineyard Haven
will stand quietly on the sidelines and watch the parade in Oak Bluffs.
Mr. Jones is a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. The
88-year-old veteran served his country in Europe for three years during
World War II and spent 26 months in a German prisoner of war camp in
Poland. The camp was called OFLAG 64.