Road Crews Tackle Epic Storm Cleanup

Highway Departments in All Six Towns Labor Tirelessly Around the
Clock to Remove Mountains of Snow

By JAMES KINSELLA

Vineyard road crews worked through the teeth of last weekend's
storm, battling white-out conditions and drifting snow to keep the
public ways clear.

When the snow slowed, workers in down-Island towns began hauling
away tons of the white stuff, building small mountains in designated
dumping areas.

Amid an escalating political climate around the controversial Cape Wind project, the Martha's Vineyard Commission decided last week to finally step into the fray.

While commission members were clear they would not take a position on the project itself, they unanimously agreed to take up as a cause the inadequate regulatory framework for permitting offshore wind farms.

Wastewater Treatment Workers Suffer from Mercury Exposure

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

Two employees at the Oaks Bluffs wastewater treatment plant are now
receiving medical treatment for exposure to mercury after they handled a
chemical at the plant that contained the toxic substance.

The exposure was first reported in late December, but town officials
confirmed yesterday that it may in fact reach back for as long as two
years.

The worst blizzard in several decades dumped at least two feet of snow on the Vineyard last weekend, leaving roads impassable, homes isolated and emergency workers in a state of exhaustion.

The northeaster which began late Saturday night and continued into Sunday with gale force winds and gusts up to 70 miles per hour paralyzed the Island Sunday and Monday, and in the case of schools, right on through the week.

Officials Announce Delay in State Forest Clearing; Restoration Plan
Altered

By TOM DUNLOP

State environmental officials said this week that they will delay
and radically change a plan to clear more than 500 acres of planted
trees in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.

School Study Group Sees Little Progress

Task Force Charged with Fiscal Probe of Up-Island Regional School
District Hits One Roadblock After Another

By IAN FEIN

A study group charged with evaluating the finances of the Up-Island
Regional School District hit yet another snag this week, as the deadline
for consultant proposals came and went without a single response.

The financial analysis was supposed to be ready for annual town
meetings in April - but that timeline now appears well out of
reach.

Oak Bluffs voters this week narrowly defeated a proposal to include the North Bluff section of town in the Cottage City Historic District.

At Tuesday night's special town meeting, voters also argued over how much money a resident could earn and still qualify for town-subsidized property for affordable housing.

In the end, voters opted by majority voice vote to qualify households making up to 140 per cent of median income in Dukes County - a level that advocates said would include people such as teachers and police officers in the program.

Against a backdrop of escalating property values and the high cost
of construction, housing starts on the Vineyard fell in 2004 for the
second straight year.

A total of 1,210 building permits from the Island's six towns
were issued in 2004, down seven per cent from the 2003 total of 1,300
and eight per cent from the 1,311 permits granted in 2002. Four of the
Vineyard's six towns saw drops in the number of total building
permits issued; only Aquinnah and West Tisbury saw increases.

As Martha's Vineyard approached and then passed the millennium, the Island could rely on one wintertime certainty: Lola's, the restaurant at the bend on Seaview avenue in Oak Bluffs, would be open for business.

The 200-seat restaurant was a magnet for off-season life, a place where families looking to eat, couples looking to dance, and amateur hockey players looking to unwind all felt at home.

But this winter, the parking lot at Lola's is quieter than the waters of Vineyard Sound lapping the shore a few hundred feet away.

Pat Jenkinson's lobster boat Solitude sits idle at the dock in Menemsha. The last time he took the boat fishing was right after Christmas, and it wasn't much of a trip. Mr. Jenkinson says he won't go fishing now until spring. "There is nothing out there," he says.

The shaky wooden dock is stacked with green wire lobster pots from another season. Sparrows fly in and out of the pots. Captain Jenkinson says he knows of at least one local hawk that pays close attention.