On Call: Hospital Emergency Team Cares for Island with Skill and
Commitment

By MANDY LOCKE

A heat haze hangs over the Island, and gray-haired men chat about
the need for rain as they make their way to the door. Just inside, a
visitor leans over the counter and jokingly asks for a cure for summer.
A nurse replies: "We have a pill in the form of a ferry ticket off
the Island."

The scanner is quiet. No one rushes. No tears. No sign of crisis.
Not yet.

But the day is young for the emergency department staff at
Martha's Vineyard Hospital.

Martha's Vineyard Community Services sees the writing on the wall.

Just across Vineyard Sound and Buzzard's Bay, the Center for Health and Human Services of New Bedford is closing its outpatient counseling operation - turning away 600 clients after not being able to pull itself out of the red.

SSA Members Express Concern Over Troubled High Speed Ferry

By JULIA WELLS

After two years of breakdowns and mechanical problems on the
high-speed ferry Flying Cloud, the Steamship Authority chief executive
officer said last week that he had negotiated a nine-month extension on
the warranty for the ferry's engine.

"Although the relationship is frayed and strained, the company
continues to provide support," boat line CEO Fred C. Raskin told
board members at the monthly SSA meeting on Nantucket.

A 38-year-old man from Watertown drowned early Saturday morning
after he fell off the bulkhead at Oak Bluffs harbor and into the water,
according to police.

Bids for Tisbury Wastewater Plant Arrive at $1 Million Above
Expected Price Tag

By JOSHUA SABATINI

The lowest bid to build a wastewater treatment facility in Tisbury
has come in more than a million dollars higher than anticipated, raising
financial concerns among town officials and residents that the project
cost will stretch beyond its expected $8.3 million price tag.

The Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust confirmed this week that it will buy Union Chapel, the storied Oak Bluffs chapel whose rich history forms a distinct chapter in the annals of the Vineyard as a summer resort.

They came by the thousands. The word at the annual Feast of the Holy
Ghost was that on Martha's Vineyard, everyone can be Portuguese
for a weekend.

Chilmark Growth Points to Housing Problems

By MANDY LOCKE

Driving along South Road in Chilmark, classic New England homes dot
the main up-Island thoroughfare, remnants of a rural modesty common to
the historic fishing and farming community of 850 year-round residents.
But clusters of mailboxes along the roadway indicate a housing density
tucked just behind the wooded roadway facade.

Steamship Authority Board Members Clash Over Chief Executive Officer
Role

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Struggling with issues of governance and lines of authority, a
sharply divided Steamship Authority board of governors failed to find
common ground yesterday in an executive session that will ultimately
determine the future for boat line chief executive officer Fred C.
Raskin, who has been on the job for just four months.

Claiming a mandate from town voters that supports turning the southern woodlands into a private luxury golf course, Oak Bluffs selectmen this week officially joined forces with Connecticut developer Corey Kupersmith in a plan aimed at making the golf club a reality - even if it means leaving the Martha's Vineyard Commission.