Student Protest Against Iraq War Triggers Suspensions in Clash with
Administration
A peaceful student protest against war in Iraq bubbled into a
spontaneous walkout at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.
Oak Bluffs Police Receive Overtime Pay
By CHRIS BURRELL
Oak Bluffs police officers are about to receive the kind of windfall
most employees only dream of - getting paid for hours never
worked.
Acting decisively on a grievance filed by the police union back in
September 2001, an arbitrator last month ruled that former police chief
Joseph Carter wrongly bypassed regular police officers when it came to
filling overtime shifts.
Iraq Countdown Separates Young Vineyard Family
By MANDY LOCKE
Seventeen hours before Jared Meader joined his comrades in Western
Massachusetts, he sipped a whiskey sour, chatted with his buddies from
the sheriff's department and helped his daughter, Hailey, grab a
Cheeto just beyond the reach of her two-year-old arms.
MVC Election Wins Approval
State House Compromise Clears Path for Special Vote in May on a
Petition in Oak Bluffs to Secede from Commission
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
After a week of back-room politics on Beacon Hill that left one Cape
and Islands legislator openly fuming at what he called "outside
muscle," a petition by the town of Oak Bluffs to withdraw from the
Martha's Vineyard Commission is now set to come before voters at a
special election in the middle of May.
The election will be held on May 13.
Island Education Leaders Fear Budget Cut Layoffs
By CHRIS BURRELL
Bracing for the possibility of even deeper cuts to state aid for
schools, Island school leaders now say they must consider laying off
teachers and trimming both academic and extra-curricular programs.
The dire forecast came this week in reaction to Gov. Mitt
Romney's proposed budget, which included significant cutbacks to
the Vineyard's two regional school districts - up-Island and
the high school.
Five years ago, Kim Angell found herself one step away from being a
welfare mom.
"My husband disappeared. I had no job, three children under
the age of six, and it was January," Ms. Angell said this week.
"I had no money to pay my mortgage, let alone child care."
The state wants to spend $3.25 million replacing the Big and Little Bridges on Beach Road along Sengekontacket Pond with concrete structures, but last week at a public hearing in the Oak Bluffs School, a handful of Islanders tried convincing state engineers to tread lightly because these are no ordinary bridges.
The two bridges built of wood are as beloved as the covered bridges of Vermont, said Thea Hansen, a resident of Oak Bluffs who handles seasonal real estate rentals.
They're recreational destinations for fishermen and children, said Kenneth Abbott of Edgartown.
Four-Town Refuse District Takes Initiatives to Put Financial Affairs
in Better Order
By MANDY LOCKE
Heeding their auditor's stern warnings, the Martha's
Vineyard Regional Refuse and Resource Recovery District is doing some
financial housekeeping this month.
In the weeks following auditor John J. O'Brien's report
of sloppy bookkeeping and incomplete records, the refuse district
personnel subcommittee is shuffling administrative staff roles.
Island Lambs Have a Spring in Every Step
By C.K. WOLFSON
The snow-covered pasture is a soft, white-on-white expanse curving
under a cold, gray sky. Outside Pam Goff's old Chilmark barn, five
black-faced, wool-plumped ewes mill around on the straw and mud,
bleating in urgent, slow-motion coughs to the skinny-legged lambs
nuzzling against them.
Oak Bluffs Home Rule Petition Inspires Hot Debate in Hearing Hastily
Convened by Legislature
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
BOSTON - Small in number but passionate in expression, a
compact assembly of Vineyard residents traveled to Beacon Hill this week
to testify at a hastily called legislative hearing on a petition by the
town of Oak Bluffs to withdraw from the Martha's Vineyard
Commission.
"I'm here because the integrity of the Martha's
Vineyard Commission is now being threatened," said West Tisbury
resident Barbara Day.
