NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)

Back from Iraq: West Tisbury school principal Mike Halt has returned to the Island. Another marine, Duncan MacMullen, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Class of 2004, got off the boat last Monday morning and was greeted by a color guard, fire trucks, the Tisbury police chief, and many friends and well-wishers. Thank you both for your service and welcome home.

Adam Arrives

Sarah Rubick and Jody Mendez of West Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Adam Joseph Mendez, born on Sept. 27 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Adam weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces at birth.

JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

The weather was delightful last Saturday and Sunday, allowing folks to finish many outdoor chores started during the week. A lot of people attended the harvest potluck dinner at the agricultural hall last Saturday night. Many people came to the Antique Power Show and the other events that preceeded the dinner.

The latest round in a dispute pitting a landowner’s right of access against conservation values played out like a game of cat and mouse in town hall, the courts and the woods of Edgartown last week.

It began a little before 10 a.m. on Friday morning, when Paul Elliott, the president of the Edgartown Meadows Road Association, found workmen cutting down trees along Middle Line Road.

Correction

A caption in the Friday, Sept. 28 Gazette that appeared beneath a photograph of a charter fishing group aboard the Tomahawk II misidentified three people. The correct identification, left to right, is Charles Ogletree, Christine Dunn, Buddy Vanderhoop, Thomas Menino, Paul Foster and Cecily Foster.

The Gazette regrets the error.

A longstanding and unprecedented gift of 156 acres at Quansoo Farm in Chilmark from the late Florence (Flipper) Harris to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation is now complete, leaders at the foundation announced this week.

Donated to Sheriff’s Meadow by Mrs. Harris over a period of years beginning more than a quarter century ago, the Quansoo Farm gift is the second largest land bequest in the history of Sheriff’s Meadow.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team is having a good week.

In addition to rolling over Littleton/Broomfield at home on Friday by a final of 29-14 to remain undefeated on the season, a news crew from NBC Sports is traveling with the team this week and taping a segment that will be aired later this year during a halftime segment of the network’s NFL Sunday Night Football program.

Two of the Island’s century-old lighthouses are undergoing significant restoration.

The East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs now shines with a fresh coat of white paint after having been refurbished inside and out at a cost of $140,000. The Edgartown Light is only weeks away from being completed at a cost of $250,000.

The restoration is a milestone and benefit for both Island towns, according to Matthew Stackpole, executive director of Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

The Edgartown School can rest easy for the moment.

Numbers released by the state Department of Education last week show that the school passed its annual yearly progress (AYP) requirement on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test in both English language arts and mathematics. This means that the state will not be stepping in to take corrective action.

Now it’s the West Tisbury School and the Oak Bluffs School that must focus on bringing up their test scores next year. The two schools did not meet their AYP in English this year.

A straw vote in West Tisbury on Wednesday night saw overwhelming approval for restoration of the Mill Pond, following a public forum hosted by the town selectmen. Residents who attended the forum also suggested that a restoration plan include an ongoing maintenance component.