Time Machine Terms
May 10, 1996
Call It Quaint If You Must, But Menemsha Remains a Fishing Village
Menemsha fishermen rise with the sun. On a cool, clear morning this week, the lobstermen came down one by one to take their boats to sea.
Pat Jenkinson came down to his lobster boat Solitude. Herbert Hancock’s boat Billie H. began with a roar of its diesel engine.
May 3, 1996
Plan to Establish First Vietnam Memorial Gathers Quiet Support from Across Island
It’s been more than a generation since this country sent its soldiers to battle in the jungles of a small country called Vietnam, and there are many Islanders who believe their community has yet to pay proper tribute to those who served.
March 29, 1996
Chilmarkers Ponder the Question: How Big Should the New School Be?
The Menemsha School still has a great old-fashioned school bell, sounded daily by a rope that dangles down from the roof.
Children of different grades still sit in class side by side and play together in a playground bordered by a foresty area they call "twiggyland." Many townspeople were educated here, in the same place as their parents and grandparents.
Today, the challenge to Chilmark is maintaining the special qualities of this rural school while making room for growth.
March 22, 1996
New Cronig’s Up-Island Store Serves Vineyard’s Expanded Customer Base
As our community grows, so grows the grocery store business up-Island. The new Up-Island Cronig’s Market opened for business last Friday with no fanfare. The new 7,500 square foot steel and wood structure, not far from the site of the original building, welcomed its first customers.
March 15, 1996
Hebrew Center Dedicated In Solemn Island Service
In a three-hour ceremony marked by community celebration, joyous music and traditional Jewish rituals, the new Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center was consecrated Saturday morning in Vineyard Haven.
The consecration of the new center, built in the past year, attracted an audience of more than 200 Vineyarders, mostly congregation members, but also people of other faiths who came to honor both the building and the growing Island Jewish community.
March 1, 1996
Charter School Applications Show Strong Island Interest
The Island's new charter school has received 91 admission applications for its first semester this fall, officials said this week.
Applications came from every Island town, plus Chappaquiddick, and represent all eligible age groups.
"I think it's exciting," said school board member Charlotte Costa. "We gave out 140-some applications. To get these back is pretty good, given that it's a new school and it's something different. I was happy with that."
February 23, 1996
The Gazette Launches Web Site on the Internet
The Vineyard Gazette has established a Worldwide Web page on the Internet. This service for customers and friends of the Vineyard gives readers from here and abroad an opportunity to connect to the newspaper in a new way.
February 23, 1996
Heritage Trail: Island Project Shows Story of Black History
In the Waterview Farm area of Oak Bluffs is a boulder as tall as a man. Back in the 1790s, the Rev. John Saunders delivered his sermons here, from atop “Pulpit Rock.” Mr. Saunders, who was African-American, was one of the first people to preach Methodism on Martha’s Vineyard.
But for anyone who doesn’t know the story, this is just a rock in an Oak Bluffs subdiyision. In fact, many sites, though significant to the Vineyard’s African-American history, sit unmarked.
Today, some Island people want to change that.
February 9, 1996
Vineyard Public Charter School Opens Admissions for Fall Term
Nearly a year has passed since the state approved a charter school here, establishing an alternative educational plan for Island families. This week, organizers of the school are inviting parents to consider and maybe choose this new option for their children.
Charter school board members will distribute applications and answer questions Tuesday afternoon at the Wintertide Coffeehouse. This session will run from 4 to 7:30 p.m. in an open house-style format, and parents who are interested in the school are urged to attend.
January 26, 1996
Chief Justice of State Land Court Rejects Herring Creek Challenge to Zoning Law
In a landmark decision which marks a sweeping victory for the Vineyard and deals a crippling defeat to the Herring Creek Farm Trust, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Land Court upheld three-acre zoning in the town of Edgartown yesterday. The decision is believed to be the most important legal opinion for the Vineyard since the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the Martha's Vineyard Commission on the Island Properties case nearly two decades ago.
