It is 2 a.m. on South Beach in Edgartown on an overcast and chilly
evening in early June.

Summer Beach Party Culture Endures

By JIM HICKEY

It is 2 a.m. on South Beach in Edgartown on an overcast and chilly
evening in early June.

The Fourth of July may not hit for another few days, but the heat
already has been turned on in the kitchen.

The 10th annual Independence Day barbecue is set to start at 4 p.m.
on the lawn of the Dr. Daniel Fisher House in Edgartown.

Chilmark Votes Its Assessment for the Regional High School, Marking
Final Town Needed; Edgartown Lacks Quorum

Two days shy of the start of the new fiscal year, the Martha's
Vineyard Regional High School has a budget. Chilmark voters became
heroes last night when they said yes to an amended high school budget,
marking the fourth and final town approval needed in a tangled regional
school assessment odyssey that has dragged on for months.

During a standing-room-only special town meeting in Oak Bluffs that
featured more emotion than a game-winning home run, voters on Tuesday
defeated a motion to rescind money to expand and improve the baseball
park at Veira Park.

The decision proved one of the closest town meeting votes in Oak
Bluffs history.

Almost 40 years ago, after a careful assessment of the state of the
Viet Nam war, Walter Cronkite delivered an editorial on CBS, saying it
was time for a negotiated withdrawal.

President Lyndon Johnson, in response, was famously quoted as
saying: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle
America." Five weeks later, the President announced he would not
run for reelection.

It was the kind of early summer afternoon that was made for
baseball.

The smell of freshly cut grass blended with that of grilling hots
dogs and hamburgers during the Vineyard Little League championships at
Veira Park on Saturday, while the dust kicked up by the infielders was
quickly cleared away by a swiftly moving ocean breeze.

Commission Delays Vote on Oyster Bar

Land Use Subcommittee Recommends Against Oak Bluffs Eatery
Expansion, Leaving Full Commission in Doubt

By IAN FEIN

The Martha's Vineyard Commission last Thursday unanimously
approved a downtown Edgartown subdivision and a members-only tennis and
racquetball club off State Road in West Tisbury.

Votes on School Budget Refuse District Purchase Come Before Two
Towns

By MIKE SECCOMBE and JULIA RAPPOPORT

The approval of extra money to fund the Martha's Vineyard
Regional High School budget will be recommended to Edgartown and
Chilmark voters alike, but the prospects for the approval of more than
$1 million to buy land to expand the regional refuse transfer station
are looking less certain for at least one of this week's special
town meetings.

Earlier this month, the state reclaimed the brush breaker fire truck
it loaned to the town of West Tisbury several years ago to fight fires
in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.

West Tisbury fire chief Manuel Estrella 3rd said the repossession is
just one example of how the state is shirking its responsibility for
caretaking the 5,168-acre state forest.