It is a gamble, of sorts, that most Island businesses are forced to
take each year.
When seasonal employees shuffle off at the end of each summer to
either return home or to college or to explore farflung corners of the
world, employers have no guarantee the same workers will return at the
start of the busy season next year.
Boatline and Key Union Find Accord on Contract
By MIKE SECCOMBE
After a standoff lasting four years, the Steamship Authority and one
of its major maritime unions are expected to have a new workplace
contract within a month.
Agreement between boat line senior managers and the Marine Officers
Beneficial Association, which represents some 230 unlicensed deck hands,
was reached last Friday night, after two days at the table with a
state-appointed fact finder.
After a standoff lasting four years, the Steamship Authority and one
of its major maritime unions are expected to have a new workplace
contract within a month.
Agreement between boat line senior managers and the Marine Officers
Beneficial Association, which represents some 230 unlicensed deck hands,
was reached last Friday night, after two days at the table with a
state-appointed fact finder.
Island Plan Moves Ahead with Forums to Provoke More Public
Involvement
By IAN FEIN
Roughly 200 new homes are built on the Vineyard each year, many of
them out of scale with surrounding neighborhoods or sprawling into once
rural and open areas.
Eelgrass beds, which provide breeding habitat for fish and
shellfish, have nearly disappeared from Edgartown Great Pond and
Sengekontacket Pond in the last decade, and have decreased alarmingly
- by over 50 per cent - in Tashmoo and Lagoon Ponds.
Out-of-control classrooms, last-laugh pranks and papers being thrown to the wind as students stampede through the double doors after the last bell: those are images that come to mind when thinking about the last day of school.
Ambitious Vision for Downtown Edgartown
By MIKE SECCOMBE
The old Navigator restaurant in Edgartown - she ain't
what she used to be.
And for all the survivors of overpriced watered-down cocktails and
stuffed quahaugs that landed in the stomach like a lead sinker on a
codfish rig - that may not be such a bad thing.
While special town meetings in late spring or early summer often are
ho-hum affairs called to approve routine housekeeping matters and
spending items at the end of the fiscal year, Tuesday's meeting in
Oak Bluffs could pack as much punch as the town's annual town
meeting in April.
The special town meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of
the Oak Bluffs school.
The loss of habitat which has caused bird numbers to plummet across
America in recent decades has had an impact on the Vineyard, but not
nearly as heavily as in other places, according to local experts.
MVC Votes to Approve Chilmark Housing Plan for Middle Line Road
By IAN FEIN
Holding to its stance that the Island's dire need for
affordable housing trumps other planning principles, the Martha's
Vineyard Commission last week approved a town-sponsored subdivision
tucked in the woods of Chilmark.
They don't play for money. They don't play for their
team or their hometown or even their country. In fact, they don't
even play for a trophy.
And while this sometimes silly and always social group who play the
up-Island brand of table tennis called Quinapong may seem more
interested in chatting with their fellow players than actually playing
- don't be fooled by their casual manner. When the plastic
ball drops they are all business.
