Oak Bluffs officials were surprised to learn this week that town
administrator Michael Dutton approved a pay raise and job
reclassification for building inspector Jerry Wiener in October without
the approval or knowledge of the selectmen.

After posting a 17-3-2 record, the Martha's Vineyard high
school boys' soccer celebrated its first conference title this
past fall - a feat even more impressive considering it was the
team's first year as a member of the South Coast Conference.

Nobody could have guessed at the time the title might have been the
first and last for the Vineyard - both for the soccer team and the
seven other teams from the high school allowed into the conference on an
interim basis in 2005.

As 2007 gets under way, the Vineyard schools are swimming in
challenges.

The West Tisbury School principal left for active Marine duty last
weekend, the Edgartown School principal leaves today after resigning in
November, the Oak Bluffs School principal will take a leave of absence
next year and one of two assistant superintendents will retire at the
end of this school year.

After a busy week on the floor, Cong. Willliam Delahunt could not refrain from putting his feet up on his desk to rest. "It's been frenetic," he said last Friday, taking a short break in his House office across the street from the Capitol.

Boatline Eases Coupon Rules

Steamship Authority Governors Adopt New Ticket Book Policy,
Encouraging Foot Passengers to Use Discounted Fares

By IAN FEIN

Steamship Authority discount ticket book holders will now be able to
share their passenger coupons with friends and family members and use
more than one ticket on a single ferry trip, according to new
regulations adopted by the boat line this week. Both practices were
previously disallowed.

Retired Edgartown School principal Edward J. Jerome will take over
on Tuesday as interim principal of West Tisbury School, superintendent
of schools Dr. James H. Weiss announced this week. West Tisbury School
principal Michael Halt, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine
Corps Reserves, leaves this weekend for active duty in California and
Iraq.

The Edgartown zoning board of appeals this week gave tentative
approval to plans for an upscale members-only recreational facility in
Katama called the Field Club - although the board stopped short of
putting the plan to a vote.

Dr. Milton Mazer, the Vineyard's first psychiatrist whose
pioneering work in the field of rural mental health led to the
establishment of Martha's Vineyard Community Services more than
four decades ago, died Jan. 7 at the Long Hill assisted living home in
Edgartown, where he had been a resident for the past six years. The
cause of death was renal failure; he was 95.

Youth Group at Federated Church Returns from Mission to Aid New
Orleans Cleanup

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A large area in and around New Orleans remains devastated after
Hurricane Katrina brought high winds and a storm surge to the Gulf Coast
in August 2005.

Earlier this year, singer and songwriter Taylor Brown returned to his childhood home in Pennsylvania. Since graduating from Vassar College last spring, Mr. Brown has, for the most part, been living out of a suitcase. He has spent time on the Vineyard, a place he describes as his rock, performing with Maynard Silva and at Offshore Ale. He has tried out Providence, taking the stage at open mike nights throughout the city.