Swimmers and sunbathers leaving State Beach Monday afternoon were
surprised to find parking tickets stuck under the wiper blades of their
windshields, but for more than a few the surprise turned to outrage when
they learned who had issued the tickets.

The name of the officer listed on the $10 tickets was S. Berlucchi,
who checked off the boxes next to Edgartown and Oak Bluffs to indicate
what town had issued the citations.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen have released the minutes of a May 9 executive session during which the board voted to terminate town administrator Casey Sharpe without cause, triggering a clause in her contract to pay her more than $76,000 in salary, sick time and vacation pay.


After leaving her post July 15, Ms. Sharpe received $45,427 for six months’ salary and $31,449 in unused sick days, for a total payout of $76,876.

Last Year's Winner Takes Lead in Bass Derby

By MAX HART

Like the great Yankee catcher Yogi Berra once said, it was deja vu
all over again.

The Martha's Vineyard Regional High School football team
dominated Carver High School by a score of 44 to 25 in Friday's
home opener that featured a spectacular interception return, two
dramatic goal line stands and a steady dose of scoring by the home team,
both on the ground and through the air.

The Vineyarders improve to 2-0 on the season.

Their next game is home against Cathedral High School-Boston at 1
p.m. on Saturday.

After six months of waiting, $900 in application fees, one lost job
offer, thousands of dollars in lost salary and untold emotional strain,
a Martha's Vineyard immigration story ended happily last week. If
there is a moral to the tale, it is that the Department of Homeland
Security is a bureaucracy as easy to navigate as Cape Horn in a squall,
and despite its reputation, the Edgartown post office is not always to
blame.

Difficult Issues Confront MVC

Regional Land Use Commission Searches for Fresh Approach to Regulate
Trophy Houses, Protect Neighborhoods

By IAN FEIN

Following back-to-back Martha's Vineyard Commission meetings
that centered on the impacts that out-of-scale homes can pose on their
neighbors and the rest of the Island, leaders in the regional planning
agency are now confronting the question of what to do.

Victim in Theft, British Library Pushes for Tougher Sentence

By JAMES KINSELLA

The British Library, one of the institutions victimized by rare-map
thief E. Forbes Smiley 3rd of Chilmark, has urged the court to increase
the severity of his pending sentence.

The library, whose 1520 Apian world map was stolen by Mr. Smiley,
has called on U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton to sentence him to 78
to 97 months in prison. The government and the defense have agreed that
his sentence should range from 57 to 71 months.

How have the wind and choppy seas affected the fishing during the first week of the 61st Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby? That depends on whom you ask.

Not one taker stepped forward Wednesday to put in a bid on the
Steamship Authority's high-speed ferry, the Flying Cloud.

The lack of interest in the vessel, for which the boat line hoped to
obtain at least $5 million, is the latest chapter in the Flying
Cloud's mostly troubled six-year history at the boat line. The SSA
paid $8 million for the ferry in 2000.

Steamship Authority Considers Increasing Rates on All Fares

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

Steamship Authority managers plan to recommend across-the-board rate
increases of about five per cent for the coming year.