Against a backdrop of escalating property values and the high cost
of construction, housing starts on the Vineyard fell in 2004 for the
second straight year.

A total of 1,210 building permits from the Island's six towns
were issued in 2004, down seven per cent from the 2003 total of 1,300
and eight per cent from the 1,311 permits granted in 2002. Four of the
Vineyard's six towns saw drops in the number of total building
permits issued; only Aquinnah and West Tisbury saw increases.

As Martha's Vineyard approached and then passed the millennium, the Island could rely on one wintertime certainty: Lola's, the restaurant at the bend on Seaview avenue in Oak Bluffs, would be open for business.

The 200-seat restaurant was a magnet for off-season life, a place where families looking to eat, couples looking to dance, and amateur hockey players looking to unwind all felt at home.

But this winter, the parking lot at Lola's is quieter than the waters of Vineyard Sound lapping the shore a few hundred feet away.

Pat Jenkinson's lobster boat Solitude sits idle at the dock in Menemsha. The last time he took the boat fishing was right after Christmas, and it wasn't much of a trip. Mr. Jenkinson says he won't go fishing now until spring. "There is nothing out there," he says.

The shaky wooden dock is stacked with green wire lobster pots from another season. Sparrows fly in and out of the pots. Captain Jenkinson says he knows of at least one local hawk that pays close attention.

Fueled by a federal grant aimed at countering a bioterrorist attack, scientists at a Providence, R.I., pharmaceutical company are banking on the collection of blood samples from nearly two dozen Vineyarders to help them develop a new vaccine against tularemia, the rare disease with an unexplained presence on Martha's Vineyard.

Ecology Map Aids Planning

Released By Nature Conservancy, Sophisticated Color Blueprint Shows
Diverse Habitats End to End on Island

By IAN FEIN

A detailed map that identifies all of the ecological habitats on the
Vineyard was released this week by the Islands office of The Nature
Conservancy. The map is the first of its kind for the Vineyard.

Silver Screen: Theatres Seeing a Mere Trickle of Moviegoers

By MAX HART

At the Edgartown Cinemas on a recent evening, the most popular movie
in America plays to an almost empty theatre. About a dozen patrons enjoy
a laugh as Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro engage in madcap hijinx in Meet
the Fockers.

Over at the Island Theatre on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs, Brad
Pitt and George Clooney are scheming their way to riches in
Ocean's Twelve, the fifth highest earner at the box office. But
they, too, look down from the screen to a mostly empty room.

Island Takes Number One Spot in State for Lyme Disease Rate

By IAN FEIN

When it comes to Lyme disease on the Vineyard, either you've
had it or you know someone who has.

The Health Report of Martha's Vineyard confirms what most
Island residents have known for some time: Lyme disease, a debilitating
bacterial infection transmitted by deer ticks, has reached epidemic
levels on the Vineyard.

Controversial Road Plan Wins Approval in Edgartown Meeting

By IAN FEIN

Edgartown voters last night continued to back the Pennywise Path
affordable housing project, turning a deaf ear to pleas that called for
postponing the controversial taking of a second access road to the
development.

Residents approved all 12 articles on the special town meeting
warrant, including a $310,000 appropriation to bring water, sewerage and
electricity to the project.

Two historic Vineyard inns - Lambert's Cove Inn in West
Tisbury and the Tuscany Inn at the Captain Fisher House in Edgartown
- were sold during the last week in heavily leveraged deals.

The sea was rough on the night of Dec. 17, when David McConky went out in the Menemsha Coast Guard 41-foot utility boat and tried to rescue a fishing boat presumed sunk south of Noman's Land. Waves off Gay Head were anywhere from 10 to 15 feet high, and he had to turn back.

Fortunately a Coast Guard helicopter rescued the three men who were already ashore on the deserted island.