A high-priced real estate market coupled with changes in the way property assessments are calculated has fueled a sharp rise in the value of waterview and waterfront property in Edgartown this year.

The start of the 59th annual Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby may be only two days away, but the planning and preparation go back a year. This Sunday at 12:01 a.m. the first wave of avid anglers will head for their boats and the shore in pursuit of fish. It is the start of the annual pilgrimage to the water. No matter what their vocation, as many as 3,000 fishermen will share a common avocation, competing for daily, weekly and grand overall prizes for the biggest striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and bonito.

Ripples of Hurricane Frances left a tragic mark on a remote section
of Chilmark's south shore Friday afternoon. A rip current is being
blamed in the drowning death of a 58-year-old woman from Cambridge who
was swimming with a friend.

Gwenneth Knight, a consultant to the Harvard University Art Museums
on Indian and Islamic acquisitions, died Saturday after being airlifted
to Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston from the
Martha's Vineyard Hospital.

Richard Reston, president of the board of directors at the Vineyard
Gazette, has announced changes in the editor and publisher positions at
the newspaper. Mr. Reston, a longtime editor and publisher of the
Gazette, will resume his role as newspaper publisher.

Julia Wells, who has been the lead writer on the paper for 20 years
and a resident of the Vineyard for 30 years, takes over as the new
editor of the Vineyard Gazette.

The change in leadership at the newspaper is effective immediately.

End of Summer Business Assessment: Season Analysis Results Are Mixed

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Summer had its winners and losers. The smart shoppers were
definitely on the Vineyard, and how they spent their money is already
the talk of the business community.

The mood was jovial at derby headquarters in Edgartown Sunday morning. More than a dozen committee members of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby came together to prepare for the fall contest that begins next week.

A few carried cups of coffee. Derby committee member Don Eber of Chilmark stepped into the old fish shack carrying a Makita power drill. For the next few minutes, Mr. Eber put screws into wood to hold two vertical two-by-fours.

Like cracking open a pack of new pencils with the eraser tops still bright pink, the Vineyard school year starts Thursday with a fresh cast - a new bus company, four new administrators and more than a dozen teachers newly hired into Island classrooms.

Ending a Quick Search, School District Names Interim Principals for
Year Ahead

By CHRIS BURRELL

Three consecutive days of interviews this week yielded two new
principals up-Island: Michael Halt will take over at the West Tisbury
School, and Diane Gandy becomes principal at the Chilmark School.

Mr. Halt, 39, will leave his post as vice-principal at the
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School to accept the interim
principalship in West Tisbury.

Lynn C. Murphy has reason to celebrate this Labor Day weekend. He has marked a business anniversary few single proprietors ever reach: He has operated Menemsha Marine Repair for half a century now.

They decided almost three years ago that replacing a yellow blinker
beacon with a roundabout was the safest solution for a notoriously
dangerous intersection, but just weeks before hiring an engineer to
design it, Oak Bluffs selectmen are thinking it over - one more
time.