A proposed hike in landing fees at Logan International Airport in
Boston could end up putting the Vineyard's main airline carrier,
CapeAir, out of business, its chief executive said.

SSA Management Sets a Course for Collision on Security Measures

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Turning a deaf ear on the growing uproar among Islanders over a
controversial new policy that will bar people from staying in their cars
on board ferries, senior managers at the Steamship Authority announced
flatly this week that the policy is expected to go into effect sometime
later this month.

Oak Bluffs Is Set to Accept Bid for Vineyard's Largest Library

By CHRIS BURRELL

The backyard of Oak Bluffs town hall doesn't look like much
now, but sometime this spring on a patch of dirt and grass that was once
a school playground, the Island's largest public library will
begin to rise up.

Bids for the new library were opened last week, and six of the seven
came within the $3.5 million budget.

Heralded as the last of the coastal steamships in America, the steamer Nobska will be scrapped if her owners are unable to find a way to float her away from the Charlestown Navy Yard by midyear.

Word of the new deadline was delivered to members of the New England Steamship Foundation at their annual meeting last Saturday in New Bedford. Art Flathers of Vineyard Haven, president of the foundation, his officers and the 60 other members heard it from the top.

It was built for skateboarders after a grassroots effort that lasted
years, but less than three months after the Martha's Vineyard
Skatepark opened in Oak Bluffs, the skaters are dealing with some
uninvited guests - bicyclists.

Sweet Clover: Beloved Cow Had a Gentle Way with Kids

By MANDY LOCKE

Clover, a docile Brown Swiss cow that lured youngsters to her stall
at the agricultural fair for nearly two decades, died in her sleep early
Wednesday morning. She was 19.

The Island's only Brown Swiss, Clover - also known as
Dairy Queen by those who loved her - came to the Vineyard in
December of 1984, at the age of four weeks. Amy Lawry bought her as a
birthday gift for her husband, Harold.

Voters of Aquinnah Consider Patriot Act

Voters in Aquinnah will decide this week whether to join other towns
across the country in opposing the Patriot Act, federal legislation
adopted six weeks after Sept. 11 in the name of anti-terrorism.

A resolution and a town bylaw opposing the Patriot Act both appear
on the warrant for a special town meeting. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
on Wednesday, March 10, in the Aquinnah town hall.

School District Weighs Choices

Meetings in West Tisbury, Chilmark Explore Future of Up-Island
Public Education; Costs in Chilmark Are Central

By CHRIS BURRELL

Last night, more than 80 people - parents, teachers, alumni,
selectmen and community members - rallied around the Chilmark
School. Despite declining enrollment and pressure to cut costs in the
Up-Island Regional School District, they vowed they would not close
their school down.

SSA Governing Board Postpones Its Decision On New Security Rules

By JULIA WELLS

Gazette Senior Writer

Under heavy fire from the people of the Vineyard over a new policy
that will bar people from staying in their cars on board ferries, a
fractured Steamship Authority board of governors yesterday postponed any
decision on the policy for one more month.

Signaling its own interest in a case which has attracted attention
around the country, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)
agreed this week to hear the Aquinnah court appeal over sovereign
immunity.