At Firemen's Muster, Duty Calls for Tisbury

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

West Tisbury volunteer firemen placed first at the Dukes County
Firemen's Muster on Sunday. This was their third consecutive win.
More than 200 people gathered at Waban Park in Oak Bluffs to cheer
firemen from five Island towns and a visiting team from the town of
Carver as they competed for top honors in the annual competition.

Executive Assistant Quits County Post

Marsha Smolev Had Leveled Charges of Hostile Work Environment;
Attorney Studies Case

By ALEXIS TONTI

The executive assistant to the county manager, Marsha Smolev, has
resigned, leaving the position without clear resolution regarding her
previous allegations of a hostile work environment and sexual harassment
by a county commissioner.

When leaders of the Island Affordable Housing Fund (IAHF) say they'll be collecting $14 million within five years, it's clear there's no room for negotiation.

"There's a lot to be done," John Abrams, chairman of the young non-profit's board, said flatly.

Questions Over Schools' Action

Superintendent Cash's Failure to Support Principal on Koines
Subject at Regional Meeting; Audit Critical of Lapses

By CHRIS BURRELL

Regional high school committee meetings don't typically turn
feisty, but with fallout from the Peter J. Koines case still hanging in
the air, Tisbury officials showed up to this week's meeting to
blast committee members and the schools superintendent for mishandling
the affair.

In an unqualified show of confidence for one of its own members who has been under relentless attack by the developers of the Down Island Golf Club, the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted without dissent last night that commission member Linda Sibley is free from bias and prejudice.

"I don't believe there is anybody on this board that does more homework and takes her job more seriously than Linda. For her to be accused of being a bigot is laughable," said commission member Richard Toole.

His team of Harvard scientists collected 5,000 dog ticks and trapped 35 skunks and raccoons on the Vineyard this summer. Now, parasitologist Sam Telford wants something more to bring back to the lab in Boston - human blood.

Mr. Telford is on the hunt for clues to the mystery of tularemia, the rare and potentially fatal disease that has infected 23 people on the Island in the last three years, killing one man in 2000 who didn't seek medical treatment soon enough.

Nearly all of the victims were landscapers or people who make a living working outdoors.

Boats Here Plucked from Water as Isabel Moves to Mainland

By CHRIS BURRELL

Spillover from Hurricane Isabel was forecast to hit the Island today
with 10-foot seas and wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour.

And while landfall came yesterday on the North Carolina coast, many
Vineyarders who own boats took no chances: They hauled out.

Boatyards worked overtime this week, but if you were expecting the
exodus to dry land to spell the end of the boating season, think again.

When the striped bass she caught was weighed in at Derby
Headquarters in Edgartown on Wednesday night, the gathered crowd of 30
onlookers applauded, as they only do for serious Derby contenders. The
computer driven scale read in blue letters: 40.52 pounds.

Snapshot of a Changing Neighborhood: Now, Lights Go Out in Winter
Months

By MANDY LOCKE

Boat Line Sees Price Increases

Steamship Authority Leadership Proposes $68 Million Budget; Vineyard
Passenger Fares Would Rise by 50 Cents

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Fare hikes for the Vineyard and Nantucket are now on deck at the
Steamship Authority, as boat line managers confront the realities of
keeping a $68 million operation afloat against a backdrop of anemic
revenues and rising operating costs.