Tabernacle Requires More Fixes; Architects Call for a New Roof

By CHRIS BURRELL

The bill to restore the Tabernacle was supposed to run just $1
million and cover the basics: new stained-glass windows, re-flashing the
roof and a serious scrape-and-paint job of the rusting iron structure.

But three years after mounting an ambitious fund-raising campaign to
pay for the project and start up an additional endowment fund worth $1
million, leaders in the Camp Ground now say they need almost twice the
money to do the job right.

It was a reverent and quietly momentous occasion. Sixty-three years after its incorporation by 10 Island families, the Martha's Vineyard Hebrew Center installed its first full-time rabbi.

Saying, "We do this with the hope and expectation in our hearts that this blessing of having you as our spiritual leader will enable all of us to grow spiritually and in knowledge of Torah," Hebrew Center president Edward Schwartz officially installed Rabbi Caryn Beth Broitman.

Traffic was down, but parking tickets were up. The weather was changeable; ditto for the restaurant and retail business. The wild blueberries were not so hot, but the fishing was great - lots of big bass and small bluefish, and on the full moon in July the fluke were so thick in some places you could practically throw out an old shoe and catch one.

These are the benchmarks of the summer of 2003, and as the official summer season came to a close this week, the people of the Vineyard took a quick look back, and most could agree on two things:

Hallgate Is Cleared of Its Junked Cars

Edgartown Officials Tour Subdivision, and Are Pleased After
Year's Effort; Now, the Lot Next Door

By MANDY LOCKE

It was a moment Edgartown officials doubted would ever come.

Town leaders peered down the narrow dirt drive winding through
Hallgate Wednesday morning, and for the first time in more than three
years, saw only shards of glass where mounds of junk cars once rusted.

Walter Cronkite, who has for months publicly opposed the Cape Wind
project being proposed for Nantucket Sound, yesterday announced he has
reconsidered - and his commercials on the subject will be
withdrawn from the airwaves. Mr. Cronkite said he now prefers to be a
more objective observer of both the process and project.

Opposition to this project, he said, "may be premature."

County Makes Offer on Manager's Post

By ALEXIS TONTI

Dukes County commissioners last night offered the job of county
manager to E. Winn Davis, executive secretary of the town of Hanson. In
his return visit to the Island, Mr. Davis described himself as a
consensus builder who believes that Dukes County can set a positive
example for county government across the commonwealth.

Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven and West Tisbury town officials received their marching orders this month - recommendations for steps these Island towns should take to protect and enhance public water supplies in order to keep pace with future development.

New Vision for the Hospital

Architect Suggests Replacement at Current Site; Three Stories Would
Be Built in Phases; Estimate Is $30 Million

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Picture this: A spanking new three-story building that houses a
state-of-the-art diagnostic center and a modern emergency room, a
"green" building that is efficient and easy on the
environment, a therapeutic place that is at once a holistic healing
center and a hub for health care on the Vineyard.

Teacher Admits Thefts; to Repay School Funds, Do Community Service

By CHRIS BURRELL

Faced with a widening police investigation, longtime regional high
school teacher Peter J. Koines admitted yesterday in Edgartown District
Court that he stole school-owned kitchen equipment and funneled $20,000
of school funds into his personal bank account and summer pie business.

Long-Time Chief of Tribe Is Dead

Donald F. Malonson Led Wampanoags for Half Century

Donald F. Malonson, chief of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah), died peacefully at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston
on Friday, August 22, after a long illness. Mr. Malonson, also known as
Chief Running Deer, was the ceremonial leader of the tribe for more than
half a century.