Bouchard Transportation Co., whose barge Number 120 deposited approximately 15,000 gallons of Number 6 diesel fuel into Buzzards Bay Sunday, is no stranger to the process they are now going through - clean-up and investigation.

Acting on Informant's Tip, Police Arrest Three in Connection
with String of Crimes

By CHRIS BURRELL

Oak Bluffs police say they cracked two cases in one day this week
when they arrested three Oak Bluffs teenagers Wednesday in connection
with the break-in at Tony's Market and then learned these were the
same teens who opened up fire hydrants on East Chop almost two weeks
ago.

Transit System Prepares for New Season; Authority Plans Adjustment
to Routes

By JONATHAN BURKE

Vineyard Transit Authority is on the verge of a new summer season,
and still sorting out problems associated with its new fare boxes.

Thomas Teller

Clerk Magistrate Retires after 39 Years of Service

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

He is a local boy, an Edgartown native with fishing in his soul and
justice in his heart and deft hands that can shuck quahaugs just as
easily as they wield the varnished wooden gavel that is the tool of the
district court clerk magistrate. For many years he was a lone Democrat
laboring in a Republican stronghold, and today, of course, all that has
changed, but after 39 years what hasn't?

On Eve of Public Forum, MVC Opponents Seek To Revive Old Threats

By JULIA WELLS

On the eve of a community meeting to discuss the highly-charged
question of whether Oak Bluffs should withdraw from the Martha's
Vineyard Commission, a citizens' group in favor of leaving is
stirring up fresh debate on an old subject: the threat of a massive
affordable housing project in the southern woodlands.

Junk Cars Spur Town Reaction

Edgartown Cites the Hall Family For Zoning and Health Code
Violations; Officials Hope Will Lead to Final Cleanup

By MANDY LOCKE

Eight months after a dangerous brush fire pushed cleanup of an
illegal car dump to the top of Edgartown's priority list,
officials finally lost patience with the property owners -
formally citing the Benjamin Hall Sr. family this week for flagrant
zoning and health code violations.

School costs are driving budget increases across the Island, but in Chilmark, one expense forcing voters to dig into their wallets for education spending may come as a shock.

The Menemsha School, barely four years old, already needs $100,000 in repairs that include replacing moldy floors and rotten doors. Voters will be asked Monday night at annual town meeting to foot the bill. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Chilmark Community Center.

The annual town election takes place Wednesday and will feature five override questions, but no contested races.

Now is always a good time to market a quality product, say a number of Island entrepreneurs opening new businesses this summer.

"Our idea ... was to kind of seize the moment," said Frank Pellegrino, opening a Mexican restaurant where Lawry's seafood restaurant used to be in Edgartown.

He said that he and partner Denise Page didn't want uncertain economic times to deter them from taking the lease to a valuable piece of property: Not many businesses come with parking lots attached, he said.

Hospital Leaders Attempt to Blunt Financial Crisis at the Windemere
Facility

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Leaders at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital stepped in this week
to try to contain an escalating financial crisis at the Windemere
Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. Hospital senior managers said
the crisis at the Island's only nursing home could pose a threat
to the Island's only hospital.

Politics in West Tisbury Turn Divisive as Town Struggles with
Rampant Growth

By CHRIS BURRELL

If you wanted proof of how far the political landscape shifted this
week in West Tisbury, all you had to do was pan over the
selectmen's table in town hall.

For the first time in almost three decades, the man frozen in oil
paint in the Stan Murphy portrait hanging on the wall was not sitting
there underneath the picture.