MVC Election Wins Approval

State House Compromise Clears Path for Special Vote in May on a
Petition in Oak Bluffs to Secede from Commission

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

After a week of back-room politics on Beacon Hill that left one Cape
and Islands legislator openly fuming at what he called "outside
muscle," a petition by the town of Oak Bluffs to withdraw from the
Martha's Vineyard Commission is now set to come before voters at a
special election in the middle of May.

The election will be held on May 13.

Island Education Leaders Fear Budget Cut Layoffs

By CHRIS BURRELL

Bracing for the possibility of even deeper cuts to state aid for
schools, Island school leaders now say they must consider laying off
teachers and trimming both academic and extra-curricular programs.

The dire forecast came this week in reaction to Gov. Mitt
Romney's proposed budget, which included significant cutbacks to
the Vineyard's two regional school districts - up-Island and
the high school.

Five years ago, Kim Angell found herself one step away from being a
welfare mom.

"My husband disappeared. I had no job, three children under
the age of six, and it was January," Ms. Angell said this week.
"I had no money to pay my mortgage, let alone child care."

The state wants to spend $3.25 million replacing the Big and Little Bridges on Beach Road along Sengekontacket Pond with concrete structures, but last week at a public hearing in the Oak Bluffs School, a handful of Islanders tried convincing state engineers to tread lightly because these are no ordinary bridges.

The two bridges built of wood are as beloved as the covered bridges of Vermont, said Thea Hansen, a resident of Oak Bluffs who handles seasonal real estate rentals.

They're recreational destinations for fishermen and children, said Kenneth Abbott of Edgartown.

Four-Town Refuse District Takes Initiatives to Put Financial Affairs
in Better Order

By MANDY LOCKE

Heeding their auditor's stern warnings, the Martha's
Vineyard Regional Refuse and Resource Recovery District is doing some
financial housekeeping this month.

In the weeks following auditor John J. O'Brien's report
of sloppy bookkeeping and incomplete records, the refuse district
personnel subcommittee is shuffling administrative staff roles.

Island Lambs Have a Spring in Every Step

By C.K. WOLFSON

The snow-covered pasture is a soft, white-on-white expanse curving
under a cold, gray sky. Outside Pam Goff's old Chilmark barn, five
black-faced, wool-plumped ewes mill around on the straw and mud,
bleating in urgent, slow-motion coughs to the skinny-legged lambs
nuzzling against them.

Oak Bluffs Home Rule Petition Inspires Hot Debate in Hearing Hastily
Convened by Legislature

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

BOSTON - Small in number but passionate in expression, a
compact assembly of Vineyard residents traveled to Beacon Hill this week
to testify at a hastily called legislative hearing on a petition by the
town of Oak Bluffs to withdraw from the Martha's Vineyard
Commission.

"I'm here because the integrity of the Martha's
Vineyard Commission is now being threatened," said West Tisbury
resident Barbara Day.

Election Season Brings Contests in Four Towns

With the calendar turning to March, four of the six Island towns
have now closed their spring election ballots. Only in Aquinnah and
Chilmark does time still remain for candidates to return papers and run
for elected town office. Where ballots are closed, voters will have
choices among candidates for the post of selectman in all the towns.
West Tisbury has a race for treasurer, and seats on Island boards of
health and planning boards are also attracting some competition.

Housing Plan Hits Water Quality Snag

By JULIA WELLS

Septic discharge from the Bridge housing project could pose a
problem for neighboring wells, the Martha's Vineyard Commission
water quality planner said last week.

Announcing his intent to retire as ed­itor and publisher of the Vineyard Gazette after more than 27 years at the newspaper, Richard Reston this week also named his successor.

Beginning in the middle of March, John W. Walter Jr., a former executive editor of the Atlanta Journal-Consti­tution, will arrive on the Island and take over the leadership role of the Gazette.

Mr. Walter, 56, was named editor and publisher of the Gazette and its other publications, Martha’s Vineyard Mag­azine and the Best Read Guide, after a search process that began early last fall.