Vineyard Haven has led the Island into the new year for nine years
running, but next week's celebration figures to be the loudest
ever. Organizers of Last Night, First Day 2003 have planned a more
sensational fireworks show as part of the three-day family festival
spanning New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
A huge storm that caused troubles for much of the nation ended up
sparing the Vineyard its worst wrath. Though the Christmas Day
northeaster passed over the Vineyard and Nantucket on its path out to
sea, it dropped an inch of snow and lots of rain. The National Weather
Service cooperative station recorded 1.41 inches of melted
precipitation.
For the first time since the mid-nineties, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is looking at favorable odds in its bid to build a high-end casino in southeastern Massachusetts.
SSA Board Settles Bothersome Issue Of Cost Allocation
By JULIA WELLS
At a meeting marked by general good humor and a series of brisk
business decisions, Steamship Authority governors voted without dissent
yesterday to adopt a modified cost allocation policy that puts to bed an
internal accounting issue that has been at the center of a simmering
political feud for the last year.
"I feel we should vote on this and get it done," said
Nantucket governor Grace Grossman, who surprised her Vineyard critics by
leading a move to vote for the policy.
Housing Opens New Life for Two Families
By MANDY LOCKE
The phone call came at just the right moment for one Island family.
The couple - we'll call them Joe and Sarah - was
being driven out of yet another rental, this time because of the
owner's decision to put the house on the market. They know the
routine all too well, having moved more than a dozen times in their
eight years of living on the Island.
Flash Comes Home for the Holidays
By C.K. WOLFSON
It was a blustery mid-October evening when Pond View Farm staff
member Mauricio Brandao found the little school pony standing in the
corner of the field. Flash, the sweet-natured, 18-year-old, chestnut
gelding - everybody's favorite - was refusing to come
in for his nightly feeding, refusing to move at all or bear any weight
on his right leg.
Charitable Giving Declines on Island
Vineyard Institutions Worry the Squeeze Will Eliminate Services in
Competitive Market for Needed Contributions
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
It\'s known as the giving season, but as holiday lights glow
along darkened main streets and the clock winds down on 2002, an array
of vital Vineyard institutions report a troubling trend: Charitable
contributions are down this year.
Charitable Giving Declines on Island
Vineyard Institutions Worry the Squeeze Will Eliminate Services in
Competitive Market for Needed Contributions
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
It's known as the giving season, but as holiday lights glow
along darkened main streets and the clock winds down on 2002, an array
of vital Vineyard institutions report a troubling trend: Charitable
contributions are down this year.
After first voting unanimously to leave the door open for the
possibility of a jail on airport land, the airport commissioners this
week approved the master plan.
A few of the dozen people in attendance at Wednesday night's
meeting had wanted more. They argued that the airport commission owed
the public more than three weeks time to review a document three years
in the making.
Imagine an Island business where the pace of work, the cash flow and even the faces that come through the door remain constant all year round.
