Post Office Studies Move for Expansion in Vineyard Haven

By JONATHAN BURKE

The Vineyard Haven post office is contemplating renovations to its
Five Corners location and would like to relocate temporarily to the
Tisbury park-and-ride lot.

Architect James Carlson told town selectmen on Dec. 10 that the
Island's primary postal facility plans to increase its size by
rearranging its own space and that of its tenants. Cumberland Farms and
Muriel W. Laverty Real Estate currently rent space from the postal
service.

MVC Votes No on Gas Station

Martha's Vineyard Commission Rejects Plan for New Station on
State Road Corridor, Eight Votes to Three

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

After a discussion that went well beyond the subject of gasoline
prices on the Vineyard, the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted 8-3
last night to reject a plan for a new gas station off State Road in
Vineyard Haven.

Lured back to the city he left four and a half years ago, Oak Bluffs police chief Joseph C. Carter yesterday submitted his resignation to selectmen and announced he is headed to Boston next month to take over as chief of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) police department.

The Massachusetts Department of Corrections and the state Department of Public Health assigned the Dukes County House of Corrections poor marks for substandard safety and health provisions for inmates.

Dwindling state aid and rising insurance costs are fueling a regional high school budget that will cost Island taxpayers $11.6 million next year.

Early Retirement Program Attracts 26 County Officials

By JULIA WELLS

A highway superintendent, an executive secretary, a librarian and a
jail administrator are among a long list of Vineyarders who will take
early retirement this year under a program made possible by an act of
the state legislature.

Approved last spring as a cost-cutting measure and signed into law
by acting Gov. Jane Swift, the law cleared the way for towns and
counties to offer early retirement to employees.

Pressure to Delay Airport Master Plan Vote May Jeopardize Final
Approval of Study

By JONATHAN BURKE

Public pressure to delay a vote could prevent adoption of the
proposed master plan for Martha's Vineyard Airport, the product of
a two-year, $332,370 study.

Conspicuous by its absence from the plan is the failure to designate
airport land for a new county jail, a concept which enjoys the support
of many in the community.

"Christmas was about getting nothing," she says in
clipped Yankee cadence. Lorraine Beaucaire Clark's family did not
speak English when they came from Portugal; her great-uncle, a Chilmark
resident for 55 years,speaks only Portuguese.

Oak Bluffs had fewer mopeds and fewer dealers renting them this year. Now the hospital is reporting fewer people ending up in the emergency room after crashing a moped.

Using new lawyers but spelling out the same themes, the developers
of the Down Island Golf Club filed a lawsuit against the Martha's
Vineyard Commission late last week, attacking everything from the recent
vote to reject a luxury golf course project in the southern woodlands to
the enabling legislation that created the commission.