Refuse District Faces Deepening Financial Woes

By MANDY LOCKE

Financial difficulties again dominated discussion at the
Martha's Vineyard Refuse Disposal and Resource Recovery District
meeting as committee members tried to find ways to climb out of a hole
half a million dollars deep.

Terry McCarthy will tell you point blank that cruise line passengers are the best thing going.

Down to the Sea with Love: They Come to the Island for a Memorable
Voyage

By JOHN BUDRIS and JAMES D'AMBROSIO

For three magic days they were not heart transplant patients or the
leukemia kids in the next ward. They were neither stuck with needles,
nor looped through high-tech machines.

For three magic days their parents forgot about blood counts, organ
rejection and the next visit to yet another specialist at Boston
Children's Hospital.

Huge Housing Plan Moves Toward MVC

Affordable Housing Project Is Pushed by Golf Developer and Partner
in Oak Bluffs Woodlands

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Against a backdrop of quiet maneuvers to develop yet another plan
for a private luxury golf club in the southern woodlands, a massive
affordable housing project planned for the same property in Oak Bluffs
is now on track for review by the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

Three weeks ago, West Tisbury selectmen demanded concessions and
route changes, seeking to reduce the impact of transit buses on their
historic town center.

An insect species never before recorded on Martha's Vineyard
has attacked spruce trees Islandwide, damaging many and even killing a
few, say area scientists and tree experts.

The pest was identified this month as a Spruce aphid (elatobium
abietinum) by a cooperative effort of scientists at the University of
Massachusetts.

Harbor Festival Sets Stage for Summer

By ALEXIS TONTI

There is no single event that signals the start of summer on the
Island. Something different moves each person to say the season is
finally here: the ripening of strawberries and sweet peas, the first
farmers' market or maybe the first true beach day. That something
could also be the Oak Bluffs Harbor Festival. Falling the day after the
official start of summer, the festival's timing qualifies it as
another sign of the season.

The Martha's Vineyard Commission backed away Thursday night from a push to redraw the Vineyard Golf Club's Island membership plan.

Commission members dropped the issue of the subjective selection process citing not principles, but politics. Commissioners openly acknowledged that pushing for a lottery system could do more harm than good, threatening an already strained relationship with a town board.

Union Wins Key Election to Represent Employees at Community Services

By MANDY LOCKE

Hospital Workers Union gained a seat at the negotiation table at
Martha's Vineyard Community Services Thursday evening after
two-thirds of Island Counseling Center and Visiting Nurse Service
professional employees voted the union into the health and human service
agency during the closely watched election.

There is no drought on Martha's Vineyard. While dry conditions
may continue in other parts of the Northeast, the Vineyard has had
healthy rainfall thus far this year.

But despite spring rains, Vineyard ground water levels are at or
near their 25-year low. This has raised concerns that homes in outlying
areas, those with wells near the coast, may be vulnerable to saltwater
intrusion.