With cannons firing from three wharves around the harbor, a Navy
warbird lacing the sky overhead with trails of white smoke and a piper
sending her down to the sea to the tune of Scotland the Brave, the
schooner Rebecca was launched from the Tisbury Marine Railway Company
late Tuesday afternoon.
Before Sheila and Charlie Flathers sat down for dinner and a couple of cold beers at Papa's Pizza Wednesday night, they seriously pondered over the specials that weren't on the menu - a thick wooden table for $120 or a chair for 15 bucks.
Herring Creek Farm, the storied and richly diverse Great Plains farm
in the rural coastal perimeters of Edgartown, is now set to be sold for
a record price to an eclectic group that includes two nonprofit
conservation organizations and two private buyers.
Island Charter School Prepares To Honor First Graduating Class
By JOSHUA SABATINI
The Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School is holding its
first ever graduation in June. The school, in its fifth year, has a lot
to celebrate.
Backers of a plan to build a community swimming pool are suffering
from sticker shock, having learned last month that the
38,500-square-foot complex would cost $8.85 million to construct, nearly
twice the amount projected in a study done six years ago.
An after-prom party near Black Point beach in Chilmark turned violent in the early morning hours last Sunday when police who were called in to break up the party tried arresting a teenager and were forced to retreat under a barrage of beer bottles.
The Aquinnah building inspector filed a lawsuit this week against
the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to test the question of
whether the tribe must follow local zoning rules.
"A genuine controversy exists on this issue requiring judicial
guidance," wrote Aquinnah town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport in the
complaint.
There is good news on the Vineyard Haven waterfront. Douglas Rock,
an extremely dangerous hazard to navigation, has - finally -
been marked.
The rock, as big as a Volkswagen Bug and close to the surface in
waters off West Chop, is now identifiable by a tall spile and sign that
says: "Rocks."
The marking brings closure to a struggle that has gone on for years.
New Bedford Run Fails
No on License
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
Steamship Authority governors voted without dissent last week to
deny a license application from a private freight hauler to run
year-round service between New Bedford and the two Islands.
"Our focus clearly needs to remain on providing for the
Islands," said SSA general counsel Steven Sayers. Mr. Sayers was
point man in the staff recommendation to deny the license application
from Seabulk International Inc.
SSA Debate Spits Islands
Stormy Waters
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
Calling a virtual mandate from some 800 people on Nantucket
uninformed, Vineyard Steamship Authority governor and board chairman
J.B. Riggs Parker said last week that he will press ahead with the
ambitious new service model for the public boat line.
"I believe I am not informed enough to make a statement on
these issues, and if I am not informed, it would be unusual to conclude
that communities as a whole are informed," declared Mr. Parker.
