For the first time, this year the Martha's Vineyard Regional
High School junior prom will require not just a ticket to enter, but a
green light from a breathalyzer.
After alcohol use caused problems at last year's prom, high
school principal Margaret (Peg) Regan considered cancelling this
year's prom and revisiting the issue the next year, but at the
students' request, Mrs. Regan instead collaborated with juniors to
make prom safer.
Hospital Begins Formal Review
Plans for $42 Million New Facility Set to Be Filed in Oak Bluffs;
MVC Land Use Committee Will Discuss on Monday
By JULIA WELLS
The Martha's Vineyard Community Hospital, much in the news
this year with its ambitious $42 million capital campaign, is now set to
file formal plans for a new hospital building off Linton Lane in the
Eastville section of Oak Bluffs.
Fourth Annual Energy Day Held Tomorrow at Grange
By IAN FEIN
Should the Vineyard tax large energy users as a way to fund more
renewable energy projects?
That question will be a topic of discussion at the fourth annual
Energy Day tomorrow, when the building inspector from Aspen, Colo., will
talk about a similar energy initiative that was enacted in his seasonal
community.
Engraved on the pedestal of the Statute of Liberty is a poem by Emma
Lazarus with the famous lines "Give me your tired, your poor, Your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my
lamp beside the golden door."
It is the kind of sunny spring day that lures young minds out
through classroom windows onto the playground, but the seventh and
eighth graders in Jonah Maidoff's social studies class at the
Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School are decidedly focused on
the issue at hand.
Last Vineyard Town Meeting Convenes Tuesday in Aquinnah
By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer
A slew of proposed Proposition 2 1/2 overrides and a couple of
requests to partly restructure town government are among the decisions
awaiting Aquinnah voters at their annual town meeting and town election
next week.
Real Property
State Tax Panel Urges Regional Assessing System
By IAN FEIN
After a year marked by high-profile property tax disputes in two
Vineyard towns, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue is pushing the
idea of a regional assessing office as a way to improve the accuracy of
property values and and accountability of Island assessors.
State tax officials said that all six towns on the Vineyard would
benefit if they shared their data and resources, hired top-quality
assessors and relied less on outside consultants.
Missing Old Town Ledger Surfaces on eBay
Oak Bluffs police are investigating the apparent theft of a
70-year-old town land record book that was sold last month on the
electronic auction marketplace known as eBay.
Lieut. Timothy Williamson yesterday confirmed that police are
looking into the disappearance of a 1926 Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf
Company Tax Ledger from the vault at town hall on School street.
A busy week in Chilmark began Monday with voters moving briskly through the annual town meeting, continued Wednesday with high turnout at the ballot box and ends today with another bit of important business - the reopening of the Chilmark Store.
And so goes the short and relatively quiet political season in the small up-Island town.
Resurrecting hopes for a peaceful accord in the small town of Aquinnah, town and tribal officials this week embraced a revised intergovernmental land use agreement and pledged to bring it before their respective constituencies for a vote.
