West Tisbury Landowner Tells Tax Board Town Valuations Rooted in
Faulty System

By IAN FEIN

West Tisbury resident William W. Graham testified in a legal hearing
last week that town assessors overvalued his land by more than $30
million, a figure that resulted in an alleged overpayment of more than
$300,000 in property taxes for 2003 and 2004.

An Old Ferry Sails to New York; Schamonchi Reborn as Party Boat

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

The old ferry Schamonchi has sailed off into the sunset -
literally.

The unwanted remnant of Steamship Authority ferry service between
New Bedford and Martha's Vineyard left its Fairhaven dock around 7
p.m. last Wednesday and steamed west for New York city. Fourteen hours
later, the vessel arrived in Queens, three to four hours faster than
expected.

He had already showered and taken the dog out for a walk by the time he realized the pain in his chest was serious enough to bother disturbing his wife, who was fast asleep.

Building Inspector Leaves Town Post

Embattled Richard Mavro Strikes Deal with Oak Bluffs Selectmen to
Depart; Details Have Not Been Released

By RACHEL KOVAC

The town of Oak Bluffs will soon be looking for a new building
inspector. After a 16-year tenure, embattled building inspector Richard
Mavro has reached an agreement with the town and has left the position.

Molly Headly, age six, spun in circles waving her American flag while the Colonial Navy band marched by on Main street. The red, white and blue pompoms on her headband jumped back and forth as the little girl danced to her own rhythm. She didn't care much for the candy being thrown from the cars and floats as they passed by - she wanted more music.

"Will they play more?" she asked her mother, Sarah Headly, after the band had passed by. Molly was just one of hundreds of children and adults lining the streets of Edgartown during the annual Fourth of July parade yesterday afternoon.

Cape Wind Reconfigures Plan at Horseshoe Shoal to Meet State
Guidelines

By IAN FEIN

Ceding to requests from state officials, commercial fishermen and
the U.S. Coast Guard, developers of the Cape Wind project last week
reconfigured the layout of their hotly debated wind farm proposed for
Nantucket Sound.

It's the dinner hour on Tuesday night, and Luanne Johnson is
tromping through poison ivy and switch grass on the duney hills of
Aquinnah's north shore, holding a fold-out antenna in one hand, a
receiver in the other and hoping she will find her quarry: a skunk named
Pua.

One year after unveiling plans for the costliest construction
project and most ambitious fund-raising goal in Vineyard history,
leaders at the Martha\'s Vineyard Hospital announced this week that
they have amassed a stunning $20 million in pledged donations, nearly
half the $42 million needed to build a new hospital at the Linton Lane
campus in Oak Bluffs.

One year after unveiling plans for the costliest construction project and most ambitious fund-raising goal in Vineyard history, leaders at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital announced this week that they have amassed a stunning $20 million in pledged donations, nearly half the $42 million needed to build a new hospital at the Linton Lane campus in Oak Bluffs.

A family walks along Memorial Wharf eating ice cream, the children wearing Martha's Vineyard sweatshirts, one red, one white and two blue. A stranger stops to help an elderly woman attempting to hang the stars and stripes from her flagpole. Down the street a man, surrounded by three children drawing vivid landscapes in sidewalk chalk, cleans the grime from his grill.

The Fourth of July is almost here and in every storefront, hanging flower basket and living room window Independence Day is visible.