There was record turnout at the start of the 143rd annual Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair, which began yesterday. Overcast skies kept people away from the beach, so they came to the fair instead, said Eleanor Neubert, fair manager.
Yesterday's opening day was full of fun and a few glitches. The ever popular Ferris wheel, which gives riders a skyline view of the fairgrounds, broke down in the first hours of the fair. The apparatus had to be hand cranked so riders could get off. "They've ordered a part," said Ms. Neubert.
Interim Director of SSA Says Boat Line Will Work First to Fix
Reservations System
By JULIA WELLS
The improvements started yesterday.
This was the word from Steamship Authority acting general manager
Wayne Lamson, who said an array of changes are now under way aimed at
improving the telephone reservations system at the boat line. The
improvements include a change in operating hours at the central
reservations bureau in Mashpee, and a number of changes in the automated
telephone answering system.
SSA Leaders Pick up the Telephone, Prepare to Vote on New Ferry
Design
By ALEXIS TONTI
Thursday night, as the ferry Islander sounded her arrival outside
Vineyard Haven harbor, inside the Steamship Authority terminal a
presentation was under way about her replacement, a double-ended vessel
estimated to cost between $22 million and $25 million.
Even things that first dazzle the imagination with their shine and sparkle need substance to endure - like 135 years of tradition, fellowship and community.
Illumination Night on the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, heralded in sing-a-long lyrics and ornamented with close to a thousand glowing paper lanterns that rim the Tabernacle and swing from the roofs and porch fronts, is a demonstration of the contagious spirit of the Camp Ground community.
Early Crash Reports Suggest Pilot Error
By ALEXIS TONTI
Pennsylvania residents Michael Untermeyer and Phillip McFillin were
released from the Martha's Vineyard Hospital Friday after being
treated for minor injures sustained when their single-engine airplane
crashed at the edge of the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest the previous
evening.
Tomorrow, Jennifer Gardner will be hurling heavy old skillets around her backyard. David Scott will unbolt the middle seat from his van to make room for Ruby and Maggie May, and Cathy Weiss will be elbow-deep in pastry flour with her game face on.
Author, Author! President Draws Throng to Store for Autographs
By JESSIE ROYCE HILL
They turned up in droves - and rain slickers - yesterday
morning, snaking along Main street in Vineyard Haven for a chance to
shake hands with the man whose name many wished were appearing on the
ballot this November.
Former President Bill Clinton signed nearly 900 copies of his
memoir, My Life, at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Monday. The store
was prepared to hand out 1,000 tickets to customers but ran out of books
along the way.
As secluded white sand beaches become a commodity more precious than oil, the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank this week announced significant expansions at two of its most stunning beachfront properties.
Moshup Beach in Aquinnah will grow by half again as much, and Wilfrid's Pond Preserve in Vineyard Haven will more than double in size.
"The land bank prizes beaches among its very many priorities, and expanding what already is conservation is a good accomplishment for everybody," said land bank executive director James Lengyel yesterday.
There it was, perched serenely on the 35-17 runway sign of the Katama airfield: a red-footed falcon, Falco vespertinus, the first sighting of its species on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The news was heralded on the front page of The New York Times, in the Boston Globe, across the Internet. In birding circles, this was a spectacular event - once in a lifetime, some called it, that a species would be recorded venturing thousands of miles off-course, settling so far from its natural range.
The pilot and passenger of a single engine plane apparently escaped serious injury last evening after crashing their four-seater Mooney aircraft into the scrub oak and low brush just a couple hundred yards shy of the approach to runway 15 at the Martha's Vineyard Airport.
Police and ambulance crews from at least four Island towns responded, shortly after 6 p.m., to the scene at the border of the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest and the airport, finding a dismembered plane and two men, both conscious.
