Vineyard SSA Governor Loses Battle to Impose $7 Million Fee on
Nantucket

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Vineyard Steamship Authority governor J.B. Riggs Parker lost a
skirmish yesterday in his battle against Nantucket when the Falmouth and
Nantucket boat line governors voted to eliminate a complicated cost
allocation policy that could have led to ruinous fare increases for
Nantucket in coming years.

"It's time to put this behind us, develop a new policy
and go forward," declared Falmouth boat line governor Galen M.
Robbins.

He arrived when the Martha's Vineyard Commission was still in
its early years - not yet a decade old, not yet accepted as a full
member in the peculiar society known as Vineyard government. In fact,
when Charles W. Clifford took over as executive director of the
commission in 1982, if the commission was anything at all in the Island
community, it was a point of controversy.

With the tragedies of Sept. 11 forcing many vacationers to postpone or altogether cancel their autumn trips to the Island, some Vineyard businesses find themselves in an unexpected financial pinch.

While the slowdown is inevitably affecting the Island economy, most business owners are taking the hit with patience and understanding.

"This is not just an inconvenience, this is an attack on mankind," said Sandy Berube of the Jonathan Munroe House in Edgartown.

It was no ordinary car accident that took the life of 18-year-old Eric MacLean in March.

Island students looking forward to school trips overseas or even as close as New York and Washington, D.C., might not have to pack their bags after all.

The impact of bringing more summer visitors to the Vineyard using
high-speed ferry service from New Bedford, the tricky practice of
carrying fuel on the boats, and the role that the public boat line plays
in the lives of Islanders - these were all subjects for discussion
at the Martha's Vineyard Commission last week.

TORONTO, ONTARIO - It all began in the summer of 1993 when Sean Costello, a short man with red hair and Down syndrome, wandered onto a playing field with a microphone and a cameraman and, for the purposes of a video class, began asking his fellow campers a single question - "How's your sports?" - right in the middle of a game of kickball.

County Fee to Hospital Is Eliminated, Ending Weeks of Controversy

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

The subcommittee charged with managing an unusual contract between
the county and the Martha's Vineyard Hospital voted last night to
eliminate a controversial fee from the contract - and the county
manager issued a brief apology for setting up the fee in the first
place.

A diverse collection of Vineyard residents, including ministers, mothers and small business owners, came together at a rally on Tuesday in Vineyard Haven to call for a peaceful resolution to last week's terrorist attack in New York city and Washington, D.C.

They urged thought before action, and warned against decisions fueled by emotion rather than rational deliberation.

"Anger can be like a mighty, rushing flood that destroys or channeled like a stream. Let it be redeemed and well-used and channeled in creative ways," said the Rev. Alden Besse.

For the second time in two weeks, Theophilus Nix Jr., an Oak Bluffs
attorney, has come before selectmen holding a petition that could give
voters a chance to pull their town out of the Martha's Vineyard
Commission.