With all the worries plaguing aviators these days, the thing
that's got Trade Winds airport manager Joe Costa all worked up is
dog droppings - on the runway and taxi lane.

Charles W. Clifford Will Leave Commission Post After 15 Years of
Service

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Martha's Vineyard Commission executive director Charles W.
Clifford announced late last night that he will resign at the end of the
year from the unique regional planning agency where he has held the top
post for a total of 15 years, including the last 11 straight years.

Chilmark voters, at a special town meeting on Tuesday, indefinitely
postponed requests to fund major expansion projects at both the town
hall and the public library.

The Katama Bay oyster is the talk of Island raw bars. Lovers of
seafood now have a local oyster available through most of the year. This
Island oyster is making its way across the eastern seaboard to
Washington, D.C., New York and Boston.

An escalating contract dispute between management and
nonprofessional workers at the Windemere Nursing Home and Rehabilitation
Center will now go to federal mediation - and workers at the
Island's only nursing home will file a complaint charging unfair
labor practices.

State health advisories warning people to wear dust masks when mowing the lawn or cutting brush may have put a dent in this summer's total for cases of tularemia, the rare disease that has an unexplained foothold on the Vineyard.

Tivoli Day was about shopping and strolling and talking and eating and shopping and eating. People couldn't avoid the shopping and the eating. How could they when neon pink signs screamed from the sidewalk about $4 T-shirts and $10 sweatshirts, when the smell of hot dogs and fried foods dogged them from one end of Circuit avenue to the other. Everyone seemed to have a bag over one arm and a grease-stained cardboard food box in hand.

Oak Bluffs harbor had a record money-making summer. Josh Williams,
the harbor marina manager, estimated income from slips and moorings were
up 14 per cent over the previous year. Total income was $720,000, up
some $86,000 from the summer of 2000.

Oak Bluffs harbor was the place to be. Slips and moorings were
mostly full throughout the season and for the first time the town
offered regular, dependable launch service that made money.

In a time of terror and grief in America, Vineyarders join citizens across the nation in an outpouring of support for the most timeless of American symbols: 50 stars and 13 stripes.

American flags wave proudly from vehicle antennas, from minivans to tow trucks. From Main street to your street, American flags cover the community in red, white and blue. But instead of standing tall in Independence Day pride, the flags hover halfway up the poles, paying homage to thousands of Americans lost in last Tuesday's terrorist attacks and to a country navigating through uncharted territory.

Last week's report calling for high-speed ferry service
between New Bedford and the Vineyard was submitted without any financial
information, and the acting general manager of the Steamship Authority
said yesterday that he will now have to step in to finish the crucial
financial piece of the report.