As Enrollments Drop, Schools Ask Why; High Cost of Housing Cited in
Chilmark
By CHRIS BURRELL
Faced with steadily declining enrollments, the Vineyard's two
regional school district committees have decided it's time to
investigate what's causing the drain of kids from their
classrooms.
They are examining birth rates and planning to conduct exit
interviews with families and students who left their schools, trying to
figure out whether the downward spiral is part of a national trend or
more of a Vineyard anomaly.
Open Space Bond Funding Faces Cuts, Legislators Say
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
Cape and Islands Rep. Eric T. Turkington and a growing group of
state legislators took sharp aim at the Gov. Mitt Romney administration
this week as reports surfaced about plans to slash funding for the state
open space bond bill.
At Firemen's Muster, Duty Calls for Tisbury
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
West Tisbury volunteer firemen placed first at the Dukes County
Firemen's Muster on Sunday. This was their third consecutive win.
More than 200 people gathered at Waban Park in Oak Bluffs to cheer
firemen from five Island towns and a visiting team from the town of
Carver as they competed for top honors in the annual competition.
Executive Assistant Quits County Post
Marsha Smolev Had Leveled Charges of Hostile Work Environment;
Attorney Studies Case
By ALEXIS TONTI
The executive assistant to the county manager, Marsha Smolev, has
resigned, leaving the position without clear resolution regarding her
previous allegations of a hostile work environment and sexual harassment
by a county commissioner.
When leaders of the Island Affordable Housing Fund (IAHF) say they'll be collecting $14 million within five years, it's clear there's no room for negotiation.
"There's a lot to be done," John Abrams, chairman of the young non-profit's board, said flatly.
Questions Over Schools' Action
Superintendent Cash's Failure to Support Principal on Koines
Subject at Regional Meeting; Audit Critical of Lapses
By CHRIS BURRELL
Regional high school committee meetings don't typically turn
feisty, but with fallout from the Peter J. Koines case still hanging in
the air, Tisbury officials showed up to this week's meeting to
blast committee members and the schools superintendent for mishandling
the affair.
In an unqualified show of confidence for one of its own members who has been under relentless attack by the developers of the Down Island Golf Club, the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted without dissent last night that commission member Linda Sibley is free from bias and prejudice.
"I don't believe there is anybody on this board that does more homework and takes her job more seriously than Linda. For her to be accused of being a bigot is laughable," said commission member Richard Toole.
His team of Harvard scientists collected 5,000 dog ticks and trapped 35 skunks and raccoons on the Vineyard this summer. Now, parasitologist Sam Telford wants something more to bring back to the lab in Boston - human blood.
Mr. Telford is on the hunt for clues to the mystery of tularemia, the rare and potentially fatal disease that has infected 23 people on the Island in the last three years, killing one man in 2000 who didn't seek medical treatment soon enough.
Nearly all of the victims were landscapers or people who make a living working outdoors.
Boats Here Plucked from Water as Isabel Moves to Mainland
By CHRIS BURRELL
Spillover from Hurricane Isabel was forecast to hit the Island today
with 10-foot seas and wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour.
And while landfall came yesterday on the North Carolina coast, many
Vineyarders who own boats took no chances: They hauled out.
Boatyards worked overtime this week, but if you were expecting the
exodus to dry land to spell the end of the boating season, think again.
When the striped bass she caught was weighed in at Derby
Headquarters in Edgartown on Wednesday night, the gathered crowd of 30
onlookers applauded, as they only do for serious Derby contenders. The
computer driven scale read in blue letters: 40.52 pounds.