JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

A staff report released by the Cape Cod Commission this week gives a decidedly mixed review to the controversial plan by Cape Wind Associates to build 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal. The report finds that Cape Wind’s plan to connect the turbines to land in West Yarmouth through underwater electricity transmission lines meets only eight of 32 performance standards set by the commission.

In general, the staff report concluded, a good deal more information is needed in order to satisfy the requirements of the commission.

Much has changed between the time 54-year-old John W. Stevens graduated from the Edgartown School and yesterday, when he welcomed the students and parents on opening day and introduced himself as their new school principal.

But for the veteran educator, who comes from running large schools in Florida, the scene was familiar enough.

Roy Langley, weigh master for the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, will ring a cowbell at 8 a.m. sharp Sunday morning.

Once that cowbell rings, at the entrance to the official derby headquarters at the foot of Main street in Edgartown, the Vineyard will become an entirely different place.

From that moment on, derby participants can bring in their fish to be weighed in the month-long contest that galvanizes the Island every year.

Friday, August 31: Mostly sunny. High flying cirrus clouds. Ocean Park grass is green despite the recent drought. Waban Park grass is brown. Oak Bluffs beaches bustle with sunbathers. Sailboats move slowly across Nantucket Sound toward Edgartown. Starry night.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Thirty years ago, the invention of the electronic fish finder helped fishermen out in their boats find fish. Today’s great device, the computer hooked up to the Internet, helps the rest of us find fishermen who know where to find the fish.

The culture of the Internet has helped charter fishing captains just as it has helped a lot of other businesses.

Remember Venus hanging low in the southwestern sky after sunset during summer? Tomorrow morning you’ll find the same brilliant planet low in the eastern sky before sunrise. It is a dramatic shift. Tomorrow morning Venus is joined by the crescent moon. The two are close together. They both rise together as daylight approaches. Sunrise is after 6 a.m.; so the best view is probably around 5 a.m. and earlier.

Grant Will Help Train

Nurses for Windemere

The state has announced the award of a $104,974 workforce training fund grant to Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.

The grant will fund a program to train 10 employees to become licensed practical nurses in 10 months. In addition to the grant, Windemere will fund $244,644 of the training program. 

The county parking clerk is currently making the rounds among Island selectmen with a pitch to increase the fees for parking violations. Clerk Carol Grant’s reasoning goes something like this: the minimum fee for overtime parking of ten dollars is too low and hardly a deterrent for a summer person who has another ten bucks in her pocket to throw down — it’s just the cost of being on vacation.

One local favorite capsized twice in his kayak. Of the fifteen windsurfers who entered a race around the Island, two finished. Sailboats called for a minimum of three hands: one on the tiller, one on the main sheet and one on the bilge pump.

All in all, there probably were easier ways to raise money for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services.