Commission Begins Its Review of Middle Line Housing Plan

By IAN FEIN

Chilmark selectmen told members of the Martha's Vineyard
Commission last week about their desire to provide town residents with
affordable homes in the Middle Line Road housing project.

"This has been a dream of ours for quite a few years,"
said selectman and board chairman Warren Doty. "And it is starting
to look like a dream that is about to come true."

Towns Seek to Chart a Better Course for Regional Trash Disposal
Methods

By IAN FEIN

The Vineyard is taking a fresh look at how it handles its trash.

Selectmen from Tisbury and Oak Bluffs on Monday will take up the
possibility of hiring the Martha's Vineyard Refuse Disposal and
Resource Recovery District to manage their municipal solid waste, which,
if it happened, would mark the first time in roughly 15 years that all
six towns on the Island are working together under a unified trash
disposal system.

Voter Conduct Is Neighborly

Aquinnah Annual Town Meeting Rejects Notion of Shifting Regional
School Costs Over to Chilmark

By IAN FEIN

In a magnanimous sign of regional good will, Aquinnah voters at
their annual town meeting this week turned down an opportunity to pass
on some $74,000 in Up-Island Regional School District costs to their
neighbors in Chilmark.

The forces which punched a hole in Norton Point and opened Edgartown
harbor to the Atlantic Ocean might present a headache for town
officials, but from an ecological viewpoint, they have all the benefits
of a big natural spring cleaning.

Philip R. Craig, the salty Edgartown author who earned national and local celebrity status for his popular Vineyard mystery series, died on May 8 at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital after a brief illness. He was 74 and had lived year-round in a renovated Ocean Heights camp with his wife Shirley.

About a week ago, Trudy Russell was sitting at her Olivetti Lettera
25 typewriter with her morning cup of coffee when the phone rang. The
woman on the other line introduced herself as M.J. Munafo and told Mrs.
Russell that her play, Closure, had been selected for the Vineyard
Playhouse spring festival, Island Interludes.

Mrs. Russell had no idea what she was talking about.

About a week ago, Trudy Russell was sitting at her Olivetti Lettera
25 typewriter with her morning cup of coffee when the phone rang. The
woman on the other line introduced herself as M.J. Munafo and told Mrs.
Russell that her play, Closure, had been selected for the Vineyard
Playhouse spring festival, Island Interludes.

Mrs. Russell had no idea what she was talking about.

Boat Line Bill Set for Hearing

Sleeper Legislation Would Dilute Island Control of SSA Board; Unions
Back the Measure, Management Does Not

By MIKE SECCOMBE

The Steamship Authority is facing a fresh fight for its independence
over union-backed attempts to change the composition of its board to
dilute local representation and impose an increasing degree of state
control.

Aquinnah Tackles $2.9 Million Budget

By IAN FEIN

Aquinnah voters will take up a $2.9 million budget and a series of
relatively small spending requests at their annual town meeting next
week.

Town officials are hoping the evening will proceed more smoothly
than last year's meeting, which was postponed for a month because
voters were unhappy with the budget as presented.

Ferry Islander to Be Sold; Pricetag Set at $750,000

By MIKE SECCOMBE

To the extent that you can do a cost benefit analysis on sentiment,
the Steamship Authority did one this week on the Vineyard's
favorite ferry, the Islander, and settled on a figure of $750,000.

If the highest bidder could come up with that much money, boat line
governors decided, they would be obliged to sell the venerable old
ferry.