A fishing trip on Sengekontacket Pond turned tragic Monday
when two men from Oak Bluffs drowned accidentally several hours after
paddling a one-person kayak out to a sandbar and casting their lines.

Against the backdrop of a heated race for Massachusetts governor and a slew of ballot initiatives on everything from bilingual education to income tax, voters on Martha's Vineyard will face their own subset of important electoral decisions on the first Tuesday in November this year.

It doesn't happen often that students and school administrators find common ground so quickly, but a single question has united them for the time being: What's up with the cost of a school lunch?

Night Fire in Edgartown Leaves Fourteen Brazilians Homeless

By MANDY LOCKE

Charred Portuguese prayer books, scalded refrigerators and a
few box springs are all that remain of the worldly possessions of 14
Brazilians who had been living in a three-bedroom house in Edgartown.

Torn down the middle for the third time in three years, the expressions eloquent and heartfelt on both sides of the street, a strained and weary Martha's Vineyard Commission voted 9-8 to reject the Down Island Golf Club plan for the southern woodlands late on Wednesday night.

"The applicant has come back with changes to the plan and the word is that he has addressed all of our concerns. But he hasn't ever addressed my main concern and that's my concern about the character and identity of Martha's Vineyard," declared commission member James Athearn.

Testing the power of their weighted vote for the first time
since the board was expanded, the two Island Steamship Authority
governors yesterday blocked a proposal to launch seasonal freight
service between New Bedford and the Vineyard next summer, calling for
more study.

"As we develop New Bedford service, I feel it's more
important to do it right than to do it right now," declared Vineyard
SSA governor Cassie Roessel.

Lagoon Pond has millions of baby bay scallops. On Tuesday afternoon,
David Grunden, shellfish constable for Oak Bluffs, was out moving some
of them around. There is a gold mine of baby bay scallops out there.
While this doesn't help the fishermen of today, it may be a sign
of a good year to follow.

The developers of the Down Island Golf Club made their final chess
move last night in the quest to win approval for a luxury golf and
housing project in the southern woodlands, unveiling a hasty
eleventh-hour plan for public play and urging the Martha's
Vineyard Commission to vote on the project immediately.

From Montreal to Martha's Vineyard, from two languages to one, from urban to rural, from one island to another. Just two days into his first week on the job as the new executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Commission, Mark London has developed a keen appreciation for plastic boxes.

Tisbury Center Plan Is Delayed

Failure to Issue State Permit Snags Main Street Sewage Project; Town
Officials Raise Public Safety Concerns About Work

By JOSHUA SABATINI

On the eve of the planned groundbreaking for the Tisbury sewage
project, two Island officials raised serious safety concerns regarding
the renovation plans even as the town faces a snag in starting
construction work due to a delay at the state level.