Vineyard, Nantucket, SSA Managers Turn Out to Oppose State House
Bill

By MIKE SECCOMBE

BOSTON - Opponents of a union-backed move to water down the
independence of the Steamship Authority and decrease control by the two
Islands turned out in force on Boston on Thursday to fight it before the
state Joint Committee on Transportation.

In a small island community known for its largely dissent-free brand
of government, the Gosnold annual town meeting Monday promises to be
more of the same.

Gosnold town officials this week said this year's town meeting
warrant has no real hot-button issues. All 11 articles on the warrant
appear to be largely pedestrian at first reading, which seems to be the
norm in this town that includes the six Elizabeth Islands and is the
seventh town in Dukes County.

There's nothing like a deadline to keep a project rolling full
steam ahead. In this case, the deadline is a mother in law's
visit. The project to be finished in time for one of the
Vineyard's busiest weekends is phase one of a three year, $77
million plan to restore and enhance the former Harbor View Hotel on
North Water street in Edgartown.

High School Budget in Limbo as Special Meeting Plans Stall

By IAN FEIN

In a political maneuver intended to draw the attention of the state,
selectmen in three Island towns this week indicated they may
intentionally leave the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School
without a budget for the coming fiscal year.

The unusual tactic comes as part of an ongoing controversy over how
towns divide their regional school district costs.

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.