Geological time mostly runs incredibly slowly, in measures of
hundreds of thousands, if not millions or billions of years. No wonder
Bob Woodruff was excited about what happened over the weekend.

A powerful spring storm that inundated the entire East Coast

pounded the Vineyard south shore with heavy seas this week, marrying

with extreme tides to carve a substantial breach through Norton Point

Beach at Katama at the extreme southeastern end of Edgartown.

The event leaves Chappaquiddick a true island for the first time

in more than a quarter-century.

The loose ends of Tisbury’s three-day-long town meeting
last week will be tied in the ballot box next Tuesday, as voters
revisit eight Proposition 2 1/2 override requests. The selectmen put
all non-emergency expenditures over $10,000 on override questions this
year, but because the bulk of the spending and borrowing items failed
on town meeting floor, the main focus for voters next week will be a
single contested race for town selectman.

Dianne Powers Is Elected West Tisbury Selectman

By IAN FEIN

Faced with the difficult task of replacing a longtime town leader,
West Tisbury voters yesterday elected Dianne E. Powers to the board of
selectmen.

Ms. Powers, the Dukes County register of deeds, more than doubled
the vote tally of her opponent, Cynthia Riggs, to earn a seat on the
board. The final count was 410 to 190.

"I'm just thrilled and a little overwhelmed," Ms.
Powers said last night. "I'm thankful for the support, and I
hope to live up to it."

While other towns agonized over their town meetings, Edgartown
residents breezed through theirs on Tuesday night, approving a $24
million annual town budget in minutes and working through 67 warrant
articles in a little over two hours.

In an impressive display of support for the priorities of town
authorities, the 200-odd residents who turned out for the meeting failed
to approve only a few of the measures put before them.

High School Budget Must Be Redone

By JULIA WELLS

The Martha's Vineyard Regional High School budget now goes
back to the drawing board.

This is the next step following the vote in Oak Bluffs this week to
reduce its high school assessment by some $400,000. The vote capped
months of debate among Island towns over regional school assessments,
which were thrown into a state of widespread confusion because of a
14-year-old state law that for unknown reasons had never been enforced
on the Vineyard until this year.

Kerry Scott, the incumbent selectman who campaigned for reelection
on a platform of continued reform and openness in town government,
easily defeated challenger Mac Starks during the annual town elections
yesterday to win a second three-year term on the five-member board.

Ms. Scott received a total of 608 votes; Mr. Starks received 293
votes.

Total turnout on a rainy, windswept day was 972, or about 30 per
cent of the registered voters.

In a town well known for emotional and sometimes acrimonious town
meetings, this year's two-day annual meeting in Oak Bluffs on
Tuesday and Wednesday lived up to expectations, as residents debated
everything from a new baseball diamond at Veira Park to the regional
high school budget.

Tisbury voters cheered like they had just landed after a turbulent
flight when the last warrant article came up just before the stroke of
midnight last night, wrapping up three days and about ten and a half
hours of annual town meeting, which began on Tuesday.

When the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) broke ground on a community center building in the spring of 2004, tribal leaders envisioned it as an important gathering place, and said young members would be shooting hoops inside the new gymnasium by the end of the summer.

Three years later, the building is still unoccupied, sitting half-finished on tribal lands.