Package Plant Would Treat Growing Wastewater Flows from Existing,
Proposed Facilities Along Corridor

Island officials for years have discussed creating some type of a
common sewage treatment plant near the Martha's Vineyard Regional
High School that would serve the growing number of Islandwide
institutions locating along the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven road.

Like an ominous dorsal fin appearing behind unsuspecting bathers set
to the familiar theme music from Jaws, debate over the Boston Big Game
Fishing Club Monster Shark Tournament resurfaced these past few weeks
just as the countdown to the summer season began in earnest.

Town, Tribe Sign Historic Land Use Pact

By IAN FEIN

At a characteristically informal event that was more potluck dinner
than Yalta Conference, town and tribe officials in Aquinnah this week
signed the intergovernmental land use agreement approved by town meeting
voters earlier this month.

About a dozen members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)
and a half-dozen town officials attended the signing ceremony at the
tribal headquarters on Tuesday evening.

An in-depth study by an independent consultant says that it would
cost West Tisbury more money to operate its elementary school
independently than remain part of the Up-Island Regional School
District.

The West Tisbury finance committee believes otherwise - which
is why at the April 10 annual town meeting, voters will find an article
in the middle of the warrant asking that the town withdraw from the
school district.

In response to a recent internal report which concluded the town had
no legal authority to award special employment agreements and bonuses to
several town employees in recent years, the Oak Bluffs board of
selectmen on Tuesday unanimously voted to terminate all personal service
contracts as of June 30.

Oak Bluffs Town Board Grants Hospital Request for Special Permit to
Construct Larger Facility in Eastville Area

The Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals last night unanimously
approved a special permit for the $42 million renovation and expansion
of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital. The decision will allow the
size of the overall campus and the height of the main building to exceed
what is normally allowed under town zoning bylaws.

Oak Bluffs Town Board Grants Hospital Request for Special Permit to
Construct Larger Facility in Eastville Area

The Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals last night unanimously
approved a special permit for the $42 million renovation and expansion
of the Martha\'s Vineyard Hospital. The decision will allow the
size of the overall campus and the height of the main building to exceed
what is normally allowed under town zoning bylaws.

A proposal to legalize the sale of beer and wine in restaurants and
a request to buy a piece of property for $1.65 million for a new
emergency services facility top the warrant for Tisbury's annual
town meeting on Tuesday, April 10.

The warrant also carries 14 spending requests to override
Proposition 2 1/2, the state-mandated tax cap on property tax levy
increases.

Something about the songs of those sneaky little night peepers we
call pinkletinks is both timely and timeless.

Their peeps mark a specific time each year, that window when the
world begins to thaw and a promise of warmer days hangs in the air, but
they span the years, too, connecting people to their youth, when they
trolled through swamps with a net and a mason jar hoping to catch one of
the tiny frogs.

In the middle of February, Kevco Professional Painting owner Kevin
Morris normally would be painting indoors.

Instead, he was loading power washing equipment into his pickup
truck to go work on a customer's back deck.

Winter on the Vineyard typically is a far cry from being pleasant
for outside work. But this winter has not been a typical, adding up so
far to one of the least snowy on record. That day last month, Morris
found, was a sunny 50 degrees.