Boatline Eases Coupon Rules

Steamship Authority Governors Adopt New Ticket Book Policy,
Encouraging Foot Passengers to Use Discounted Fares

By IAN FEIN

Steamship Authority discount ticket book holders will now be able to
share their passenger coupons with friends and family members and use
more than one ticket on a single ferry trip, according to new
regulations adopted by the boat line this week. Both practices were
previously disallowed.

Retired Edgartown School principal Edward J. Jerome will take over
on Tuesday as interim principal of West Tisbury School, superintendent
of schools Dr. James H. Weiss announced this week. West Tisbury School
principal Michael Halt, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine
Corps Reserves, leaves this weekend for active duty in California and
Iraq.

The Edgartown zoning board of appeals this week gave tentative
approval to plans for an upscale members-only recreational facility in
Katama called the Field Club - although the board stopped short of
putting the plan to a vote.

Dr. Milton Mazer, the Vineyard's first psychiatrist whose
pioneering work in the field of rural mental health led to the
establishment of Martha's Vineyard Community Services more than
four decades ago, died Jan. 7 at the Long Hill assisted living home in
Edgartown, where he had been a resident for the past six years. The
cause of death was renal failure; he was 95.

Youth Group at Federated Church Returns from Mission to Aid New
Orleans Cleanup

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A large area in and around New Orleans remains devastated after
Hurricane Katrina brought high winds and a storm surge to the Gulf Coast
in August 2005.

Earlier this year, singer and songwriter Taylor Brown returned to his childhood home in Pennsylvania. Since graduating from Vassar College last spring, Mr. Brown has, for the most part, been living out of a suitcase. He has spent time on the Vineyard, a place he describes as his rock, performing with Maynard Silva and at Offshore Ale. He has tried out Providence, taking the stage at open mike nights throughout the city.

Tribe Approves Land Use Pact

Memorandum of Understanding Between the Two Governments Now Needs
Voter Approval at Special Town Meeting

By IAN FEIN

After five months of internal deliberations, the Wampanoag Tribe of
Gay Head (Aquinnah) this week approved a revised land use agreement with
the town of Aquinnah.

Cape Wind Plan Sees Potential in Year Ahead

By IAN FEIN

Beginning today, developers of the Cape Wind project in Nantucket
Sound will face a new political landscape as they continue their bid to
build the nation's first offshore wind farm.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick, an ardent Cape Wind supporter, was sworn into
office on Beacon Hill yesterday afternoon, minutes after the new
Democrat-controlled Congress convened in Washington, D.C., with
renewable energy reform as a top priority for the coming legislative
session.

One young Island family's dream of building an affordable home
on Chappaquiddick hit a roadblock last month when a Marblehead couple
that owns a summer home next door purchased the land out from underneath
them.

Receipts by the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank from property
sales on the Island fell almost eight per cent in 2006, reflecting the
general slowing of the real estate market.

The figures also point to a growing polarization of a market in
which higher end properties continue to sell well, while sales at the
less expensive end are stalling. The greater part of land bank revenues
in 2006 came from sales worth more than $2 million.