It began 10 months ago as an idea.

This week, the idea took a giant step closer to reality when Aquinnah became the sixth town to support the creation of a housing bank, modeled after the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank.

The concept is called the Martha's Vineyard Housing Bank.

Now the heavy lifting begins.

In order to become law, the housing bank needs approval from the state legislature and also every Vineyard town.

In a race that pitted experience against idealism, Camille Rose defeated Faith Vanderhoop for a seat on the board of selectmen in Aquinnah's annual election on Wednesday.

In a race that pitted experience against idealism, Camille Rose
defeated Faith Vanderhoop for a seat on the board of selectmen in
Aquinnah's annual election on Wednesday.

A record turnout of voters came out to the polls in the second
smallest town in the commonwealth. In fact, two-thirds of the 368
registered voters - a total of 248 voters - cast ballots on
a bright spring day. The final tally was 131-111.

Buoyed by an eleventh hour surprise of almost $300,000 in free cash,
Aquinnah voters wrapped up their annual meeting Tuesday night in an
unfamiliar way: $2.7 million in spending with no need for a Proposition
2 1/2 override.

And with a turbulent fiscal year now nearly a memory, the town heads
into a new year on July 1 with its financial house in order.

With high school prom night just eight days away and graduation only
around the corner, you can almost taste a celebratory mood in the air.
Fancy dresses, tuxedos and limousines are lined up - maybe even a
few dance lessons at Fanny Blair Hall in Vineyard Haven to get ready.

FARM Institute Pulls the Plug on Huge Summer Concert Plan

By MAX HART

A budding plan to stage a huge summer concert at Katama Farm
evaporated when the FARM Institute abruptly withdrew its application for
the event before a special meeting of the Edgartown conservation
commission on Wednesday night.

Gus Ben David's newest feathered friend is seven weeks old, and subsists on a diet of rats and mice.

That may not sound very appetizing, but this baby is awfully cute. Mr. Ben David, the director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, is rearing a Eurasian eagle owl.

The creature, a male, is smaller than a football but in the months ahead, its size will eclipse any owl Mr. Ben David has ever cared for: Fully grown, the bird's wing span will extend six feet.

Growing deeply dissatisfied with the state's proposed two-bridge solution to the ailing Lagoon Pond drawbridge, Vineyard representatives are now planning to go straight to the top and seek a meeting with the newly named state transportation secretary to see if an alternative can be found.

The decision to make direct contact with Secretary John Cogliano, who has Island ties, came at Wednesday's meeting of the Lagoon Pond drawbridge committee.

A long-running rent dispute between Dukes County and the Martha's Vineyard Airport dissolved Wednesday in an amicable resolution.

Airport commissioners used a letter prepared by fellow commissioner and county commission chairman John S. Alley as a blueprint to spell out when and where rent would be paid by the county or its agencies, and where the county would use airport property essentially rent-free.

Aquinnah Opens Annual Town Meeting with Free Cash Unsettled Once
Again

By MAX HART

After a tumultuous fiscal year that saw three failed attempts at a
Proposition 2 1/2 override, an operating budget pared to the bone and
the use of reserve funds to pay for basic town services, Aquinnah voters
will look for a new start at their annual town meeting on Tuesday night.