Steamship Authority Weathers Changes Through Long Year
By JAMES KINSELLA
As 2004 got under way at the Steamship Authority, there was some
question about whether there would be a Steamship Authority in the
future.
In mid-January Nantucket governor Grace Grossman confirmed that she
had been exploring since the previous summer whether that island should
secede from the boat line, an entity created by the state in 1960 to
ensure reliable, affordable ferry travel between Martha's
Vineyard, Nantucket and the mainland.
Wampanoags Ask High Court to Reconsider Sovereignty Case
By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has asked the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to reconsider a case
freighted with long-term implications for the tribe's sovereignty
and land use powers.
The tribe's attorney, Douglas J. Luckerman of Lexington, filed
the motion last Thursday with the SJC, the highest court in
Massachusetts.
On Dec. 9, the SJC ruled against the tribe in the case.
Commission Begins Islandwide Planning
Three-Year Initiative Starts in January as MVC Updates Comprehensive
Plan with Eye Toward Deep Study of Issues
By IAN FEIN
The Martha's Vineyard Commission will kick off a three-year
Islandwide planning effort in 2005, hoping to develop a comprehensive
set of guidelines by which the commission and individual towns can
manage future growth on the Vineyard.
"It's long overdue and it's needed
desperately," said commission member Nathaniel Orleans, who
introduced the idea last spring.
New York city may have Times Square and the ball drop, but Islanders
looking to ring in the new year need look no further than Vineyard Haven
to find their New Year's Eve fix.
The annual Last Night First Day celebration, sponsored by the
Tisbury Ambulance Association, begins today, and with warmer weather
forecast and new activities planned organizers are predicting this
year's event will be one of the most successful.
When Todd and Kara Alexander left for a month-long vacation to Sri
Lanka a week before Christmas, the Oak Bluffs couple was looking forward
to relaxing in the warm sun and white sand beaches of Arugam Bay.
Mrs. Alexander is in the early stages of pregnancy, and the thought
of a beach resort they had read about in the travel guide sounded like
an ideal tonic.
More Students, Higher Scores: High School Cracks SAT Exam
By IAN FEIN
Efforts to improve SAT scores at the Martha's Vineyard
Regional High School are apparently paying off.
For the second consecutive year the graduating class of seniors
posted the school's best average scores on both the verbal and
math sections of the key college entrance exam. The class of 2004 also
had the highest percentage of Vineyard students to ever take the test
- with 152 of 181 graduates, or 84 per cent, giving up a Saturday
morning to put their No. 2 pencils to work.
Christmas came three days early for the family of U.S. Army Sgt.
Randy Dull.
Early Wednesday evening, as the sun set and lit the sky the color of
salmon, Sergeant Dull - who was wounded in Iraq by a roadside
bomb two months ago - arrived at the Martha's Vineyard
Airport to a hero's welcome.
The Christmas tree in the corner of the room may not be the tallest,
grandest or most elaborate, but for Melissa Peters and her daughter,
Ashley, the five-foot pine is perfect. With its twinkling lights and
gleaming ornaments, the tree symbolizes more than just the coming of the
holidays; it also marks a new era of Christmas at the Peters's
house.
Rather, make that the Peters's home.
Hy-Line Pitches Fast Ferry, Year-Round Service to Link Oak Bluffs
and Hyannis
By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer
In a move that would tie Martha's Vineyard even more closely
to the mainland, Hy-Line Cruises wants to launch year-round fast ferry
service between Hyannis and Oak Bluffs by next May.
The high-speed ferry operation proposed by the Hyannis-based company
would become the second such service started within a year between the
Vineyard and the mainland.
Join Hands: Message of Unity Heartens Island Over Christmas
By JOHN SCHULE JR.
The moods of the Christmas season are many and wondrous. They speak
of joy and of hope, of laughter and of love, of warmth and of peace on
earth, good will to all people. These moods, and the other emotions of
Christmas days, are familiar to many, each mood beautifully expressed
and each one touched with a special magic of the season.
