End of Summer Business Assessment: Season Analysis Results Are Mixed

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Summer had its winners and losers. The smart shoppers were
definitely on the Vineyard, and how they spent their money is already
the talk of the business community.

The mood was jovial at derby headquarters in Edgartown Sunday morning. More than a dozen committee members of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby came together to prepare for the fall contest that begins next week.

A few carried cups of coffee. Derby committee member Don Eber of Chilmark stepped into the old fish shack carrying a Makita power drill. For the next few minutes, Mr. Eber put screws into wood to hold two vertical two-by-fours.

Like cracking open a pack of new pencils with the eraser tops still bright pink, the Vineyard school year starts Thursday with a fresh cast - a new bus company, four new administrators and more than a dozen teachers newly hired into Island classrooms.

Ending a Quick Search, School District Names Interim Principals for
Year Ahead

By CHRIS BURRELL

Three consecutive days of interviews this week yielded two new
principals up-Island: Michael Halt will take over at the West Tisbury
School, and Diane Gandy becomes principal at the Chilmark School.

Mr. Halt, 39, will leave his post as vice-principal at the
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School to accept the interim
principalship in West Tisbury.

Lynn C. Murphy has reason to celebrate this Labor Day weekend. He has marked a business anniversary few single proprietors ever reach: He has operated Menemsha Marine Repair for half a century now.

They decided almost three years ago that replacing a yellow blinker
beacon with a roundabout was the safest solution for a notoriously
dangerous intersection, but just weeks before hiring an engineer to
design it, Oak Bluffs selectmen are thinking it over - one more
time.

Labor Day's Departures Remind Us of the Pleasures that
Attracted Them

By C.K. WOLFSON

It's an Us and Them question: How was your Vineyard summer?

For most of the working Us, it's an anthem of impatience, of
too slow, too long lines and cars. It is a fast tempo fugue in a world
that seems to be waltzing; too many demands and not enough time.

This Season, Behind the Retail Counter, Multiple Languages (and Some
Confusion)

By CHRIS BURRELL

Rafata Jabri, a Jordanian-born pastry chef in Oak Bluffs, knows all
about turning flour, butter, sugar and eggs into delectable treats, but
some other ingredients in the bakery are driving him a little crazy
- a polyglot of Portuguese, Czech, Bulgarian and even Scottish
brogues.

They are the languages and accents heard from his work force at
Martha's Vineyard Gourmet Cafe and Bakery in downtown Oak Bluffs.

Putting aside for the moment concerns about potential costs involved
in expanding their century-old library, Edgartown residents yesterday
voted overwhelmingly in favor of purchasing an adjacent property.

Chilmark School Work Nears Completion, But First Days' Classes
Will Be Elsewhere

JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Repairs at the Chilmark School will not be completed in time for
opening day, and yesterday school and town leaders were busy with
last-minute arrangements for an alternative site for the children to
attend school.

Opening day is Thursday for all five elementary schools on the
Vineyard.