Aquinnah Leaders Make Painful Budget Choices After Failure of
Override

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Swinging the proverbial budget ax, selectmen and town department
heads in Aquinnah took their first whacks yesterday at trying to cut
$260,000 from a $2.4 million town budget.

"We're here tonight to try and come up with some cost
savings," declared Aquinnah selectman and board chairman Carl
Widdiss.

Don't Fall for Misconceptions on Ticks, and Remain Vigilant,
Experts Tell Forum

By BRIEN HEFLER

Coming home from a day at the beach, a hike through nature's
splendor or a walk in the backyard, one may find a hard, foreign body on
their person, holding fast and feeding voraciously. It's a
familiar and unsettling feeling here on the Island, one of the worst
areas in the state for ticks and tick borne illnesses.

Under the Party Tents, a Tasting of Summer

$175,000 Is Raised in Two-Day Event to Benefit Trust

By JESSIE ROYCE HILL

It is one of the Vineyard's few events at which everyone wears
shoes. Tasseled, pointy, strappy and high. They call it a stroll, but
the women, in their pink and green Lilly Pulitzer ensembles, more
likely teeter from vendor to vendor as they withdraw their heels from
the fresh grass into which they've sunk. The gentlemen, a
formation of navy blazers and bowties, outpace them.

Authority Members Talk Tomorrow About Future of the Chief Executive

By ALEXIS TONTI

The future of the Steamship Authority will be decided this week when
chief executive officer Fred C. Raskin steps behind closed doors to tell
the boat line board of governors whether he will resign.

At a meeting Wednesday, "I believe that Fred Raskin intends to
tell us whether or not he plans to stay for the full term of his
contract," Vineyard SSA governor Kathryn A. Roessel said.

SLIP Styling Away: Youth Group Organizes, Sponsors First Events

By CHRIS BURRELL

They call themselves The SLIP. That's the condensed form of a
name that sounds like it was plucked from a comic book bubble: The
Supporting League of Ideas and Projects.

A youth-driven group, their whole purpose is fostering creative
outlets for their peers, giving Island teenagers an alternative to the
weekend or summertime party scene.

Like a twist on the old Homer Price story, it wasn't the doughnuts that piled up this weekend at Janice Casey's bakery in
downtown Oak Bluffs, but the signatures.

Business Leaders Want to Say: Boat Reservations Are a Mess

By ALEXIS TONTI

The Steamship Authority vehicle reservation system is broken.

That was the take-home message this week at a forum that started as
a focused debate about the boat line's new guaranteed standby
policy and expanded to a broad indictment of the way the SSA books
passengers.

The forum, hosted by the Dukes County Commission, was held Wednesday
at the Vineyard Transit Authority administration building.

When Robert Breckenridge started teaching Spanish three years ago at the Tisbury School, the seventh and eighth graders eyed him with understandable skepticism. To them, Señor Breckenridge was just the latest in a long line to stand at the blackboard and say "Hola."

Now that the Island Health Plan has received a green light from
officials on Beacon Hill, leaders of this grassroots affordable
insurance program must turn their attention home - enlisting
doctors and Island business owners to sign on to this experimental
project.

"We all want this to work. Now is the time for all the players
to translate their words into action," said Tad Crawford, chairman
of the Dukes County Health Council.

It's like gardening, William Wilcox and Paul Bagnall explain,
but with a twist. All the planting is done underwater.