Amy Bannon is determined to get it right this Illumination Night. Wednesday night marks the 134th year for lighting up the Camp Ground, but for the Bannons, this is just their second try.
And the pressure is on.
"We made some mistakes last year," said Mrs. Bannon. "We were the dimmest cottage in the entire circle."
Waiting List for English Classes Is Long; Indicator of Intent to
Stay
By CHRIS BURRELL
They are, said Jeanne Burke, the people who sustain the Island, the
ones who ring up the groceries, paint the houses and tend the gardens.
They are also the ones knocking on Ms. Burke's door in
staggering numbers, looking for a place in one of the six English
classes taught through the Martha's Vineyard Adult Learning
Partnership, where Ms. Burke is the director.
The state wants to spend $3.25 million replacing the Big and Little Bridges on Beach Road along Sengekontacket Pond with concrete structures, but last week at a public hearing in the Oak Bluffs School, a handful of Islanders tried convincing state engineers to tread lightly because these are no ordinary bridges.
The two bridges built of wood are as beloved as the covered bridges of Vermont, said Thea Hansen, a resident of Oak Bluffs who handles seasonal real estate rentals.
They're recreational destinations for fishermen and children, said Kenneth Abbott of Edgartown.
Prevailing winds so far have helped the Vineyard escape any real environmental impact from an oil spill Sunday that dumped almost 15,000 gallons into Buzzards Bay, killing at least five waterfowl and polluting more than 10 miles of mainland beaches along the bay.
Chunks of oil the size of hockey pucks were spotted in Vineyard Sound near the Elizabeth Islands, prompting Dukes County officials to declare a state of emergency Wednesday, but none of the oil has yet washed ashore on any Island beaches.
Who needs Broadway when you live year-round on Martha's Vineyard? Turn the camera lens back on the last year, and you can spot enough drama for a dozen plays, both comedies and tragedies.
Ideal grist for the mill, money and power spurred much of the political intrigue and battles of 2002, whether the stage was the Steamship Authority, the Martha's Vineyard Hospital or the southern woodlands, which lived another year in its wild state - free of golf balls and putting greens.
Something really big and different is about to happen at the Colonial Inn in Edgartown, but so far, the people who know what it is - the hotel's primary owner and a Tisbury real estate outfit involved in the deal - are keeping their lips locked.
They won't say a word until tomorrow and then again Thursday at cocktail parties in the Daniel Fisher House in downtown Edgartown. Party invitations read like a movie trailer voice-over script, enticing guests to the "grand unveiling," where they will "experience the ultimate," so "come see what it's all about."
