From the very start it had all the markings of a political campaign
- go heavy on the sales pitch, work the numbers to make them fit
the pitch and filibuster to silence anyone who questioned the
information.
Ending months of speculation and more than a decade of bitter warring over development plans - both in and out of court - the 215-acre, ecologically rare Herring Creek Farm in Edgartown was sold this week for a record $64 Million.
The new owners of the storied Great Plains farm include The Nature Conservancy, the FARM Institute and three private buyers.
Site problems, traffic impacts, resentment from two rival business owners and an exceptional program that has sparked a love of tennis in hundreds of Island children - all these were subjects for discussion at a second public hearing last week on the new building proposal by Vineyard Youth Tennis Inc.
County Fee to Hospital Is Eliminated, Ending Weeks of Controversy
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The subcommittee charged with managing an unusual contract between
the county and the Martha's Vineyard Hospital voted last night to
eliminate a controversial fee from the contract - and the county
manager issued a brief apology for setting up the fee in the first
place.
Invite more public participation. That was the message to
the Steamship Authority board of governors last week from a
small gathering of Vineyard residents.
"I would like to encourage you to reconsider your policy of
only permitting public comment at the end of your meetings.
Acting on a joint request from attorneys for the Martha's
Vineyard Commission and the Down Island Golf Club, a superior court
judge sent the golf club plan back to the commission this week for fresh
review.
"This matter is remanded to the Martha's Vineyard
Commission for further proceedings, including a public hearing to
consider plaintiff's amended application," declared the Hon.
Richard C. Connan, an associate justice of the superior court who sits
in Barnstable.
Hospital Nurses Union Takes Its Case to Island Community
By JULIA WELLS
Nurses at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital this week fired back
at chief executive officer Kevin Burchill, charging that he has forced
them into a bitter contract dispute that, left unresolved, could spell
the end of high-quality nursing at the Island's only hospital. The
nurses also said they will now take their case into the Vineyard
community in a public appeal for support.
The book lecture was about to begin, and suddenly Rosabeth Moss
Kanter, celebrated author and star of the event, spotted a friend in the
front row. Against a backdrop of the grand Stanley Murphy murals in the
Katharine Cornell Theatre, hugs were exchanged, lipstick smudged.
"I had a big idea the other day - a very big idea -
I'll tell you about it," Ms. Kanter said.
If it seems the inventory of hair color products on Island drugstore and supermarket shelves is growing larger every year - well, it probably is. New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week shows that gray hair is the increasingly predominant theme in Dukes County, and for that matter all over Massachusetts, as the population grows older and the number of households with children begins to dwindle.
Steamship Authority governors unveiled an ambitious business vision
for the 21st century yesterday that calls for a new emphasis on summer
visitors to both Islands with more passenger service, reduced car
service, streamlined high-speed ferries from distant ports and a price
tag that is potentially sky-high.
And when they exhaled from that, the boat line board voted to ink a
$1.75 million deal to buy the New Bedford passenger ferry Schamonchi.
