Steamship Authority Board Offers Top Job to Veteran of Marine
Transport Company
By JULIA WELLS
In the end they decided to offer the job to the guy with the
battered briefcase.
"There's that case again," mused Falmouth
Steamship Authority governor Galen Robbins as Fred C. Raskin set the
scarred, antique leather case on the table in front of him, just before
his final interview with the boat line board.
Health Survey Seeks Broad Profile of Medical Needs to Strengthen
Delivery of Care to All Islanders
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Marking the first-ever study of its kind on the Island, a
wide-ranging scientific health survey will be launched this winter that
is aimed at developing a comprehensive health report for the Vineyard.
Commission Confronts Pressures from Oak Bluffs Selectmen and
Developers to Expedite Plan; Compromise Is Reached
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The high-speed chase to force quick approval of a luxury golf and
housing project in the southern woodlands section of Oak Bluffs
continued without letting up last week when the Martha's Vineyard
Commission took up an unusual request to hold a high-speed public review
of the development plan.
Fierce Debate Is Expected in Collision Between New Bedford and the
Islands for Steamship Authority Control
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
A fiercely contested legislative bill to reorganize the Steamship
Authority board of governors is now on the move and set for debate and
vote on the House floor on Beacon Hill next week.
Trustees at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital scrambled to
contain the damage this week in the aftermath of last week's
announcement by a respected Vineyard surgeon that he will sever his
contract with the hospital.
The developer of the Down Island Golf Club told the Martha's
Vineyard Commission last week that the members of the private luxury
golf complex he hopes to build will be "rich people" who
will bring no real benefit to the town of Oak Bluffs or the Island.
The Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust confirmed this week that it will buy Union Chapel, the storied Oak Bluffs chapel whose rich history forms a distinct chapter in the annals of the Vineyard as a summer resort.
West Tisbury Annual Town Meeting Decides to Remain in School
District
By JULIA WELLS
The people of West Tisbury refused to pull out of the Up-Island
Regional School District, axed a plan for a gate at the entrance to town
beach and cheered their resident historian and Pulitzer Prize winner
this week at an annual town meeting that was in many ways an example of
democracy straight up.
"I have stood here for years wearing many hats, and tonight I
wear my favorite hat of all - it just says citizen,"
declared Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter.
In a three-way partnership that will protect the last key piece of undeveloped land at one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries on the Vineyard, the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust announced yesterday that they will buy 34 acres from Lucia Moffet for $2.55 million.
The Moffet property runs along the entire length of the entrance road to the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary on the eastern side.
Hearings Open on Luxury Golf Club Plan; Public Packs Hall for Hours
of Testimony
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Torn down the middle, their emotions rubbed raw after two years of
bitter debate, an irascible crowd of Oak Bluffs citizens gave the
Martha's Vineyard Commission a new earful on an old subject this
week: the Down Island Golf Club plan to convert the southern woodlands
to a luxury golf and housing project.
