Dockage and Parking Agreements Part of the Package that Will
Establish New Service Starting Next Spring
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The high-speed ferry deal is done - or almost done.
Final agreements were signed this week that are now expected to
clear the way for high-speed passenger service between New Bedford and
the Vineyard beginning next summer.
Close to a Million in Federal Dollars Is Designated for Steamship
Authority and for Town of Oak Bluffs
By JULIA WELLS
Homeland security came home this week when federal officials
announced the award of two hefty grants totaling some $900,000 to
improve port security on the Vineyard and in Woods Hole.
The money will go to the Steamship Authority ($624,000) and the Oak
Bluffs emergency management department ($285,000).
At Aquinnah Town Meeting, the Emotions Frame Museum Debate
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The subject was a plan for a cultural museum in a historic homestead
high on a windswept bluff in the town of Aquinnah. But the discussion
that swirled for more than an hour and a half at a special town meeting
Tuesday night was layered with the emotion of a town torn down the
middle.
Underneath it all lay the central topic of the day: the recent court
ruling on sovereign immunity for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah).
The people of the Vineyard are healthy - healthier, in fact,
than the general population on the mainland. They have lower rates of
obesity, they smoke less, they are conscientious about prevention and
they visit their doctors regularly.
It's 10 p.m. on a Thursday night. Steve Durkee, the Gazette graphics director, is in Dick Reston's office, his head stuck out the open skylight, smoking a cigarette. Dick is at his computer, writing headlines. Out in the newsroom, Chris Burrell is hunched over his own terminal, trying to get the tone just right on his West Tisbury backgrounder. I am rummaging around in the Gazette library looking for some poetry that will work for a skyline (the line of verse that runs across the top of the front page). I find an E.B.
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust and the Massachusetts Audubon Society closed on a land purchase last week that will protect the last key piece of undeveloped land at Felix Neck.
No Southern Woodlands Housing; Developer Says, ‘We'll Be
Back'; Courts to Sort Out Issues in Four-Year Dispute
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The latest chapter in the four-year battle between developer Corey
Kupersmith and the Martha's Vineyard Commission ended last night
when the commission voted without dissent to reject a 320-unit housing
plan for 270 acres in the southern woodlands section of Oak Bluffs.
The Aquinnah selectmen heard a distinct plea from their up-Island
neighbors this week to formally appeal the recent superior court
decision that found the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) cannot be
sued because of sovereign immunity.
Boat Line Managers Recommend Private Firm for High-Speed, Year-Round
Service Between New Bedford and Vineyard
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Senior managers at the Steamship Authority are expected to recommend
today that the boat line issue a long-term license to New England Fast
Ferry LLC to operate year-round, high-speed passenger service between
New Bedford and the Vineyard.
