Sharply Divided Camps Face Off Over Affordable Housing Plan

By IAN FEIN

Island residents packed a Martha's Vineyard Commission meeting last week to offer impassioned pleas both for and against an unusual affordable housing subdivision proposed for Watcha Path Road in Edgartown.

Proposed by a group of Vineyard residents who want to build 11 homes on 10.9 acres, the project is under review by the commission as a development of regional impact (DRI).

Danubia Campos can remember back six or seven years ago when she knew every Brazilian on Martha's Vineyard.

Channel Needs Emergency Dredging

By RACHEL KOVAC

Extreme silting and clogging in the channel beneath the Little Bridge in Oak Bluffs have prompted an emergency dredging project to protect the ecosystem in Sengekontacket Pond.

"It is very important for the life of the pond to flush," said county manager E. Winn Davis. "That is to say every time the tide changes it's brining in new nutrients and taking out nutrients."

A story exists for everyone who stays at the Lillian Manter Memorial Hostel. For Lillian Manter it was a love of serving others. For Tom Thatcher it was a business and home. For Arlo Guthrie it was the beginning of a song. For Amanda Cohen it was a home and playground. And for Monroe Sheppard it is one more stop in his years of involvement with hostels. This past weekend on the 50th anniversary of the building's opening, many former hostellers, staff and family returned to celebrate and share memories. Since its current inception the hostel has welcomed more than 100,000 guests. Hostelling International USA hoped to use the weekend celebration as a way to acknowledge the Island's hospitality.

Memorial Day Weekend Marks Traditional Start for the Summer Season

By MAX HART

The handwritten sign taped to the window of the Martha's Vineyard Gourmet Cafe and Bakery in Oak Bluffs says it all: "Rain, rain, go away! Come back in October. We beg you!"

That about sums up this week on the Vineyard, but Island residents fear not: Memorial Day weekend is upon us. The start to summer 2005 is here.

Tick-Borne Diseases See Rise; Task Force Studies Prevention

By IAN FEIN

To many Vineyard visitors, Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer.

But to an ever-increasing percentage of the Island population, it represents the start of the tick-borne disease season.

And early reports suggest that the Island may be in for an especially tick-ridden summer. Deer ticks thrive in damp environments, which the wet spring and winter weather has certainly provided.