His neck is stiff, still sore from where a piece of exploding metal chipped the vertebra in the back of his neck.

Mississippi Shipyard Bid Comes in at $31.4 Million for New Vineyard Ferry

By IAN FEIN

Steamship Authority engineers opened bids for the Islander replacement ferry on Wednesday and found that the lowest qualifying bid was $31.4 million - 25 per cent higher than their top estimate.

SSA management had projected that the new ferry would cost between $22 million and $25 million. This week the actual price tag climbed to at least $31.4 million, as bid by the VT Halter Marine shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.

Red Cross Chapter Charts a Fresh Course

By C.K. WOLFSON

Brenda Lehman remembers when she was five, and her family lost everything in an apartment fire, and again when she was 12, in another other fire in Dorchester.

"The only people there to help us were the Red Cross and the Salvation Army," she said. "After Sept. 11 I said, that's it. I have time for everything else, now it's the time to volunteer for Red Cross. I want to give back."

Three separate police investigations have led to several major drug arrests, the Martha's Vineyard Drug Task Force announced this week.

An Oak Bluffs man was arrested Sunday at the Stop & Shop in Vineyard Haven, while two separate incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday led to the arrest of three others. All have been charged with various drug-related crimes.

On Wednesday morning, under a warm sun and blue sky, David and Karen Berube were out on Cape Pogue Pond, at it again.

The nation may be split down the middle after Tuesday's presidential election, but the Vineyard was anything but divided when it came to casting ba