Last week's report calling for high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and the Vineyard was submitted without any financial information, and the acting general manager of the Steamship Authority said yesterday that he will now have to step in to finish the crucial financial piece of the report.

An escalating contract dispute between management and nonprofessional workers at the Windemere Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center will now go to federal mediation - and workers at the Island's only nursing home will file a complaint charging unfair labor practices.

Tivoli Day was about shopping and strolling and talking and eating and shopping and eating. People couldn't avoid the shopping and the eating.

Oak Bluffs harbor had a record money-making summer. Josh Williams, the harbor marina manager, estimated income from slips and moorings were up 14 per cent over the previous year. Total income was $720,000, up some $86,000 from the summer of 2000.

Oak Bluffs harbor was the place to be. Slips and moorings were mostly full throughout the season and for the first time the town offered regular, dependable launch service that made money.

County Fee Contract Stirs Heated Debate

County Manager Carol Borer Signs Controversial Agreement with Hospital Without Knowledge of Commissioners

By JULIA WELLS

At a scrappy meeting that saw plenty of disagreement but little in the way of accountability for the disordered events of the last two weeks, the Dukes County Commission this week tried to sort its way through a jumble of conflicting facts surrounding a contract designed to funnel $500,000 in taxpayer money into the Martha's Vineyard Hospital.

County Leaders Support Delay on Fast Ferry Plan

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

A bitterly divided Dukes County Commission voted to join the collective voice of other Vineyard officials this week - and ask the Vineyard representative to the Steamship Authority to throttle down a plan to develop high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and the Vineyard.

The vote was 4-3 to endorse the letter sent by the All-Island Selectmen's Association to Vineyard SSA governor J.B. Riggs Parker last week.