Martha's Vineyard Community Services sees the writing on the wall.

Chilmark Growth Points to Housing Problems

By MANDY LOCKE

Driving along South Road in Chilmark, classic New England homes dot the main up-Island thoroughfare, remnants of a rural modesty common to the historic fishing and farming community of 850 year-round residents. But clusters of mailboxes along the roadway indicate a housing density tucked just behind the wooded roadway facade.

Smooth sailing has all but disappeared underneath the Lagoon Pond drawbridge these days.

Three weeks ago, bridgetender Robert Maciel detected some shaking as cars passed over the 70-year-old bridge.

"I've been the bridgetender for 26 years, and it's worse now than I've ever seen it," he said late yesterday morning from his home in West Tisbury, a time of day he typically spends at the bridge.

Emotions ran high throughout the final night of public testimony regarding a Chapter 40B affordable housing development that, if approved, would pl

At the westernmost tip of the Island just four years ago, the residents of Aquinnah knew the potential for total buildout loomed just ahead in an e

Surfing Accident Leaves Visitor with Serious Injury

By MANDY LOCKE

A 51-year-old vacationer faces possible paralysis after being thrashed against the South Beach shoreline by fierce waves Tuesday afternoon.

George Medford of Ballston, N.Y., who had been bodysurfing close to the South Beach shoreline with his son, snapped several vertebrae in his neck when he struck his chin against the sand, officials said.