News
With gas prices on the Vineyard hovering above $4.50 a gallon for regular and almost $5 a gallon for premium — some of the highest fuel costs in the nation — more Islanders are leaving their cars at home and taking the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority busses.
Tomorrow the Rev. Mr. Robert D. Edmunds and his wife Deborah leave the Island after 15 and a half years of ministering to the community. The rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church of Edgartown and his wife have new jobs and they’ll need their passports.
They’re heading for Jerusalem.
While in Edgartown, Reverend Edmunds oversaw 234 baptisms and 186 burials. He performed his most recent Island wedding, the 100th, early this month.
It is hoped a costly new regime of water quality tests for Sengekontacket Pond, which began this week, will identify the source of its water quality problems and may allow the pond to be open more often for shellfishing.
Following a string of poor water quality test results last year, the state Division of Marine Fisheries imposed a mandatory summer closure period on the pond. That period begins this Sunday, June 1, and runs to October.
Ten smiling students will appear in the Gazette next week as the top-ranking academic performers in the 2008 graduating class of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, following a decision by high school principal Margaret (Peg) Regan to continue a longstanding tradition.
Reflecting the hard financial times being felt across the nation, Oak Bluffs voters at a special town election on Wednesday defeated three funding measures for Proposition 2 1/2 overrides and debt exclusions for next year’s operating budget, while narrowly approving three others.
State highway engineers have begun a new monitoring regime on the Lagoon Pond drawbridge after it apparently shifted on its pilings and would not close, blocking traffic for several hours over the busy Memorial Day weekend.
The bridge was stuck in the open position for about three and a half hours from 5 p.m. on Sunday, forcing traffic to detour along Barnes Road. The malfunction caused traffic jams and delays, and created a substantial backup at the blinker light intersection in Oak Bluffs where many cars were detoured.