State Approves Cape Wind Plan

Secretary of Environment Clears Jim Gordon's Wind Farm; Federal Review Expected to Last Through Year

By IAN FEIN

The state's top environmental official ruled last week that developers of the Cape Wind project have fulfilled their environmental review requirements on the state level, and that the offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound would provide significant benefits to air quality and energy reliability in New England.

Energy Question Goes to Voters

As Climate Change Takes Over the Conscience of a Nation, Vineyard Towns to Decide Fate of Energy District

By IAN FEIN

When Island residents file into auditoriums next week to conduct the annual business of their towns, voters in three towns will face a common question and a possible turning point.

They will be asked whether they wish to take the Vineyard's energy future into their own hands.

Naval reservist Matthew Bradley of West Tisbury returned home Saturday afternoon from a 10-month volunteer tour of duty that included seven months in Iraq, serving as a medical corpsman with a U.S. Marines unit.

Wastewater officials in Oak Bluffs say that an article on Tuesday's annual town meeting warrant would bring necessary changes to the department, some critics are questioning the logic of a proposal that would hand considerably more power to the wastewater commission.

Edgartown Voters to Confront Increases in School Spending

By MIKE SECCOMBE

Edgartown residents will be presented with a proposed operating budget increase of some 5.4 per cent, and ballot questions costing a total of about $3.9 million at the April 10 town meeting.

Total expenditures for the pending fiscal year, however, are projected to increase only $245,000, or 0.8 per cent over the current fiscal year, due to a 30 per cent reduction in requested articles this year.

Package Plant Would Treat Growing Wastewater Flows from Existing, Proposed Facilities Along Corridor

Island officials for years have discussed creating some type of a common sewage treatment plant near the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School that would serve the growing number of Islandwide institutions locating along the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven road.