A Middlesex Superior Court judge last week upheld the validity of a unique townwide planning and zoning district in Aquinnah.

Patrolman to Chief: Meet Timothy Stobie

By MAX HART

You can call him chief, you can call him acting chief - you can even call him police chief pro tempore if you must.

Just don't call Timothy Stobie, Tisbury's acting police chief, newsworthy.

"I have never considered myself newsworthy, I can tell you that," he said Wednesday. "Must be a slow news week."

The town of Oak Bluffs has at least 10 employees working under personal service contracts, multiple year employment agreements negotiated on an individual basis that usually reward the worker with additional perks and a higher level of pay than other municipal and union employees.

Chilmark Man May Plead Guilty in Rare Map Theft

By JAMES KINSELLA

A Chilmark man is expected to plead guilty next Thursday to one or more thefts of rare maps worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to published reports in Connecticut newspapers.

Both the New Haven Register and the Hartford Courant have reported that E. Forbes Smiley 3rd, a dealer in rare maps who lives on North Road, may make pleas in back-to-back appearances in U.S. District Court and state superior court in New Haven.

Change Eyed in School Pact

Up-Island Regional Agreement Could See a Major Overhaul if Aquinnah Has Its Way; Cost Remains the Issue

By IAN FEIN

With tensions brewing and the fate of the Up-Island Regional School District back in the spotlight, the regional school committee will meet twice next week to consider changes to the agreement that formed the district. And after the release of two separate financial studies about the district this spring, school committee members are feeling pressure from opposing fronts.

Power Research Institute Challenges Practicality of Tidal Energy Project

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

Engineering analysis has raised questions about the practicality of a proposed tidal energy farm near the Middle Ground in Vineyard Sound.

Roger Bedard, ocean energy leader at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., said the tidal flow through the Sound is not fast enough to make a tidal turbine energy project feasible.