Is Isabel Due? Not Too Early to Talk of Her

By ALEXIS TONTI

Do not panic. Check your flashlights and buy extra batteries for the radio. Stock up on water and nonperishable foods. Make sure you have first aid supplies. And if you own a boat, get it out of the water.

Library Plans Need to Be Scaled Back

By CHRIS BURRELL

Construction bids to build the Island's newest and biggest public library in Oak Bluffs came in way over budget last week, forcing library trustees to send their architect back to the drafting table with orders to reduce the project's scale.

All four bids opened last week topped the $4 million mark, exceeding the $3.5 million budgeted for construction of a nearly 15,000-square-foot library on Pacific avenue. Highest of the four bids was $4.5 million.

Parish Center Bid Is Called a Long Shot

By CHRIS BURRELL

They escaped a town hall that was making Oak Bluffs employees sick, but their new quarters on School street are so cramped for meeting space that selectmen are attempting a far-fetched solution - buying back or swapping the old school building sold to the Catholic church six years ago.

His workbench is situated under a tree for good reason. Russell O. Steele 2nd needs those tree branches to support the ropes and chains, pulleys and counterweights.

All that gear is critical for holding a bicycle up in the air.

Welcome to Russell Steele's used bike shop, where everything in sight is a pile of junk just waiting for resurrection.

After six years of battling controversy over his golf driving range in Oak Bluffs, owner Timothy Creato now wants the nets to come down and see houses go up.

His plan to turn the ten-acre Windfarm Golf range, west of the so-called blinker light, into a six-lot housing subdivision will have to win approval from the Martha's Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact (DRI).

After a summerlong reprieve from the traffic snarls, torn up streets and endless detours that marked last winter in downtown Tisbury, construction resumes this month on the town's $10 million wastewater project.

"The worst of it is over," said town administrator Dennis Luttrell this week. "A lot of the work will be done off the roads, and we don't expect to be working into the winter."