Now is always a good time to market a quality product, say a number of Island entrepreneurs opening new businesses this summer.

School costs are driving budget increases across the Island, but in Chilmark, one expense forcing voters to dig into their wallets for education sp

Junk Cars Spur Town Reaction

Edgartown Cites the Hall Family For Zoning and Health Code Violations; Officials Hope Will Lead to Final Cleanup

By MANDY LOCKE

Eight months after a dangerous brush fire pushed cleanup of an illegal car dump to the top of Edgartown's priority list, officials finally lost patience with the property owners - formally citing the Benjamin Hall Sr. family this week for flagrant zoning and health code violations.

On Eve of Public Forum, MVC Opponents Seek To Revive Old Threats

By JULIA WELLS

On the eve of a community meeting to discuss the highly-charged question of whether Oak Bluffs should withdraw from the Martha's Vineyard Commission, a citizens' group in favor of leaving is stirring up fresh debate on an old subject: the threat of a massive affordable housing project in the southern woodlands.

Thomas Teller

Clerk Magistrate Retires after 39 Years of Service

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

He is a local boy, an Edgartown native with fishing in his soul and justice in his heart and deft hands that can shuck quahaugs just as easily as they wield the varnished wooden gavel that is the tool of the district court clerk magistrate. For many years he was a lone Democrat laboring in a Republican stronghold, and today, of course, all that has changed, but after 39 years what hasn't?

Politics in West Tisbury Turn Divisive as Town Struggles with Rampant Growth

By CHRIS BURRELL

If you wanted proof of how far the political landscape shifted this week in West Tisbury, all you had to do was pan over the selectmen's table in town hall.

For the first time in almost three decades, the man frozen in oil paint in the Stan Murphy portrait hanging on the wall was not sitting there underneath the picture.