Citizens Reject Town Hall Plan at West Tisbury Meeting

By JULIA WELLS

Calling it a potential note of discord in the distinct rural melody of their up-Island village, voters in West Tisbury this week scrapped a $3.7 million plan to expand and renovate the historic town hall.

With a final vote of 160-89, the project failed to win the needed two-thirds majority by a wide margin at the annual town meeting on Tuesday night.

Theatre Season Invites Islanders for Auditions

By C.K. WOLFSON

"What actors, professionals and amateurs have to realize, is that the people who are watching the audition are rooting for them," said M.J. Bruder Munafo, artistic director at the Vineyard Playhouse. "I'll speak for myself - I'm hoping that they're going to come up and just be fabulous."

Oak Bluffs Backs Large Budget, Approves First Historic District

By CHRIS BURRELL

They defended their dogs, embraced their history and threw their support behind a $17.6 million annual budget - all without an ounce of dissension.

For a town accustomed to lengthy and often rancorous annual town meetings, Oak Bluffs and its voters this week bucked the trend, agreeing to shoulder their annual spending without questioning a single line item and plowing through a combined 31 articles in just over three hours.

Martha's Vineyard Commission Probes Flaws in New Bedford Fast Ferry Link

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

No market study.

No clear market.

The wisdom - or folly - of considering year-round service and the range of possible impacts on the Vineyard.

West Tisbury Ousts Veteran Selectman

Challenger Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter Is Winner by Large Margin Over Incumbent John S. Alley

By JULIA WELLS

Nine-term selectman John S. Alley lost his seat to Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter in a surprise trouncing in the West Tisbury annual town election yesterday.

Mr. Manter beat Mr. Alley 593 to 357.

Seven minutes before midnight Tuesday, Edgartown town meeting voters wrapped up a long list of business - supporting a $19 million operating budget and killing proposed house-size caps on Chappaquiddick.

But the night's liveliest debates for those in the crowded pews at the Old Whaling Church, and perhaps the most interesting result of the week, centered around a funding request to hire a housing inspector to license the town's 1,500 rental properties.