Island Schools Set to Open New Academic Year

Enrollment Figures Show Slight Decline to 2,350 Students

By MANDY LOCKE

It's that time of year again.

Island schoolchildren are double checking their list of school supplies and enjoying the last weekday morning of sleeping past seven o'clock. Teachers are pinning the last of the laminated pictures to bulletin boards and reviewing their lesson plans.

While the Island's young battle back-to-school jitters today, school leaders can't wait to launch another academic year.

MVC Launches Golf Hearings

Third Round of Deliberations on Controversial Development Proposal Begins Tomorrow; Voters Urged to Attend

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

The high-stakes crusade to convert the last unbroken stretch of woodland in the town of Oak Bluffs to a luxury golf course and housing development will come out from behind closed doors and into the public spotlight this week when the Martha's Vineyard Commission opens a pair of back-to-back hearings on the controversial development plan.

Labor Day Weekend Sends Island Toward Final Phase of Summer

By JOSHUA SABATINI

Celebrated each year on the first Monday in September, Labor Day is dedicated to the achievements of American workers. In truth, the holiday is probably better known as the impetus for one final long weekend before the kids head off to school, and marks the occasion after which workers start to bear down until summer rolls around again.

Craig Johnstone Kingsbury, 89, of Vineyard Haven, died Friday afternoon, August 30, at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs. He was attended by the caring and skilled staff. Craig died suddenly and without pain; he had been a patient at Windemere since April.

Manning the front lines of the Island economy, Vineyard harbor masters often see business trends before merchants do. As summer draws to an end, four of the five Island harbor masters told the Gazette that a season typically busy in some regards was even busier than normal in others.

Barbara (Bobbie) Nevin Dies at Age 79; She Was Realtor and Towering Island Figure

By NICOLE GALLAND and TOM DUNLOP

Flags all across Edgartown - at Memorial Wharf, the county courthouse, Memorial Park and the American Legion Post 186 - flew at half-staff this week to mourn Barbara B. Nevin, a leading citizen of the town, who died unexpectedly on Friday at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. Mrs. Nevin was 79 and the widow of Dr. Robert W. Nevin.