Chilmark Growth Points to Housing Problems

By MANDY LOCKE

Driving along South Road in Chilmark, classic New England homes dot the main up-Island thoroughfare, remnants of a rural modesty common to the historic fishing and farming community of 850 year-round residents. But clusters of mailboxes along the roadway indicate a housing density tucked just behind the wooded roadway facade.

Claiming a mandate from town voters that supports turning the southern woodlands into a private luxury golf course, Oak Bluffs selectmen this week officially joined forces with Connecticut developer Corey Kupersmith in a plan aimed at making the golf club a reality - even if it means leaving the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

Holy Ghost Feast Honors Heritage of Portuguese

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Two days of celebration begin tomorrow in the annual Feast of the Holy Ghost. Islanders of Portuguese heritage and their friends will party, dine and parade in a festival whose traditions date back more than half a century.

"This is our heritage," said Bobbie Ann Gibson of Oak Bluffs, president of the Holy Ghost Association.

Smooth sailing has all but disappeared underneath the Lagoon Pond drawbridge these days.

Three weeks ago, bridgetender Robert Maciel detected some shaking as cars passed over the 70-year-old bridge.

"I've been the bridgetender for 26 years, and it's worse now than I've ever seen it," he said late yesterday morning from his home in West Tisbury, a time of day he typically spends at the bridge.

New Bedford Suit Against SSA Brings Sharp Queries from Judge

By JULIA WELLS

BOSTON - In a courtroom grilling that went on for nearly three straight hours, a federal judge put the lead attorney for the city of New Bedford on a hot spot this week, prodding him to produce a set of plausible legal arguments that show why he should not dismiss the Whaling City's case against the Steamship Authority.

State public health officials yesterday confirmed this year's third case of pneumonic tularemia, the rare and potentially fatal disease that killed a Chilmark man two years ago and has baffled scientists for the last three summers.