If Oak Bluffs voters approve the more than $600,000 in override requests facing them this year, many homeowners could see their taxes go up by at least $100 a year.

New Boat Line CEO Launches Hopeful Era After Contract Pact

By JULIA WELLS

Calling it an investment in the lifeline to the Islands, Steamship Authority governors announced this week that they had signed a six-year, six-figure deal with a veteran marine transport executive to take over the top management post at the public boat line.

Fred C. Raskin will start work on Monday morning as the chief executive officer of the SSA.

Fighting for a fifth term on the town's top board, West Tisbury selectman Cynthia Mitchell assured voters this week that her door is always open even as she apologized to them for keeping the door shut when it came to the recent controversy around Steamship Authority politics.

West Tisbury voters may have a hot election race in their town, but their annual town meeting contains just 28 articles, few of which are expected to generate much controversy.

Hospital Board Addresses Forum as CEO Resigns

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Quoting legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and expressing pride at his own accomplishments, Kevin Burchill, the embattled chief executive officer at the Martha\\\'s Vineyard Hospital, announced last weekend that he will resign.

\\\"This will offer the hospital the best possible options to move forward - for everyone,\\\" Mr. Burchill said in a prepared statement read at the outset of a community forum on hospital affairs.

The blockbuster special town meeting this week in Oak Bluffs was supposed to chart the future of the southern woodlands, the last undeveloped stretch of land in town.