SSA Board Finds New Harmony; Cancels New Bedford Freight Run

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

After months of divisive board relations and bruising politics, the Steamship Authority governors cemented a new harmony yesterday, tackling the business of the boat line on a variety of fronts from New Bedford to Nantucket with virtually no discord.

"The tone of this meeting is fantastic. What a change," declared Nat Lowell, a Nantucket trucker who regularly attends boat line meetings.

West Tisbury this week became the second Island town to embrace a pact that preserves the north shore's natural state, ensuring that it remains virtually free of piers, docks and groins.

U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P.

Mediation Plays Central Role in Island Courts

By ALEXIS TONTI

The Martha's Vineyard Mediation Program is the silent partner of the Edgartown District Court. While what happens in court is public and sometimes pyrotechnic, mediation takes disputes off the docket and behind closed doors. It's a voluntary alternative that allows disputants, facilitated by two mediators, to work together toward a mutually agreeable solution.

New Bedford Attack Exposed

Former Solicitor George Leontire Describes Assault on SSA and Islands in His Deposition for Suit Against Boatline

By NIS KILDEGAARD

Over the past two years, the campaign of the city of New Bedford to have its way with the Steamship Authority has seemed, at times, to be filled with strategic contradictions.

Land Bank Aid for Woodlands

Land Bank Initiative Offers to Pay 80 Per Cent of Conservation Cost for Southern Woodlands if Oak Bluffs Takes Land

By MANDY LOCKE

The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank gave a promise in the form of dollar signs to the town of Oak Bluffs Wednesday morning - agreeing to contribute 80 per cent of the cost if the town takes by eminent domain some 276 acres of the southern woodlands.