High Marks for School Superintendent

The Search Begins in Oak Bluffs

Who would want to be town administrator in Oak Bluffs, anyway?

The question has become more than rhetorical with last week’s resignation of Michael Dutton, concluding a long-running drama that played out with all the inevitability of an Italian opera — the only surprise being how and when the end would come.

Pieces of the Pie

From Gazette editions of July, 1886:

Almost the last act of the state senate was to advance its pay from $650 to $750, by a vote of 16 to 15, Mr. Norris voting for the increase. It’s only a beggardly hundred but it will help pay election expenses next fall. By the way, we’re liable to need a hundred or so ourself, and would respectfully invite the honorable senator to divvy.

From Gazette editions of 1962:

Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven is the finest example of cooperative effort on the part of residents of every Island town. Its ten acres or so, reclaimed from swamp, marsh and actual open water, has become an Island landmark, a fitting memorial to war heroes living and dead, and is the scene of much activity on the part of old and young.

CALL FOR LEADERSHIP

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

In any small town, there are cultural, political, social and economic factions that converge to give each town its own special personality. Within each faction, there are personal issues, public interests and many hidden agendas to deal with. These are the difficult and enormously complicated problems that make a small town so special. We all get to be involved. And we all get to be affected. It is the curse and the blessing of small-town living.