There were no fireworks sparkling over the Edgartown Lighthouse this Fourth of July, no ocean of pastel-colored onlookers or parade of floats festooned with American flags. But there were private fireworks. There were plenty of flags. And there was a parade of traffic in the usual hot spots.

Two of the Island’s four cinemas will soon be showing movies again, as the third phase of pandemic reopening begins. But many businesses are taking a more gradual approach.

A proposal to locate the Island’s first recreational marijuana dispensary off State Road in West Tisbury saw pushback from abutters at a Martha’s Vineyard Commission hearing Thursday night.

After four exhaustive hearings and a mountain of correspondence, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission closed a public hearing last Thursday on one of the largest proposed subdivisions in decades.

On the eve of the July 4th holiday, Island boards of health reported one new positive test on the Vineyard, bringing the total coronavirus caseload to 53.