Counting Scarecrows

Message for Mr. Bowles

Stop the clock and restore full jurisdiction to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. This is the message that a delegation of Island selectmen representing every Island town intend to deliver to Ian Bowles, the state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

That is, when and if they can meet with him.

Accountable for Learning

So it’s preemptive strike time in the budget season. Every year Vineyard schools superintendent James H. Weiss has the unenviable task of getting his line items in a row before any of the towns write their budgets, meaning Dr. Weiss must plan the Island’s educational spending without knowing how much the towns’ taxpayers will give him to spend. He is rightly forecasting that no dollar will go unexamined this year.

Complications of Flu Clinics

Public health officials on the Island, as elsewhere, have been working feverishly in recent months to devise a plan to vaccinate Islanders against seasonal flu as well as the novel H1N1 flu virus before the winter, as theses viruses thrive in cooler temperatures and lower humidity. Both viruses can be life-threatening, though the course the flu will take, particularly the H1N1, remains unknown.

No Seat at the Table

Not a Drop to Drink

It took four words to remind Islanders this week how fragile our ecosystem is: Don’t drink the water.

Residents of Oak Bluffs last weekend were advised — not promptly enough for many, adding “devise foolproof disaster communications plan” to the to-do list for all town officials — that they should boil any water they might drink, use to wash their hands or teeth, or even their dishes.