It was a year of ‘what ifs' for the teams of the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School in 2007, as several teams missed the playoffs by the slimmest of margins, while others lost games in the state tournament that could have turned on the bounce of a puck or a roll of the ball.
The Martha's Vineyard Commission on Monday voted without dissent to designate an energy district critical of planning concern in the town of Aquinnah, the first such district of its kind on the Island.
The town and the commission will now begin the process of drafting special townwide regulations for Aquinnah to promote alternative energy in new construction and establish guidelines for the placement of wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal systems.
An Island gas company drew some darts this week for asking a number of its customers who have had credit problems to pay a deposit this winter or face being shut off from future deliveries of gas and propane.
A letter sent by Vineyard Propane & Oil in recent weeks to certain customers states that the company had performed a credit check which revealed their credit history was insufficient for billing, and that the customer would need to pay a deposit of $300 to insure future deliveries.
In an era when large swaths of pitch pines and scrub oak are routinely cleared to make way for new homes, it would be easy to think of the Vineyard as rapidly losing its woodland character.
In fact forest acreage on the Island has grown over the past 100 years as the Vineyard has shifted from an agricultural-based society of farmers and shepherds to a resort community of second homeowners and seasonal residents.
By some estimates, Island woodlands have increased 20-fold since the late 19th century.
Over the past month, the old Navigator restaurant that formerly sat in the center of the Edgartown Harbor has steadily been torn down to make way for a new mixed-use building called the Boathouse, that among other things will feature a members-only club on the second floor.
When the new project is completed - perhaps as early as this spring - it will offer a fine dining restaurant, several private dining rooms, a large sitting room with fireplace and cathedral ceilings, as well as new dock area with several classic boats for member use.
In a town well-known for lengthy and often emotional town meetings, the special town meeting in Oak Bluffs on Tuesday was an anomaly, as voters quickly and quietly approved a wide range of articles including two separate requests for engineering studies of the town waterfront.
