The smell of fresh paint and new lumber hung in the air of the West Tisbury town hall on Tuesday during an open house for the public to see the newly renovated building in the heart of the village.

“Everything is new and fresh . . . you can smell it in the air,” said executive secretary Jen Rand.

Sports of every kind were front and center across the Vineyard this week — from bars and living rooms where people watched the New England Patriots win the season opener and the Boston Red Sox inch closer to a postseason berth, to the high school athletic fields where several teams started their seasons with big wins.

An unidentified object recently appeared on Beach Road on both sides of the Big Bridge, an object as foreign to some Islanders as a shopping mall or an alien spacecraft.

Of course it is only a stoplight, a rather common item in other parts of the world, but something of a curiosity on the Vineyard. This particular light is only temporary, and has been set up to direct traffic while work takes place during the off-season on the Big Bridge and the Little Bridge down the road.

An Oak Bluffs dredging project in a key area of Sengekontacket Pond aimed at improving tidal circulation and reducing bacteria levels in the pond hit a snag last week following the revelation that an Indian artifact may have been found along the shore of the pond.

The artifact is a piece of wood that may be part of an old Wampanoag fishing weir. Although the facts surrounding the discovery are unclear, the piece of wood may have been found during another dredging project on the Edgartown side of the pond last winter.