On Monday the 1,590-pound church bell that has rung the hour for Edgartonians for five generations was temporarily relieved of duty. The bronze bell, cast in 1843 and installed in the Edgartown Whaling Church in 1889, was gingerly removed from atop the clock tower by crane, for the first time, on the coldest day this winter.

The West Tisbury Grange No. 251, one of the Island’s oldest social and fraternal organizations, has disbanded. The last meeting was held more than a week ago. The master of the Grange, John S. Alley, removed the charter from the building on Wednesday. He plans to return the framed, yellowed 105-year old document to the Boston headquarters.

It was a sad moment for this ordinarily cheerful West Tisbury resident whose memories of the organization go back for many years.

The Edgartown beautification committee, whose mission is to bring aesthetic improvements to the town not covered by taxes, has begun a fund-raising campaign to beautify the gateway to town.

Committee member Carol Fligor would like to see a sign at the Triangle that says Welcome to Edgartown, established 1671.

Community service was the theme at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. dinner at the Harbor View Hotel on Monday night. More than 100 people attended the four-hour event which included speeches and an awards ceremony, concluding with the swearing in of officers of the local branch of the NAACP, both new and renewed. “Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy lives in the hearts and minds of all of us who believe the world can be a better place. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that only great heroes can make a difference.

Jan. 18 marked the 127th anniversary of one of the worst marine disasters in southeastern Massachusetts, when the 275-foot steamer City of Columbus foundered on the rocks of Devil’s Bridge and sank a half mile off Gay Head. A total of 103 passengers and crew were lost.

High winds, raging seas and strong currents have been hard on Chappaquiddick this winter. Large areas of beach down at Wasque have been moved and removed, lately at the rate of a foot a day. But the latest changes are at the other end of Chappy, where the post-Christmas northeaster cut a new opening on a barrier beach at Cape Pogue Pond.