JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

What an emotional week this has been! Makes it hard to focus on the ordinary again. Happy citizens gathered at the Chilmark Community Center for an inauguration ball on Jan. 20. It was the perfect way to end that exciting day. Here is a cheer from us all to the winners and a fervent wish that they can do at least half of what they hope to do!

Please note that the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club will meet on Jan. 27 at the Wakeman Center. The speaker will be Chilmark resident Allan Keith, who will speak about the flora and fauna of South Africa. Call Bonnie George for more details.

Mimi and Tucker Drummond are frequent Chilmark visitors as they are renovating Mimi’s family home on Middle Road, the Keith house. They enjoyed a Christmas visit with Mimi’s brother, Allan, and his wife, Winkie, at their Chilmark home last month.

Coco Adams reminds us that there will be a flea market tomorrow at the VFW hall in Oak Bluffs.

The Chilmark library continues to offer movies on Friday evenings at 7 p.m. Tonight they are showing Snow Falling on Cedars. Popcorn and drinks are included. All are welcome at no charge.

The movie and chowder matinee at the library on Jan. 28 at noon will feature the movie The Fortune Cookie. The Menemsha Fish Market donates the chowder. Again, all are welcome free of charge thanks to the sponsorship of the Friends of the Library.

Budget hearings are going on all week at town hall as the commissions and committees defend their new budgets.

We send condolences to the many friends and family of Alexander Stevenson who died Jan. 3 at his home in Bethesda, Md. Sandy and his wife Barbara and their children, Andrew, Malcolm and Kathleen have been Chilmark and Aquinnah summer residents for many years. It was some 50 years ago that Sandy and Barbara helped to start the Chilmark Community Center and served the center for many years in many jobs. He and Barbara made friends Islandwide through their interest in the outdoor world, the environment and the preservation of all things they loved about the Vineyard. His many Chilmark friends will miss Sandy.

The Chilmark School music department will present a winter concert on Jan. 28. The library will host an art show of the works of all the grades at the Chilmark School in the meeting room through the month of February.

Parents, remember that Maisy, the popular literary mouse, will be visiting the library at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 24. All are welcome.