Hurricane Irene might have missed the Island but it still managed to be felt in town coffers. On Tuesday Oak Bluffs town administrator Robert Whritenhour reported that harbor receipts were down $41,000 for the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, which began in July.

“We sort of took a hit in August,” he said. On the positive side, the new restaurant meals tax voted at town meeting last year has proved to be a windfall for the town. This year the town collected $255,000 from the tax, up $106,161 from last year and indicating an uptick in downtown business.

Although the roundabout has passed the Martha’s Vineyard Commission it doesn’t mean that the selectmen have heard the end of it. The selectmen’s meeting briefly grew testy on Tuesday night when Richard Coutinho accused the selectmen of trashing the Island’s character with their support for the project.

“Natives know that’s a bad thing for this Island,” he said. “Non-natives, and you’re all non-natives, you want to be Islanders but it seems like you just want to come here to rape the place.”

Selectman Walter Vail bristled in response.

“Richard I resent that, that is not fair,” he said. “It’s a shame you didn’t come to the hearings, both the Martha’s Vineyard Commission hearings and the hearings put on by the state because you would have heard the full story. What you hear by hearsay around the Island is not necessarily the truth. So I think you’re in error.”

Mr. Coutinho also objected to having to wait through a two-and-a-half-hour meeting to speak his mind to the town selectmen.

“I have to wait two and a half hours to ask one question? I don’t think that’s fair,” he said.

Selectmen also voted to back a $25,000 engineering study to address a solution for the East Chop bluff which has been severely undermined by erosion.