When this edition of the Gazette hits the newsstands, there will remain a mere two weeks until Labor Day weekend. That’s joyous news for some and dismal news for others.

Friday foreign film nights at the Chappy Community Center continue with a screening of the Danish film Italian for Beginners at 8 p.m. August 18. The last show of the season will be the Canadian classic Tashi and the Monk on the 25th.

Remember that the Chappy Book Club will be discussing Tracy Chevalier’s novel At the Edge of the Orchard on Wednesday, August 23 from 10:30 to noon. If you are concerned about ticks, how to deal with them, and the diseases that they transmit, make sure you attend an evening seminar entitled Chappy Tick Talk A-Z: Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis and More presented by Dick Johnson and Kathy Murray Leisure M.D. from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday August 31 at the community center. Dr. Leisure is an infectious diseases physician from Plymouth and Sagamore and a Chappaquiddick summer kid from way back. Dick Johnson is a field biologist for the Martha’s Vineyard boards of health Tick Borne Disease Initiative and has gathered ticks from almost every backyard on the island. If you aren’t worried about ticks now, you will be after you hear what these two have to say. Question and answer session to follow the presentation.

Sadly, the summer activities at the CCC are winding down. Sailing classes end on the 17th. Tennis lessons end on the 24th. However, yoga, tai chi, pilates and mahjong all continue through Labor Day weekend. Potluck dinners traditionally begin on the third Wednesday in September, which is the 20th this year.

The three big fiberglass fuel tanks from the Airport Mobil gas station demolition have been donated to the Edgartown Fire Department and it is our good fortune that they will be installed as firefighting water cisterns in strategic locations on Chappaquiddick. There are currently two public cisterns on the island. One is right at the firehouse and the other is at the edge of the golf course out on North Neck. All that you see of them are the vent, fill and suction pipes sticking up a couple of feet out of the ground. Two other cisterns have been installed on private property by home owners. The donated tanks are big and were a tight squeeze coming down Main street and over on the Chappy ferry. They range in diameter from eight to 10 feet, in length from 28 to 36 feet and in capacity from 10,000 to 15,000 gallons.

Something to keep in mind if you have a building project on Chappy planned for the off-season this year is that the ferryboat On Time 3 will be out of service starting on Sunday, October 15, which is the day after the Martha’s Vineyard Bass and Bluefish Derby ends. The On Time 3 is the longer of the two Chappy ferries. She will be hauled out of the water at the Packer Marine Railway for maintenance and Coast Guard inspection for a minimum of 12 weeks.

During this period the On Time 2 will have to handle all the traffic alone. She is nine feet shorter than her sister and often only two vehicles fit aboard. You can help make it more likely that three vehicles will fit by removing your trailer hitches, fish boxes, etc. that stick out farther than your bumpers.

This summer Chappaquiddick has seen more than the usual hubbub regarding local political issues. All the way from the parking debacle at the ferry point to the permitting of the AT&T cell tower, we are getting plenty of experience in civic process. We are fortunate that for the most part our community handles difficult decisions in an orderly manner. Once in a great while someone will reach such a level of frustration that a sign gets spray painted. But nobody here seems prone to driving their car into a crowd in anger. As we observe history being allowed to repeat itself in ways that we thought couldn’t possibly ever happen again I am reminded of the golden rule — Never do anything to anyone that you wouldn’t want done to you. As a first grader, I would hear Soupy Sales repeat that adage every day on his kids’ show. It’s not always easy or possible to accomplish that goal, but it is always a good starting point.

Send Chappy news to peterchappyferry@gmail.com.