The Yellow House will stay gray until the end of next summer, according to a small change in the property’s lease agreement made at the Edgartown selectmen’s meeting last week.

The end of high travel season brings the return of heavy equipment to Woods Hole, as the SSA continues its reconstruction of the shoreside facility.

Roughly 200 commuters take the early morning ferry to Martha’s Vineyard each day, many of them construction workers who hail from all over southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Edgartown selectmen agreed Monday to traffic and parking restrictions to accommodate ongoing construction on the new town library.

Building permits are up this year, and all around the Island the sounds of nail guns, classic rock and pickup trucks unloading supplies provide the backbeat for a flurry of construction activity.

A Rhode Island company was the low bidder on a a $7.3 million contract for a new library. And questions surfaced again about the Edgartown Library Foundation.

The summer crowds and seasonal yachts have left Menemsha and were replaced this week by a 55-by-185-foot barge and crane for construction of the new U.S. Coast Guard boathouse.

The large barge arrived Tuesday night in Menemsha harbor, tugged in by the Jaguar of New Bedford and the Patrick J. Hunt of Narragansett, R.I.

“It’s finally here, which is a great thing,” said Lou Vinciguerra, project manager for the Coast Guard boathouse.

In light of several renovation projects around the downtown area, the Oak Bluffs selectmen Monday reconsidered a longstanding town policy to prohibit downtown construction work from June 1 to Sept. 15.

At a special meeting, the selectmen adopted clarifying regulations to allow construction work inside buildings during the summer with several conditions, including no work on weekends and nights.

The Island construction industry has fallen off sharply in recent months, most indicators show, with a growing number of carpenters and tradesmen out of work.

Although contractors are reluctant to speak publicly about the problem, by most accounts the construction trades on the Island, which form a key segment of the Vineyard economy, are seeing the immediate effects of a deepening national recession.

Lumberyards report business is down and there are many reports of carpenters who are looking for work — with no success.

New home construction costs on the Island could increase more than 10 per cent as a result of new state building codes requiring one and two-story buildings to withstand winds of 110 miles per hour beginning Jan. 1.

For some prospective home owners and builders, the changes have already blown away their plans.

Tisbury building inspector Kenneth Barwick said he already has heard from home builders on a budget.