Lyme Disease

A petition to support reform in the treatment of Lyme disease and more adequate testing protocols is at the West Tisbury Public Library. The deadline for signatures is Sunday, Oct. 31.

The petition also highlights the need to support a chronic Lyme disease training program for doctors on the Island. Lyme patients should not have to travel to receive proper treatment.

Andora Aquino

Andora Justino Buzetti Aquino, of Vineyard Haven, daughter of Mr. Marcio S. Aquino and Ms. Joelma J. Buzetti, is among the 853 students who entered Colgate University with the Class of 2014 in late August. The class, selected from an applicant pool of almost 7,900 students, is the most diverse to enroll at Colgate.

Andora is a graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

Four regional high school teachers have been invited to present a professional workshop at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention in Orlando, Fla., the first time in the school’s history that an interdisciplinary team of teachers has been honored with this opportunity.

Kate Holter and Corinne Kurtz from the history department, and, from English, Bill McCarthy and Dan Sharkovitz, will present their session, titled The Inverted Periscope: How to Find the Monsters of Insight Under the Sea, on Nov. 21.

Julie Pringle

Julie Pringle of Vineyard Haven, a current freshman at Tufts University, has been awarded the designation of AP Scholar with Distinction for her high scores on the seven advanced placement exams she completed over her years at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

No Edgartown Quorum

Edgartown voters failed to reach a quorum last night for a special town meeting at the Old Whaling Church.

Chairman of the board of selectmen Margaret Serpa told voters they were short 44 people to meet the 162 minimum. The special session will be rescheduled at a later date or combined with the annual town meeting in April.

The investigation into the July 12 Menemsha fire is nearly complete, and Coast Guard senior officials announced last week that they expect a final report in a matter of weeks from federal and state agencies.

Joe Van Nes is about as far from being a political insider as you can get. The 25-year-old Vineyard contractor and landscaper is happy to admit that until about six months ago he was “utterly uninvolved” in politics and did not even vote.

“I voted when I was 18, just to do it, you know?” he said this week. “Then I lost faith in a system so obviously corrupt.

Jeff Perry, Republican candidate for the 10th congressional district, knows his script. When he talks about health care, for example, he usually uses the preferred pejorative term of his party: Obamacare.

But he puts the lines together well, and now he is an even-money chance to take the district long held by Democrats.

There are candidates of both parties who regurgitate the scripted talking points whole, but not Jeff Perry.

Edgartown police have identified a person of interest in the arson and burglary case on Dunham Road; police also have seized cutting tools they believe may have been used in the early morning hours of Sept. 27 when a fire was deliberately set and propane gas lines were cut in the guest house owned by E. Burke Ross.

Police said this week they are focusing on a person who lives on property owned by the Vose family trust at 41 Dunham Road, directly next door to the Ross home. No names have been released and no arrests have been made.

A draft report of the long-awaited Massachusetts Estuaries Project study of Sengekontacket Pond sketches a profile of a coastal pond that is at once troubling and hopeful.

Although the vast pond that spans the towns of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown has undergone significant ecological changes with increased development in the past half century, including a drastic decline in eelgrass beds, specific steps could be taken that would restore the pond to nearly its original state, the report finds.