What is going on? This week I’ve received reports of spring migrants arriving on the Island well ahead of schedule. It is amazing after a relatively harsh winter. I hate to mention global warming, but it seems the movement of birds, flowering of plants, hatching of insects and frog choruses are starting earlier.

For the second time in six months, the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority has been unable to make its payments to landlords involved in its subsidized housing program.

In a statement released late on Thursday, the due day for payment of some $20,000 to the owners of 35 properties, the authority said it had run out of money and could not make its April commitment.

It had begun contacting all landlords and tenants to let them know.

A new $2,500 grant is available to help a small business person on the Island improve or begin a new business.

The grant is offered by the Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network as a way to give back to the community. Applying is easy; just explain your project in a short form available online at mvwomensnetwork.org. The network hopes to make it an annual grant with increasing funds.

They were given a box of pasta and plenty of time for construction, and on Monday they provided the drama when Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School sophomores and freshmen participated in the 13th annual math department Prince linguini bridge contest.

A total of 62 bridges were entered, many by one or two students, to be judged on their construction’s ability to hold weight.

When we consider placing wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal and near Noman’s Land, we simply cannot throw caution to the wind and jump into this full tilt. No matter where we stand with regard to where those turbines should stand, we first need to deal with some basic meteorological and technical aspects of this energy source.

On April 13, West Tisbury voters will be making many important decisions. One item, Article 31 on the annual town warrant, deals with the future of the Mill Pond, a man-made pond created by at least the mid-1800s. It is not known when the first grist mill was built on the Old Mill River, but it was central to the lives of the earliest settlers of what would become West Tisbury. According to Banks, “the location of the mill was on the Josiah Standish home lot,” and after several transfers, came into the possession of Edward Cottle in 1688.

From Gazette editions of April, 1935:

These days we are afraid to have a hero. Because over and over, heroes keep falling off their pedestals. Another one did last year on Thanksgiving Day. Tiger Woods is the most highly paid professional athlete on earth. He’s been greatly admired and sought after by many around the globe. Then the script of Tiger’s terrible Thanksgiving was revealed in the media. What was initially reported as a single car accident was part of something much bigger. That accident damaged a tree, a Cadillac Escalade, a reputation.

Thank you, islanders

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Clamming Comes Back

The Island is full of talented fishermen, but even those hopeless with a hook can enjoy clamming. Clams are captives, lying lazily in wait for their captor. Successful quahauging takes only a rake.