Jeremy D. Nickel will be the guest speaker at the 11 a.m. services at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard on Main street in Vineyard Haven on Jan. 10 and 24 as well as Feb. 7 and 21.

Born and raised just outside of Boston (doomed to a life as a passionate Red Sox fan), Mr. Nickel’s spiritual awakening began on a monthlong trek in the Himalayas after high school. He earned a master’s of divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., and began in 2007 at the First UU Society of San Francisco.

After a specially appointed Mill Pond research committee clashed over the best plan to improve water quality in the pond — causing committee member Kent Healy to abruptly resign — the committee has been reorganized and expanded and will begin to meet again in the coming weeks.

Selectmen over the past two weeks appointed a pair of members to the committee, expanding it from three members to five. Last week the selectmen voted unanimously to appoint Anna Alley to the committee; this week they voted to add Rick Karney to the panel, again without dissent.

He was the quiet Islander, the longtime town attorney who had seen it all. I was the cub reporter stomping up the stairs to my office, shoulder bag stuffed with soft-lead pencils and notebooks filled with scribbles from some selectmen’s meeting, ready to be banged into a short story that the editors at the Cape Cod Times would inevitably make shorter by the time it appeared in print.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I own Eco MV, a company I started because I felt the need to give something back to a community that had given me so much.

One Ocean, One Island

The Island Housing Trust is appealing to the town of West Tisbury to ease affordability requirements on the high-profile eight-house project nearing completion at 250 State Road.

The reason is a new challenge facing Island towns trying to ensure their affordable housing stays affordable in perpetuity: lenders.

Chilmark is a Yankee town, no doubt about it. Some might call it behind the times, but Chilmark is quite content to preserve the quiet simplicity of the past, both in its rustic landscape and in its traditional methods of settling business and political matters.

Case in point: The hand-cranked ballot box.

Chilmark still uses one, an old-fashioned wooden box that takes hand-marked paper ballots.

Amid mixed reports about whether the recession is easing its grip on the nation, the Vineyard economy remains in decline and has yet to hit bottom, merchants, tradesmen and bankers said this week.

Unemployment on the Island is still high — especially among contractors — while many businesses ended the calendar year with sluggish sales and little hope for a better spring or summer. In Edgartown alone at least 10 retail stores have closed their doors for good this winter, and some observers put the number closer to 20.

A Golden Incentive

From Gazette editions of January, 1960:

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Dec. 31 35 20 .00

Jan. 1 36 31 .35

Jan. 2 37 30 .20*

Jan. 3 33 16 .10*

Jan. 4 29 18 Trace

Jan. 5 34 13 .00

Jan. 6 35 25 .00

Jan. 7 31 24 .00

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 38º F.