The Martha’s Vineyard Commission Thursday unanimously approved Comcast and NStar’s application to install an undersea cable to provide backup service to the Island.

NStar and Comcast requested approval for the installation of a 4.5 mile undersea hybrid fiber optic and electric cable between Falmouth and Martha’s Vineyard, with the cable going underneath the sea floor and coming to land on Squantum avenue and Main street in Vineyard Haven.

Last night 30 deepwater fishermen from around New England expressed their approval at a meeting in Gloucester for a new proposal to open up swordfishing to rod and reel and harpoon fishermen. Gregory Mayhew and his son Todd, both Menemsha fishermen, attended as did Alex Friedman, president of the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association.

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital physicians and medical staffers met last Friday with leadership from the recently-announced Coordinated Cancer Care Program, a collaboration between MVH and Massachusetts General Hospital, to discuss details and goals of the new agreement, which increases oncological care access to Vineyarders by providing chemotherapy treatments on-Island. The program also includes Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
The Coordinated Cancer Care Program was announced earlier this month, and began this week at the hospital.

Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven is naming its theatre space in honor of Baltimore philanthropist Marilyn Meyerhoff, who has given the largest-ever donation to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, founder and director Richard Paradise said Thursday.

Mr. Paradise declined to disclose the amount of the gift, but said it was a multi-year commitment that would “provide sustenance for the coming decade and ensures that the MV Film Society will flourish.”

The pastoral sheep pastures and hayfields at Flat Point Farm will be placed into conservation after the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank announced plans to purchase a large piece of the West Tisbury farm.

The land bank is set to purchase 12.9 acres of land and an agricultural preservation restriction on an additional 25 acres of abutting pastures for $3.45 million from the Fischer family, who has owned the property since 1939, land bank director James Lengyel said this week.

The Edgartown conservation commission approved a large, complicated project Wednesday to move a Wasque Point home threatened by erosion. The approval comes after months of discussion during which town boards, experts and residents grappled with the environmental and logistical details of the project while faced with the urgency of a rapidly-eroding coastal bluff.

For the second year in a row Dukes County comes out on top in a statewide health ranking. Islanders, it seems, have low rates of premature death and obesity, and the Vineyard rates high when it comes to recreational facilities and low in fast-food options.
But in some health measures, the picture is not so rosy. Dukes County (which consists of Martha’s Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands) had the highest number of residents reporting excessive drinking, and the highest number of those uninsured.

Elisha R. Smith, an Oak Bluffs farmer for more than three-quarters of a century and for more than two decades the president of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, died last Friday at his home in Vineyard Haven at the age of 90. It was thanks to his determination, hard bargaining and skill at dealing with people that, in 1992, the society acquired the land that is the site of today’s Agricultural Hall. The acquisition of that West Tisbury Panhandle property where the annual fair is held was one of the proudest moments of his life, Elisha Smith said.

Anthony Lewis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who brought his passion for justice and free speech to a career spanning more than a half century, died Monday. A long-time seasonal resident of West Tisbury, he was 85.

Mr. Lewis died of complications of heart and renal failure at his Cambridge home, said his wife, Margaret H. Marshall, former chief justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court. Private services were held Wednesday, the day he would have turned 86.

A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m., May 23, at The Memorial Church at Harvard University.

Cable television customers on the Vineyard are guaranteed Comcast service for the next 10 years as a contract between the giant cable company and the six Island towns is now complete.

After two years of negotiations, the towns of West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs and Chilmark signed new franchise agreements with Comcast at their board of selectmen meetings this week. Edgartown, Tisbury and Aquinnah are expected to sign off early next week.