The Dukes County Advisory Board on County Expenditures was presented with an uncommon windfall during Wednesday afternoon’s meeting, learning from a preliminary audit of the fiscal year 2012 budget that the county had an overall surplus of $572,726. That figure includes a net income of $300,000 for FY2012, as well as additional funds from FY2010 and FY2011 surpluses.

Although frost still covers the ground some mornings, Island boards of health already have their focus turned towards summer and tick season.

At last week’s All-Island Selectmen’s meeting, Tisbury health commissioner Michael Loberg and Edgartown health agent Matthew Poole presented their annual year-end report for the Tick-Borne Illness Reduction Initiative, a five-year study funded by a grant from the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. The study has just completed its second year.

When artist Margot Datz begins a new project she finds it hard to stop. “Until someone rips me off the wall I’m there,” she said on Wednesday morning at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown. Although no one is coming to rip Ms. Datz off the wall, her brother Stephen Datz is on hand to “help her out the door,” he said. Good thing, too, as this weekend there will be a wedding held at the church. Scaffolding and bridal gowns do not really mix. But magnificently-restored murals serving as a backdrop for wedded bliss definitely do.

Catholic communities from around the world were glued to televisions last week waiting for black or white smoke to pour from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. The hopefulness that has taken hold since the white smoke rose up and the election of Pope Francis was announced is also evident here on Martha’s Vineyard.

A long winter of frequent storms, from October’s Hurricane Sandy to a three-day storm in early March, has been especially difficult for a group of frequent Island visitors: the Steamship Authority’s fleet of vessels, the hardy group that connects the Vineyard to the mainland.

Rough seas have contributed to 94 ferry cancellations in the first two months of 2013 alone, five per cent of the 1,892 scheduled trips, according to data provided by the Steamship Authority.

It was once a symbol of the Island and a principal fish landed on the docks. Swordfish weighing hundreds of pounds were hauled in from Menemsha, Tisbury, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. They lined the docks and fish markets; their tails nailed to the walls of fish shacks bore testament to the fishery’s success. As some fishermen tell it, swordfish were once so abundant they were seen within miles of the shore, as close as Squibnocket and Dogfish Bar.

But those days have long since disappeared.

After hearing heated arguments from both sides of a shellfish licensing dispute, Tisbury selectmen at their Tuesday meeting voted to take no action regarding the question of revoking or suspending the license of commercial shellfisherman Tom Searle. The case concerned two incidents, one on Nov. 26, 2012 and one on Jan. 8, 2013, for which Mr. Searle received citations from Tisbury shellfish constable Danielle Ewart.

Plans for a town-run fuel facility at the Oak Bluffs harbor met with some resistance at a Martha’s Vineyard Commission hearing last week, with some abutters to the potential facility questioning why the town needed to be involved, and voicing concerns that the fuel dock will lower property values and cause safety concerns.

Oak Bluffs has plans for a fuel facility at the harbor master’s shack in the Oak Bluffs harbor, with the 10,000 gallon gas tank stored under the parking lot. Boats would be able to fuel up at a floating dock between May and October.

West Tisbury selectmen will continue to explore options regarding development of the town’s planned solar array at the landfill. Town counsel Ronald Rappaport appeared at Wednesday’s board of selectmen meeting to discuss the matter, reporting that the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) had amended the contract he and associate Fain Hackney negotiated in December of last year. The original project lender had withdrawn, and CVEC had found a new lender, Deutsche Bank.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $136,188 for the business week ending on Friday, March 15, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.