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In a rough, penalty-laden game in front of a packed house at the Martha’s Vineyard Arena Thursday, the boys’ hockey team skated to a 5-3 victory over Dedham to advance to the quarterfinal round of the state tournament.

Three Vineyard teams have now advanced to the section quarterfinals. Boys’ basketball will take on rival Bishop Feehan Friday after trouncing Bourne 77-44 at home on Wednesday. And late Thursday, the girls’ basketball team beat Fairhaven 64-39.

Vineyard programs that depend on federal funding are expected to see little impact, at least in the short term, from the much-publicized automatic budget cuts set to take effect in Washington today. But leaders in Island education, elder and health services said next year could be a different story.

Ron (Puppy) Cavallo is one of Jane Leaf’s best customers. Puppy, as everyone calls him, has been getting his hair cut by Jane for nearly 30 years, long before she opened Wavelengths Hair Salon in 1989.

And yet he’s also one of her worst customers. In the last 12 years he’s been to the salon only three times.

A planning board hearing next week will address plans to move two homes on Chappaquiddick.

Plans have been filed with the board to relocate Richard and Jennifer Schifter’s home at Wasque Point, which is threatened by rapid erosion. When the house construction was completed in 2007, it was 220 feet away from the bluff; today the eroding bank is about 50 feet away from a stone pool enclosure next to the house.

With Dr. Rocco Monto’s impending relocation to Nantucket in May, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is taking immediate steps to expand orthopedic services on the Island, including emergency orthopedic services.

Dr. Mark Scheffer, an orthopedic surgeon at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Clinic in Concord, New Hampshire, will join the hospital staff this summer. He is expected to arrive in mid to late July, director of physician services Jay Ferriter told the Gazette on Wednesday.

For the past 10 years, Dr. Raymond (Rocco) Monto’s morning commute has been out of the ordinary.

Three times a week the orthopedic surgeon, one of just two on Martha’s Vineyard and the only one on Nantucket, drops off youngest son Rocco at school while daughter Siena boards a bus to Nantucket Elementary (older sons Alex and Nick are at Cape Cod Academy and the University of Connecticut, respectively).

The Dukes County commission voted this week to approve a $1.5 million budget for the coming fiscal year.
The budget marks a 17.9 per cent decrease over last year due to the state takeover of administrative affairs for the county sheriff’s department. Last year the sheriff’s portion of the county budget totalled $300,000.
Under the upcoming budget, total town assessments will drop from $649,279 to $492,739, county manager Martina Thornton told the commission at their meeting Wednesday.

Thanks to funding from Partners HealthCare and Massachusetts General Hospital, Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center will be getting $3 million for exterior building renovations.
“We’re very excited,” Windemere administrator Ken Chisholm said Thursday. “We have a lot of needs on the outside of Windemere.”
Through a $2 million grant from Massachusetts General Hospital and a $1 million grant from Partners, the facility’s exterior will see a complete overhaul: all windows, siding, outside doors and decking will be replaced, Mr. Chisholm said.

It takes five minutes for the crew at U.S. Coast Guard Station Menemsha to walk from main headquarters to the search and rescue vessel. Five minutes may seem like a short time, but add drysuits, anti-exposure and flotation coveralls, boating tools, supplies, artillery and sometimes protective vests, and a five-minute walk can feel like a lifetime.

Absent a boathouse where all their gear and supplies would normally be kept, Coast Guard crew members make this laden walk several times a day.