The game is back. Every fall on the Island the leaves turn red and fall to the ground, scallopers take to Island ponds, and the V’s and W’s line up across from each other on the gridiron the week before Thanksgiving to add a new chapter to The Rivalry. Then, all of a sudden last year, they didn’t. The dead leaves might as well have clung to their branches. After the ensuing round of finger-pointing and resentment subsided the Game is back on the schedule.

Undaunted by the bleak economic picture, Oak Bluffs voters agreed on Tuesday night to increase the room occupancy tax and allocate $200,000 for the historic renovation of the brick bathhouse on the North Bluff.

But when it came to a much-discussed article by petition to reduce the number of selectmen from five to three, voters could not agree.

Dan Rossi was appointed as the new West Tisbury police chief on Wednesday night after a vote by West Tisbury selectmen Cynthia Mitchell and Richard Knabel. After the announcement, Mr. Rossi wiped his brow and hugged the selectmen to a round of applause. It had been a long weekend of interviews and public speaking, and Mr. Rossi was eager to get back to the work of leading the police department, as he has done as interim chief since Beth Toomey’s retirement in April.

Fred LaPiana is just one of an unknown number of people who cannot get service from Martha’s Vineyard’s monopoly cable television provider, Comcast.

But as Tisbury’s director of public works and a prime mover in the renegotiation of Comcast’s franchise agreement with Island towns, he is in a better position than anybody to do something about it. Or so you would think.

Tisbury property taxes will be sharply higher in 2011, largely due to falling property values and the extra expense of the town’s new emergency services building.

For fiscal year 2011, residential tax rates will go up 14.3 per cent compared with the current year. Commercial rates will go up 14.6 per cent.

And rates are unlikely to come down significantly for several years, an outlook which prompted selectmen to suggest the town would have to hold off on significant further infrastructure projects in the near future.

PROTECTING ANTIQUITY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A former staffer for a Georgia senator who briefly made headlines when he was arrested and jailed following a fundraiser on the Vineyard in the summer of 2007 has filed a lawsuit against the Vineyard Gazette and The Boston Globe.

It’s All in the Grout

Martha’s Vineyard Tile Company owners, Annie and Jeremy Bradshaw, are adding a new dimension to their tile business through television with a half-hour show devoted to the use of tile in homes and businesses. Tile Trends, hosted by Annie Bradshaw and Guinevere Cramer, begins airing Nov. 20 on MVTV channel 13 and can be seen on demand on MVTV.org.

Drilling began yesterday to replace an underwater damaged cable that provides power from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick. Construction is expected to last until mid December.

A small group gathered at the drilling point outside of Soft as a Grape on Dock street, waiting for the drilling to begin. Dock street is closed to cars at the intersection of Kelley street, and Daggett street has been converted to a two-way street to accommodate loading and unloading of passenger cars.

The decision to build land-based wind turbines on Wampanoag Tribe land in Aquinnah will likely come down to three factors: aesthetics, acoustics and economics.

The results of a wind feasibility study unveiled at the tribal administration building in Aquinnah last Friday showed that while turbines could deliver big environmental and economic benefits in an area with wind resources it characterized as “superb,” it could come at a cost to the scenic and acoustic values in town.