Serving Hands (formerly called Surplus Food) will begin its 2010-2011 food distribution this week, on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

All distributions will take place at the First Baptist Church Parish House in Vineyard Haven. The parish house is the small building on William street right next to the church. The doors will open promptly at 1:30 (please do not arrive before 1:15, as another group uses the church) and close at 3 p.m. Food will be distributed until we run out. If you have a pantry card, please bring it.

Edgartown selectmen are exploring possible sites for an ambitious solar panel project that if built could provide power to all the town’s municipal buildings.

After several serious near-accidents where motorists have ignored the flashing red lights of a school bus stopped to discharge or admit students, Martha’s Vineyard school transportation supervisor James Flynn and his drivers met with Sheriff Mike McCormack and the chiefs of police of the six Island towns on Tuesday, Oct. 5, to detail a significant increase in drivers flouting the rules around school buses.

After receiving preliminary designs for the Carnegie Building and the old Edgartown School two weeks ago, the Edgartown Library building committee asked architects this week to come up with a smaller program and a smaller budget. The committee is hoping to see new design ideas at their weekly meeting this coming Monday.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen’s meeting opened on a sober note on Tuesday as board chairman Duncan Ross announced that fellow selectman Gregory Coogan is recovering in Massachusetts General Hospital after breaking his hip and femur in a fall from his roof on Monday. Mr. Ross conveyed Mrs. Coogan’s gratitude to the Island EMTs who responded to the accident.

Debate about whether to build a public fishing pier on the harbor side of the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority wharf grew contentious last Thursday, when neighborhood residents of the North Bluff protested the location, citing noise and garbage concerns.

While most in attendance at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission public hearing came to applaud the project, neighboring homeowners insisted the pier should be built on the far side of the SSA wharf.

They need no introduction, certainly not on the Vineyard.

Nat Benjamin and Ross Gannon, the well-known Vineyard Haven boatbuilders and owners of Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, were honored last night at The Grange Hall in West Tisbury with the prestigious Creative Living Award, the annual honorarium given in memory of the late Ruth Bogan to an Islander who exemplifies the Vineyard way of life.

More than 100 friends and family members attended, including a number of respected wooden boat captains.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted unanimously last week to approve a new two-story building at the Tisbury Marketplace on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. The vote is a victory for developer Sam Dunn, who originally created the marketplace in 1984 and plans to build the new mixed-use retail and apartment building.

The vote concludes a process that began over a year ago when Mr. Dunn’s proposal was referred to the commission as a development of regional impact last fall.

The plan now goes to the town of Tisbury for review at the local level.

There is a world of difference, says Mike McCormack, between the role of a police officer and that of a sheriff. And between himself and his challenger.

“He’s about putting them behind bars. The sheriff’s job is about preparing them to go back into the community. They are totally different jobs,” said Mr. McCormack.

His point, if not already obvious, is that experience in one job does not equate to qualification for the other. And Mr. McCormack is running on experience

Neal Maciel’s policy manifesto relates almost exclusively to the running of the jail. It begins with a promise to prohibit transfers of prisoners from off-Island, something he claims the current sheriff allows too often and as a favor to his counterparts in other counties.

It’s a practice, he says, which has contributed to the Vineyard jail’s reputation as a place where fortunate prisoners can do soft time.