Starting a new business on Martha’s Vineyard takes courage during the best of times. But even in the face of the pandemic, optimistic risk-takers have opened shops, galleries, restaurants and services.

Leslie’s Drug Store, a family-run pharmacy and Main street institution in Vineyard Haven since 1948, will permanently close at the end of this year, after 72 years in business.

The Edgartown Board of Trade elected three new board members on Wednesday.

Small business owners on Martha’s Vineyard can now apply for forgivable federal loans covering up to $10,000 of losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Forced to delay opening this spring, many Island businesses are using an unusually busy fall as a springboard into the darker months.

Despite a lost spring and an unprecedented shutdown that forced closures long into the summer, most main street businesses said July and August allowed them to catch up.

For the past 20-plus years Bob Falkenburg has been a smiling face at the busy downtown Oak Bluffs information booth, greeting visitors from places both far flung and close to home. But at 93, he decided this year to retire from his town duties.

An unexpected surge in visitors this weekend caught many Vineyard business owners and public health officials by surprise.