Steamship Authority governors will hold their monthly meeting on the Vineyard this morning. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the library conference room at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

The agenda for the meeting includes a monthly business summary for the public boat line, an update on the SSA website project and a discussion of 2013 ferry schedules.

Governors will review a proposed contract to overhaul the freight vessel Sankaty.

West Tisbury selectmen approved the town’s first one-day beer and wine license last Wednesday, granting permission to the Vineyard Nursing Association to serve alcohol at its annual clambake and auction, which will be held August 1 at the Field Gallery. VNA chief executive officer Bob Tonti said he expects approximately 225 people to attend the event.

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) are holding a public information meeting in New Bedford today, July 17, about proposed offshore wind energy projects in the Massachusetts-Rhode Island wind energy area.

Air quality tests will be done in the Tisbury town hall following a painting and renovation project that caused complaints among town workers about fumes inside the building.

At their meeting last week, the Tisbury selectmen voted to spend $900 on the testing. “After the painting and all the work that revolved around the process, we thought it would be helpful to have some kind of air quality testing done, to know what’s in the air, if anything at the moment,” town administrator John Bugbee told the board.

Check yourself, check the children, check the cats and dogs. And when it comes to checking for ticks, don’t forget about horses. Equestrians on the Vineyard and throughout New England are now constantly on the lookout for Lyme disease symptoms in horses.

I was moved by news of the death of Gladys Widdiss. She has long been one of my Island heroes, starting with her becoming valedictorian of her senior class at the Tisbury High School in 1932. More recently I admired her for her determination and success in her dealing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get the Wampanoag community of the Island recognized as a tribe. “We know who we are,” she used to say. “The challenge was that we just had to convince the bureaucrats in Washington who we are.”

From a July 1, 1960 column by Joseph Chase Allen:

Looking backward, the most astonishing thing to contemplate is the realization of how brief the span of years there is between the electrified present and the primitive colonial age, a span which my personal memory cannot cover of course, yet it can visualize the dovetailing of one age into the other.

There are many good reasons for growing native plants. Native plants are adapted to local growing conditions, they promote biodiversity and support local wildlife, and in general they need less maintenance. Besides, native plants are Vineyard vernacular — they just look right in our gardens and landscapes.

Corrections

A story about the Lyme disease support group on the Vineyard in the Friday Gazette contained errors. Sue Hruby’s name was spelled incorrectly, and in one photograph that accompanied the story, the person identified as Enid Haller was in fact Phoenix Becker.

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The West Tisbury column last week carried an incorrect date for a memorial service for John W. Mayhew; the service will be held on July 28, not July 24.

The Gazette regrets the errors.

Slow Food Martha's Vineyard is hosting its annual potluck dinner on Tuesday, July 17 at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury at 6:30 p.m. Oran Hesterman, a leader in sustainable agriculture, will be the special guest.

Attendees are asked to bring a potluck dish for six people, as well as their own dinnerware and cups. This is a zero-waste event, so paper plates and throwaway plastic dinnerware is discouraged.

The cost is $5 for Slow Food members and $10 for non-members. Doors open at 6 p.m.