The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $210,423 for the business week ending on Friday, June 22, 2012. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.

Much of the land bank revenue last week came from the town of Chilmark, where three transactions resulted in $182,296. In Oak Bluffs, three eligible transactions yielded $12,700. Four transactions in Edgartown generated $9,920, while three in Tisbury resulted in $5,507. No eligible transactions were recorded in West Tisbury or Aquinnah.

A New Hampshire attorney and former county commissioner from the Granite State was selected this week as the next Dukes County manager. But Katherine Rogers told the Gazette yesterday that she is still deciding whether to take the job.

For 43 years, he’s led the annual Fourth of July parade through the streets of Edgartown. But next week’s festivities will be Fred B. (Ted) Morgan Jr.’s last as grand marshal and organizer of the patriotic display.

Mr. Morgan announced that it would be his last year at the Monday selectmen’s meeting this week.

One year after the Islandwide franchise agreement with Comcast expired, a new 10-year cable television contract remains unfinished with no clear end in sight. And cable service to Chappaquiddick continues to be the chief sticking point.

Cable committee chairman Jennifer Rand said this week the committee did not want to rush the contract “just because we’re tired of negotiating.”

“This is a 10-year contract and a lengthy conversation,” she said. “We want to get it right.”

Staring east from Chappaquiddick on a clear day, if you know where to look, a tiny white sliver peeks over the horizon. It’s the Nantucket water tower. Otherwise “the other island,” at only 12 miles away and barely over the curvature of the earth, might as well not exist to Vineyarders. And vice versa.

A two-minute drive from the heart of Edgartown down a dead-end road lies an escape from the perfectly trimmed rose bushes and hedges of the village.

“It packs a lot into a small space,” said Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation executive director Adam Moore on a recent early summer day as he looked off into Nantucket Sound past saltwater marshes. “You’re right out of town, and then you’re right here.”

Andrew Woodruff emerged from a tangle of tomato vines in the Thimble Farm greenhouse last Sunday morning, carrying the first ripe tomato of the season.

“I don’t know who to give it to,” Mr. Woodruff smiled. Standing in front of him were Sarah McKay, president of the Island Grown Initiative, Eric Grubman, the former owner of the property and Allan and Shelley Holt, who recently donated money to help IGI buy the farm and keep it in active food production for future generations.

Mr. Woodruff placed the red fruit in Mr. Holt’s hand.

In a reversal this week, Vineyard fishermen dropped their lawsuit over the Cape Wind project, with Cape Wind in turn agreeing to support access and a new permit program for fishermen who make a living in the waters around Horseshoe Shoal.

At a conference call with members of the Island and regional media Tuesday, Cape Wind communications director Mark Rodgers and Warren Doty, president of the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association, announced that the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court two years ago, would be dropped.

After a turbulent decade in the housing market, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is reporting a second relatively flat year of revenue, perhaps indicating that the market is climbing onto steadier ground.

Land bank executive director James Lengyel said this week that revenues are expected to be down about seven per cent for fiscal year while transactions are up about three per cent.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Mr. Lengyel said, calling them “essentially flat.”

The fiscal year ends Saturday.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of July 1963:

Edgartown’s annual Fourth of July celebration will begin on July 3 with the arrival of the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Steinaker in Edgartown harbor at 10 a.m. The welcoming committee will board her, and then Commander William McGovern will be piped on shore at the Edgartown Yacht Club about 11 a.m. by the Edgartown Boys’ Club Bugle and Drum Corps.