Late last Thursday afternoon at Lambert’s Cove Beach in West Tisbury, early-season sunbathers dipped their feet in the icy water. A young couple paddle-boarded, their laughs just audible over the sound of waves. One man snoozed in a lounge chair, a discarded book at his side.

Emotions ran high at a West Tisbury special town meeting Tuesday night where voters continued the ongoing debate over town rules relating to dog ownership. First, voters rejected a proposal to strengthen the town leash law, and then split on the question of whether to pay for enforcement of a new rule that will restrict dogs at Lambert’s Cove Beach in the summer months.

A total of 184 voters turned out for the special session that lasted just over two hours. Moderator F. Patrick Gregory presided over the meeting.

Please Adopt Us

Belle, originally of Tashmoo, spent the last two winters in South America and just got back in May. Now she is spending most of her time fishing Tisbury Great Pond with four of her friends.

Belle’s journey home was far from routine — something about a mysterious delay around May 1 near Port au Prince. Her friends were worried she’d been killed, but Belle proved herself a survivor. She is very much alive but is keeping mum about her trip.

Let the texting begin.

The high school is relaxing a ban on cell phone use next year, allowing students to use their mobile phones in limited times during the school day.

The regional high school committee Monday voted unanimously in favor of a new pilot policy that allows for students to use cell phones and iPods “within reasonable limits” during passing periods and at lunch time, and during class and at the library at the teacher’s discretion.

Each September the yellow school buses roll, and well-scrubbed, optimistic young children climb on board, carrying them with them the ambitions, hopes and fears of their families. For 13 years this process continues, and then suddenly, almost unexpectedly, school days are over. There is a song that I have often sung in Ireland, and known in Scotland, Wales and the Appalachians: “School Days Over, come on then John, time you were putting my pit boots on, on with your coat and your moleskin trousers you start at the pit today.

From past editions of the Vineyard Gazette:

The natural formation of the Island of Martha’s Vineyard is such that nature seems to have prepared an excellent route along the north shore, where a railroad can be constructed at a very small comparative expense. The highest land on the Island is an elevation, 100 to 300 feet high, extending along the sound nearly the whole distance.

Like a teenager who seems to grow a foot overnight, change has a way of coming slowly, then presenting itself all at once.

West Tisbury, the town that has been the symbol of the Vineyard’s agricultural heritage for hundreds of years, has been absorbing population steadily since the 1970s, but seems suddenly to have lost some of its rural character.

West Tisbury at a Crossroad

Like a teenager who seems to grow a foot overnight, change has a way of coming slowly, then presenting itself all at once.

West Tisbury, the town that has been the symbol of the Vineyard’s agricultural heritage for hundreds of years, has been absorbing population steadily since the 1970s, but seems suddenly to have lost some of its rural character.

It often begins with tears, the dropping off of a young child at preschool. In the classroom it is the little boy or girl whose tears flow. Later, in the car, it is mom or even dad who cries, the strongest of souls moved to mush at this new beginning. The end, high school graduation, is so far away at that moment as to seem impossible. But as every parent knows, it all goes by so fast.

Editor’s Note: What follows is the text of the commencement address delivered by West Tisbury resident Dan Waters to the 2012 graduating class at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School last Sunday.

By DAN WATERS

Welcome to one of the scariest moments you’ll ever live through.

The day you were born was probably scary, but at least you didn’t see it coming. Your wedding day will be scary, but at least it’s voluntary — and people back out of marriages all the time, as we know.