The Martha’s Vineyard Youth Leadership Initiative has announced the nominees for its 2012 Youth Leadership Summit.

This weekend we’ll find the crescent moon high in the southwestern sky after sunset. It meets up with the red planet Mars on Tuesday night and Saturn on Thursday night.

Rain fell softly and fog blew in from the ocean this week across a lush green Island after tinder-dry conditions so early in the season had weather watchers worried and firefighters on high alert. Everything has been early this year in the natural world. No winter at all to speak of, followed by a very early spring.

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I live in a town with two names. That is, the town has two names, not me. Don’t you think sometimes our language can be deceiving? I mean, if boned chicken is chicken without the bones, then why isn’t canned tuna, tuna without the can? But I digress.

From the edition of May 15, 1987:

On Martha’s Vineyard we turn to a time in the 1840s, a little over a half century after the signing of the Constitution, in the first years the Vineyard Gazette served the Island as the community of record.

There comes a time when you cannot be silent anymore and this is it. Like many people on the Island, I would like to live in a place with clean air, clean water, a flourishing natural environment and amiable neighbors who have a respect for each other and for the heritage of the place. As a proud citizen of the United States and the town of Oak Bluffs, I believe these are my basic rights. So when these rights are threatened for myself and others, I must speak up. I am standing up for the roundabout. What follows are my reasons.

The Edgartown Council on Aging, also known as the Anchors, has a shiny new wood floor, the result of a generous gift from a local woman who died two years ago. And in the months ahead, the walls will be painted and the windows will be attended to as well.

The improvements are being paid for by the estate of Audry Richard, who grew up in town. The daughter of a fisherman, she was a sales clerk in local stores. Her husband, Edmond Richard, was a mechanic whose father was also an Edgartown fisherman. The couple had no children.

Oak Bluffs will stick with a new one-way road configuration on Dukes County avenue through the summer, the town roads and byways committee said this week.

Last fall, the town changed part of the narrow road into a one-way street on a trial basis, citing safety concerns with the two lanes of traffic, parking and pedestrian use. Some neighbors say the change has shifted the safety problem by increasing traffic on surrounding residential streets.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen Tuesday voiced their support for the Edgartown National Bank’s plan to demolish the Oyster Bar restaurant on Circuit avenue and replace it with a new mixed-use building.

Architect William Christopher shared the plans for the two-story building, which will have a branch of the bank and one or two retail spaces on the ground floor and two residential units on the second floor.

A’s Little League player Jack Sayre went 4-for-4 with three home runs and a double during Monday night’s 14-3 win over the Red Sox, contributing 10 RBIs in the process. Showing his mettle on the mound as well, Sayre came in to close out the game after Liam Weiland’s strong start.