Cultural Luncheon

The Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living is holding the third in a series of cultural luncheons on Saturday, April 21, from noon to 2 p.m. at The Grill on Main in Edgartown. The luncheon will examine the history of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association in Oak Bluffs. Tickets are $25, and are available by calling Leslie Clapp at 508-939-9440.

Lobster Rolls

Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven will serve its last round of off-season lobster rolls this Sunday, April 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Enjoy a lobster roll, chips and a beverage for just $15 — a perfect way to lighten your wallet after tax returns. Hot dogs and assorted pies by the slice are also available. Call 508-693-0332 for more information or to place large orders.

Unable to make it? No need to worry about going lobster-less for long: the church’s regular Friday lobster rolls return next month.

Saints and Sinners

Calling all Minnesingers, past and present! Your dulcet tones linger in our memories, but what about your photos of concerts and travels with the minstrels? Those are harder to recall. That’s why the Minnesingers needs your help.

Three teens, two girls and a boy, clad in jeans and nondescript navy blue sweatshirts stand on a stage and wait for a cue from the audience. “France!” shouts a woman from a few rows back. The performers leap into action, willing to personify whatever they think means All Things French. “Oui!” shouts the boy. One of the girls contributes, “Escargots, but of course!” and the other girl spreads wide her arms, “But, of course, we go to the park-e’!”

Three Island towns will hold annual elections on Thursday, April 12, offering up a mix of contentious ballot questions and races.

An overflow turnout of of West Tisbury voters completed a marathon annual town meeting Tuesday night that saw decisions on everything from dredging the Mill Pond to dogs on Lambert’s Cove Beach to paving town roads.

It was a night for debate and at times compromise.

The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network has extended the application deadline for a small business grant till Friday, April 13. The $2,500 grant will be awarded to a local small business person (man or woman) based on the Vineyard who plans to improve, grow or start a new business. The applicant’s project or program should promote economic development on the Island, in keeping with the mission of the Women’s Network.

Edgartown voters easily approved $4.9 million in funding for a new town library during a lengthy annual town meeting Tuesday night.

With a gathering of 305 voters at the Old Whaling Church, town meeting members approved most of the items on the 63-article annual town meeting warrant and a 12-article special town meeting warrant.

A town operating budget of $28.3 million was approved, as was a $272,000 Massachusetts Estuaries Project study for Poucha Pond, Cape Pogue Pond, Katama Bay and Oyster Pond.

There were a few fits and starts along the way, but Oak Bluffs voters moved with speed — and even a bit of humor — to overwhelmingly pass a $24.1 million operating budget for the coming fiscal year at back-to-back special and annual town meetings Tuesday night.

Tisbury voters defeated the controversial $3 million connector road at their annual town meeting Tuesday night.

A total of 221 voters turned out for the meeting at the Tisbury School gymnasium, completing just half the 33-article warrant before recessing at 10 p.m. for a second evening. The meeting reconvenes at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

As expected, the connector road plan between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and State Road attracted the most debate.