Against the backdrop of a sustained national recession, the board of directors for the YMCA of the Martha’s Vineyard voted unanimously last Friday to begin construction on the long-awaited 38,000-square-foot YMCA building to be built across from the regional high school on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

The old-fashioned practice of allowing some customers to hold house accounts at Cronig’s Market will be getting a high-tech twist in the coming weeks, as customers will have to use a fingerprint identification system in order to access their accounts.

The grocery store offers house accounts as a courtesy to certain customers, and up until recently the practice caused few problems or disruptions.

West Tisbury selectmen on Wednesday held a dog hearing for a Siberian husky that recently got loose and attacked a neighbor’s livestock. Selectmen voted 2-1 to impose restrictions for the dog, named Coda, and his owner Chase Marcello. The restrictions call for the animal to be kept in a secure pen with a chain link fence.

If Coda is found loose again, selectmen stipulated, they may order the dog to be humanely euthanized.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last Thursday postponed a vote on Vineyard Haven resident Donald Muckerheide’s proposal for 12-unit condominium development on Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs, voting instead to send the project to the commission’s land use planning committee.

Mr. Muckerheide, who has a history of animosity with the commission, left the hearing midway through deliberations.

CARE FOR THE DYING

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I was heartened to read of the Vineyard Nursing Association plans to bring a Medicare-certified hospice program to the Island. Twice in the last several years I’ve watched the families of friends of mine make the gut-wrenching decision to move their dying loved one off-Island for lack of end-of-life medical care here that would be covered by their insurance.

Two men, one with a long history of violent crime, were arraigned in Edgartown district court yesterday on multiple charges of larceny, destruction of property and felony breaking and entering, following a slew of Island break-ins over the past few weeks, including as many as eight in one day.

Venus, the brightest planet in our evening sky, is getting a bit more difficult to spot, appearing lower in the western sky than a week ago. The planet is sinking. By April, Venus shifts from an evening planet to a morning planet.

Family Planning Art Show

Preparations have begun for this year’s Annual Friends of Family Planning Art Show Benefit which takes place May 21 to 24, Memorial Day weekend. New artists are invited to participate and returning artists are welcomed back. Paintings, all media and furniture, pottery, three-dimensional art, jewelry and weaving are all encouraged.

Call him a professional fighter, a specialist swashbuckler, the Errol Flynn of our era: Broadway combat choreographer David Brimmer next week bursts onto the Island stage for a week-long residency. He will teach a free public workshop for children and adults as well as work intensively with students at the regional high school.

Paulette Hayes will be giving a service entitled A Memorial for the Massacre at Myall Creek on Sunday, March 15, at 11 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Society on Main street in Vineyard Haven.