Adding another gem to its emerald necklace of properties on Chappaquiddick, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank announced this week that it has purchased 22 acres of native sandplain off Quammox Road. The property includes 550 feet of beachfront on the extreme eastern end of Katama Bay.

A plan to require all saltwater recreational fishermen to obtain either a state or federal license has been postponed a year to January 2010. The notice by federal fisheries authorities came out recently; a plan to establish a Massachusetts recreational fishing license has also been postponed.

Paul Diodati, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said he is pleased by the delay, as it gives federal authorities more time to work out details for the license.

New NAACP Officers

The Martha’s Vineyard NAACP has elected new leadership. They were sworn into office on Dec. 9, 2008, by Police Chief Erik Blake. Officers and committee members are: Laurie Perry-Henry, president; Marie B. Allen, first vice president; Carrie B. Tankard, second vice president, and executive committee members Francine James, Rev. Marcia Buckley, Elaine Weintraub, Don Goss and Vera Shorter.

The question of what is a harvestable sized bay scallop will be the subject of a public hearing next week on the Cape. The state Division of Marine Fisheries is hosting the hearing at 3 p.m. on Jan. 6 to gather input, following emergency action they took last fall to quiet a dispute between fishermen and regulators.

The hearing will take place at the Barnstable Senior Center, 825 Falmouth Road, Route 28 in Hyannis.

Answers remain hard to come by about the septic grids buried underneath Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs, after a round of drilling at the park conducted earlier this month failed to shed any light as to why treated effluent is seeping to the surface of the popular public park.

Oak Bluffs wastewater superintendent Joe Alosso said the engineering firm of Stearns & Wheler dug about six holes around the park on Dec. 15. He said the digging yielded little information about why the leeching fields are malfunctioning, although that was not entirely unexpected.

Amid sinking consumer confidence nationally, Island towns and schools have received some rare good news: the RM Packer company agreed to renegotiate their fuel contract based on lower oil prices, saving them as much as $300,000 this winter.

While Methodists once came by the hundreds to worship on Martha’s Vineyard, now they come by the handfuls. The congregation that helped shape the Island’s history is grappling with such declining church membership that three of the four United Methodist congregations on Martha’s Vineyard have voted to consolidate into a single congregation.

An Edgartown woman was issued a citation following a two-vehicle collision on Christmas day at the intersection of Old County and State Roads in West Tisbury.

Police said the accident caused major front end damage to both vehicles but no injuries to either driver.

On July 8, four days after the devastating fire that burned Café Moxie and the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Tisbury defiantly held its summer street fair. Gazette photographer Jaxon White captured the event with a shot of an eight-year old girl on Main street, beaming through new front teeth and swirling a balloon. Her name was Hope. Hope Alwart.

And there was a single-frame metaphor for 2008, adversity and hope.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission early this month unanimously approved a new policy aimed at regulating and reducing the amount of nonrenewable energy used in certain new construction projects. The new policy only affects larger construction projects that qualify for review as developments of regional impact (DRIs).