Stock Market Winners

Two Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students won first place in a stock market competition involving more than 1,000 teams competing statewide, the Boston Globe and Security Industry and Financial Markets Associates (SIFMA) Stock Market Game.

Taylor Poggi won first overall, with a total return of 37.98 per cent in the regular account holdings.

Taylor and Alayna Hutchinon scored first and second in the Diversified Account holdings.

Open enrollment for the Commonwealth Care program began on Wednesday and will continue through June 24. It is the only time during the year when members may change health plans for any reason.

“We will give members all the information and support they need to choose a health plan that best meets their needs,” said the executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, Glen Shor. “Members should carefully review the material we’ve sent them to see how changes in premiums and provider networks may affect them.”

The Trustees of Reservations has received additional funding from the Edey Foundation to support ongoing efforts to document native bees and other pollinators on Martha’s Vineyard this year.

An inventory last year covered a wide range of habitats and generated the first-ever, season-long “snapshot” of Vineyard pollinators, with nearly 10,000 specimens of bees collected and more than 130 species (and counting) of bees identified, including species not seen in the region for almost four decades.

Good morning to all our readers. The Gazette’s twice-a-week publication cycle will begin on Tuesday, June 7, and continue throughout the summer. See you Tuesday!

For many people on the Island, summer begins like a head cold, around Memorial Day each year, with a sniffle or a sore throat. Then comes the headache.

It’s the pollen; this is the allergy season.

Over at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, too, the Memorial Day sniffles are a traditional indicator of the headache to come. The number of people presenting at the hospital emergency room jumps dramatically, a harbinger of the crazy-busy summer.

Out-of-towners leave your dogs at home, the West Tisbury parks and recreation committee has decided, at least if you are going to Lambert’s Cove Beach with your pooch.

On Wednesday the committee agreed to restrict dog privileges to town residents, amid increasing complaints from beachgoers who have watched sunset picnics blemished by uncontrolled canines and unretrieved dog droppings.

It was a routine meeting and a routine set of appointments, but the West Tisbury selectmen paused when they came to one office that was not so routine: fence viewers. After the death of Daniel Prowten last year the town is down to just two fence viewers and suddenly along with the appointment the question was there to consider: Does the town still need fence viewers?

“If we need them we should have three, if we don’t need them we should have zero,” said selectman Cynthia Mitchell.

This Sunday marks not just high school graduation for seven students, but the 10th commencement in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School’s history and the end of the school’s 15th year. Even before its first day of school on Sept. 16, 1996, the charter school has been attracting attention and a legion of admirers.

The fallout from last week’s Oak Bluffs special election continues as town officials question why the election was improperly posted and department heads face the reality of a more frugal future with still more cuts to come — including the spectre of layoffs.

Last Thursday 559 Oak Bluffs voters turned out for a special election to roundly reject two Proposition 2 1/2 override questions that would have restored some $484,361 in line items for various town departments.

Gathered around the picnic table at the Polly Hill Arboretum this week, the graduating class of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School reminisced about their time there. The group of six (one was absent) felt like a family. They smiled and laughed as they shared stories of their years at the charter school and spoke of the deep affection they had for the school. They loved the feeling of community, the ability to do their own thing, the self-accountability that the school instilled in them along with a love of learning.