Census Tales

More census figures emerged this week, enforcing with numbers the story of growth that has been told on the Vineyard for decades. The population of Dukes County, which includes Martha’s Vineyard, grew more than ten per cent in the past decade, the highest rate of any county in the commonwealth. We are now, give or take, sixteen-thousand, five-hundred and thirty-five people on this relatively small Island.

In Community

This winter the Island has experienced the deaths of many beloved residents. The passing of three men in particular, from very different walks of life, leaves a large hole in the life of the Island; Sheriff Christopher (Huck) Look, Edwin (Bob) Woods, and Jonathan Lipsky.

Each man made specific contributions to the Island, in law enforcement, conservation and the arts. On a deeper and perhaps even more significant level they represented through their actions what living in community means. This will be their lasting legacy.

Winter Curtain Call

Yesterday winter gave the perfect curtain call, bowing gracefully, graciously. There was nothing overly showy to suggest that it was the final performance, but the program notes for this season suggest that it was.

Daughter of super god Zeus and the Harvest goddess Demeter, young Persephone went out for a stroll one day and, as the story goes, was suddenly abducted by Hades, god of the underworld. The earth beneath her feet literally opened up and swallowed her.

Zeus, it turns out, was a bit of a laissez-faire father. He didn’t even notice his daughter had disappeared. Mom took up the fight alone visiting a drought upon the world until her daughter was returned.

Student Theatre

A silly buffoon and a whiz kid saving the world will be the featured one-act plays performed by students from the charter school at the Vineyard Playhouse on Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2.

Fundraising Workshop

The Martha’s Vineyard Donors Collaborative is offering a workshop to teach basic grant seeking skills. This introduction to grant writing and research is a two-part workshop to be offered on Monday, April 4 and Tuesday, April 5 at the Oak Bluffs Public Library.

The road to Reuse, Renew, Recycle is always a good turn for the environment but often no more exciting than rinsing out the glass and plastic jars and dumping them in the blue bucket. Stomping down the cardboard boxes gives some measure of satisfaction, and a bit of exercise, but is still a solitary affair.

Leave it to Lani Carney, art teacher extraordinaire working primarily at Featherstone in Oak Bluffs, to raise the bar for all of us.

Wednesday afternoon presented a study in opposites at the small campus just past the blinker on Barnes Road. For the most part, it was quiet outside, a misty spring snowfall dampening most sound.

But from inside the large inflatable dome came the sounds of laughter and a recurring rhythm of thock, thock, thock.

By REMY TUMIN

State police arrested former Massachusetts probation chief Milton Britton Sr. last Friday for cocaine trafficking.

Mr. Britton, 65, was found with three small bags of cocaine in his pocket when police met him exiting his Oak Bluffs home in the Sengekontacket condominiums. According to the police report released this week, a subsequent search of his rooms turned up an additional 36 individually-wrapped cellophane bags in his basement ready for distribution. Police found 39 grams in total.

Three new fellows have been selected for the Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship, a program established in 2006 by the Kohlberg family to further sustainability efforts on the Island; they are Micah Agnoli, Wesley Look and Taza Vercruysse. Vision fellows receive financial support to study and work in a variety of areas vital to a sustainable future for the Island, including renewable energy and alternative transportation, farm to school and sustainable agriculture, conservation biology and fisheries management, green architecture, elderly services and healthcare.