Three Oak Bluffs landowners on Crystal Lake and Brush Pond have been cited for clear-cutting trees and vegetation in violation of the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act and the town’s wetlands bylaw. The Oak Bluffs conservation commission has ordered the property owners to carry out restoration work in the coming months to repair the damage.

In their effort to buy and preserve the Field Gallery and its sculpture garden for posterity, West Tisbury selectmen have singled out one town body in particular for funding. On Wednesday selectman Cynthia Mitchell was blunt with the Community Preservation Committee.

“Essentially what we’re here to ask is, can we have all your money?” she said.

Three days ago, The Trustees of Reservations staff removed the last of the big old telephone poles delineating the parking lot at Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick, lest they lose them to the sea.

A week or so from now, the remaining half of the parking lot will probably be gone; the shoreline at Wasque has retreated almost 100 feet since early November, and continues to erode at a rate of about one foot per day.

How long might this go on?

In their first meeting since cutting a quarter-million dollars from their fiscal year 2011 budget, Oak Bluffs selectmen turned their attention to next year’s budget and the April town meeting. After a disastrous town meeting last spring which saw voters reject 11 of 12 Proposition 2 1/2 overrides as well as a hotel room tax that sent the selectmen back to the budget chopping block, the board has decided to simplify their approach.

As the weary Vineyard boys basketball team boarded a ferry that had waited half an hour to carry them home on Tuesday night, they looked up to see that the raucous cheering did not end at the doors of the Sandwich gymnasium where they had just suffered an 88-85 point loss to Cardinal Spellman.

If the summer rental market is any indication of the Island economy, Vineyarders can expect a turn for the better this season.

The early summer rental market is already up significantly over last year, with real estate agencies reporting increases between 17 and 30 per cent.

“We’re very excited about the season to come and found we have good, strong rebooking coming off of last season, and a lot of early bookings coming into the summer,” Anne Mayhew at Sandpiper Rentals in Edgartown said earlier this week.

Janet Woodcock, of Tisbury, is one of the Vineyard’s premier black and white photographers. While there are many who have embraced the medium, she is one of the last who still uses film, still goes into the darkroom and under a dull amber light prints her silver gelatin prints.

At What Cost?

Katharine L. Kavanagh, the director of the Rebecca Amos Institute at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, was invited to present at the National Alternative Education Conference in Nashville, Tenn. Her presentation, At What Cost?, was an analysis of the struggle inherent in alternative education, how to provide quality education while maintaining the same per pupil costs. The presentation was well attended and well received.

Eric Herman

After publishing an article on the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps in Friday’s paper, the Gazette learned that Eric Herman is among those Vineyarders currently in the Peace Corps. He is in his second year of service in Morazán Yoro, Honduras.

He graduated from Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in 2005 and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009.

Eggs Order Easy

Having trouble getting chicks?

Native Earth Teaching Farm is riding to the rescue. First lesson, listen instead of talking. Fine dining helps. And don’t forget to be creative in, well, nevermind.

What we’re really talking about here are chicks that lay eggs.