Island town building inspectors are bracing for a run of new building permits over the next three months in advance of a new state building code regulation which could raise building costs on average by five per cent and as much as 10 per cent.

The news comes as renovation and addition permits have driven the Island construction business this year. Renovation and addition permits ranged from 64 to 90 per cent of total permits issued, depending on the town.

Being a seasonal Island resident, when I return to my other homeland I am often asked what do people on Martha’s Vineyard do in the winter? My most immediate impulse is to react to this probing inquiry by saying that they, the entire Island population, immediately after the last seasonal resident or tourist has disappeared over the horizon, take off all their clothing, paint their fundaments an intense shade of aqua and indulge in the worship of various forms of fungi.

With the 62nd annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby now at full speed, two events are running along on the side.

One is for youngsters. The other is a kayak fishing contest. Both start on Sunday.

While plenty of big fish were caught by grown adults in this first week of the derby, attention shifts Sunday morning to the youngest of anglers. Soon after sunrise, as many as 200 young children will gather for the Mini Kids’ Day Derby at the Steamship Authority wharf in Oak Bluffs.

Tomorrow calls for an all-Island end of summer celebration and Oak Bluffs is the host.

Organizers of the 30th annual Tivoli Day want the rest of the Island to know their party belongs to the whole Island. Nothing better would please Dennis daRosa and Bob Glover than to see their friends from around the Vineyard turn out for the events planned.

In addition to the street fair on Circuit avenue, there is a parade, an antique bicycle performance and serious and not-so-serious kite flying at Ocean Park.

It has taken them 12 years to do it, but the Edgartown board of health is finally getting tough over a breach of health and planning regulations which threatens the health of Sengekontacket Pond.

For the first time, the board is looking to impose a substantial fine on a homeowner who twice has breached undertakings relating to the size of a house and the treatment and disposal of waste water from it.

As Thomas Ricks was writ ing his definitive account of the planning and execution of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, he would sometimes look out his window and see children walking home from the kindergarten down the street, and have an awful premonition.

“I would look at those kindergartners and think ‘one of those kids is going to fight in Iraq’,” he told a small audience at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore last Friday night.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum has named Dr. Keith Gorman, the museum’s director of programs and archivist and librarian, to the new position of museum director.

With the creation of the new position, Mr. Gorman will be responsible for the museum’s operations, programs, staff, capital campaign, and the proposed museum move from Edgartown to West Tisbury.

The Vineyard Haven Public Library evening lecture series will present a public information session on the proposed Cape Wind project on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Katherine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven.

Mark Rodgers of Cape Wind, the project proponent, and Audra Parker of the Alliance to Save Nantucket Sound, a group that opposes the project, will discuss the proposed wind farm, which would consist of 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal. Judy Crawford will moderate the session.

Free horseback riding, kayaking, ice skating, swimming lessons, African dance classes and tennis lessons. That would sound good to a lot of people on the Island, but it’s being offered to girls 11 to 14 years old.

The program is called ABLE — Adolescent Balanced Living Experience — and it is part of the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard. It started last fall and attendance has been growing with each session.

The Martha's Vineyard Regional High School committee approved money this week to hire an engineer to take the next steps toward connecting the school to the town of Oak Bluffs' wastewater treatment plant - a project estimated to cost the school $1.5 to $1.8 million.