Following on the success of the Island Grown Initiative’s mobile poultry processing unit, the organization has won a $40,000 federal grant to look at doing something similar with four-legged livestock.

The grant was announced on Friday, as officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture came to the Vineyard to school locals on how they might share in hundreds of millions of dollars available from the government.

Although it was completed and opened to motorists just last week, the new Big Bridge spanning Oak Bluffs and Edgartown at Joseph Sylvia State Beach has already caused concern among county officials, who worry the back railing of the wooden platform is too close to Beach Road, leaving pedestrians and sunbathers at risk of injury by oncoming traffic this summer.

Before a cheering crowd of parents, students and fans, the boys’ tennis team powered through the first two rounds of the state tournament at home this weekend with a pair of no-nonsense wins against Cohasset on Friday and Ashland yesterday.

The team is having one of its best seasons ever under head coach Ned Fennessey.

Barefooted and locked arm in arm, nine students from the Martha’s Vineyard Charter School graduated on Saturday under a tent of tie-dye drapes and floral-wreath crowns.

Krista Brown, Ava Castro, Joshua Crowther, Iris Grace, Rose Goff Maidoff, Chelsea Phaneuf, Oona Post, Marguerite Smith and Brianna Sosa graduated with praise from community members, teachers and parents, confident their choices in life would lead them to great accomplishments.

Due to a combination of climate change creating warmer water conditions and continued pressure from fishing, lobster stocks in southern New England have been badly depleted, and a five-year moratorium is needed for recovery.

This is the recommendation of a technical panel for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in a report discussed last week.

“Overwhelming environmental and biological changes coupled with continued fishing greatly reduce the likelihood of southern New England stock rebuilding,” the report said.

Alcoholics Anonymous

Information: 627-7084.

All meetings are nonsmoking.

Sunday, 6:45 a.m., open discussion meeting, First Baptist Church, William street, Vineyard Haven.

Sunday, 10 a.m., open discussion, State Beach, first bridge, Oak Bluffs, (weather permitting).

Sunday, 11 a.m., open discussion meeting at the Council on Aging on Wamsutta avenue in Oak Bluffs.

Sunday, 7 p.m., grapevine meeting at old Oak Bluffs School, School street, Oak Bluffs.

Guarding Beach Safety

The cliffs at Lucy Vincent Beach are collapsing due to coastal erosion, and of course nothing can be done to turn back the Atlantic Ocean’s constant assault on the shoreline; this is simply the natural process at work.

But public safety officials are wise to try to stay ahead of the game this year in being sure that they have clear access routes to Lucy Vincent and other remote up-Island beaches as the summer season begins.

There was a time when my husband and I drove to Squibnocket just to hear the pebbles. And then recently we tuned in to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf. We heard and read about the sightings of globs of oil in the Florida Keys, and the speculation that the oil could possibly reach the East Coast. Were the experts really saying our unique Squibnocket, the pristine beach we’ve exulted over for a quarter century, could be threatened?

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Martha’s Vineyard hosted a fund-raising breakfast Thursday morning, gathering together board members, current program participants and new volunteers at Farm Neck Golf Club for a hearty meal of scrambled eggs and sausage with a side of uplifting stories.

Edgartown leaders had no control over the paving project that caused a massive traffic backup on upper Main street last week, town administrator Pamela Dolby told the selectmen yesterday. In fact, no one in town even knew there would be a project until the police department received a call from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation the day before construction started.