The Edgartown selectmen opted not to accept a letter of resignation submitted by affordable housing committee member Alan Gowell at their meeting Monday afternoon.

“I’d like the opportunity to talk with him,” said town administrator Pam Dolby. “I think it would be a great loss to the affordable housing committee.”

The new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was expected to receive approval for a temporary parking plan last night from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, clearing the way for the Oak Bluffs building inspector to issue a certificate of occupancy and employees and patients to begin using the $48 million, 90,000-square-foot facility on Eastville avenue.

Wine and Dine

The Sweet Life Café is hosting a wine dinner series to benefit The Yard, beginning on Wednesday, May 19, at 6 p.m. at its Circuit avenue location in Oak Bluffs, featuring John Larchet, the proprietor of the Australian Premium Wine Collection, stopping by before heading to the Nantucket Wine Festival.

When the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital embarked on its recent major expansion, it triggered Massachusetts Department of Public Health regulations to ensure that the expansion is needed and that the hospital gives a percentage of the project’s total cost to the community for health initiatives. As a result, the hospital will provide $1,075,000 for Vineyard community health projects over the next five years. This money will be available to the community through a grant process sometime in the late summer or early fall.

A large anchor, possibly dating back to the 19th century, was pulled out of the outer Edgartown harbor late Tuesday afternoon. Donald Benefit, an Edgartown conch fisherman who found the anchor, raised it from the waters between the Edgartown and Cape Pogue Lighthouses. It was too heavy to lift out of the water, so he towed it to the town dock, where boat and anchor spent the night.

West Tisbury selectmen on Wednesday approved a new policy for the police department’s use of nonlethal weapons, gave the roads and byways committee a green light to nominate two ancient ways as districts of critical planning concern (DCPCs) and again debated who should sit on a police headquarters study committee.

The topic of the study committee has been a sticky one.

The first youth delegates to the Vineyard Youth Summit for Sustainable Development have been named and will meet this week ahead of their June summit.

Delegates include Oscar Thompson, nominated by the Martha’s Vineyard Charter School, who is interested in the environmental challenges facing the Island, specifically nitrogen runoff from fertilizers and septic systems.

I n August the reeds just beyond the open door to the Mugwump shed sway and hiss in a warm breeze off the lagoon. Inside the building, the shape of the hull that the skeletal framing only hinted at a month before begins to reveal itself, plank by plank, as the crew sheathes it from keel to deck.

“I love putting on the first two or three planks,” says Ross, who comes to Mugwump with business for Nat. “There’s nothing more rewarding than watching the shapes develop as you’re twisting and bending them on there.”

Commended List

Headmaster Jay Stroud has announced the Commended List at Tabor Academy for the first semester of the 2009-2010 academic year. On the list are: Alex Nugent, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Nugent of Edgartown, and William Kadison, son of David and Christine Kadison of Vineyard Haven.

Chilmark resident and Gazette photographer Peter Simon was a member of the graduating class of Boston University in 1970. The only trouble was, he never actually graduated. A student strike that followed the Kent State killings that year led to the cancellation of graduation ceremonies. Instead, students received their diplomas in the mail. Now, 40 years later, Boston University has decided to give the class a formal graduation to make amends.