As the summer season gains momentum, Vineyard emergency medical crews are working overtime and drawing from off-Island resources in order to meet an increased demand for service. Fewer paramedics are available this summer for ambulance calls, leading to increased cross-town efforts.

It’s been a record-breaking year for Vineyard osprey, the majestic raptor that now nests on the Island in greater numbers than ever before.

Home to only two breeding pairs in 1970, the Island can now count 83 such pairs of osprey among its avian residents.

What to do with the old West Tisbury police station building was a topic for discussion before the town selectmen this week. Situated on the Mill Pond at the entrance to town, the building has been vacant since April when the police department moved into new headquarters behind the public safety building in North Tisbury.

Oak Bluffs is working to recover payments owed to the town for parking mitigation following the discovery of lapse in collections for the account.

A town bylaw in effect since 2004 allows B1 businesses to pay into an account in lieu of providing the required off-street parking spaces for their customers.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $156,941.82 for the business week ending on Friday, July, 4, 2014. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.

Tisbury’s 343rd birthday party was a hit for all those invited, and that included the whole Island.

Flip through the events calendar. Throw a dart at any day, Wednesday, perhaps.

In the morning at the Yard in Chilmark, Jason Samuels Smith, perhaps the best tap dancer in the world right now, was giving an instruction in his art form. Later that night he performed with the Owen (Fiidla) Brown Quartet. Via his feet and the quartet’s music, the group took the audience to Africa, the horrors of the Middle Passage and the arrival as slaves in America.

This weekend will mark the final five performances of the world premiere of The Whaleship Essex at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse on Church street in Vineyard Haven. These performances will represent a number of remarkable things, and not just for the playwright Joe Forbrich, myself and this wonderful cast made up of a mix of theatre professionals from New York and across New England as well as a few usual suspects from the Vineyard Playhouse of the past.

Lean and mean how Walter comes across Cash no credit That’s how they run the place

A few years ago, I checked the voicemail on my cell phone and heard the following message start like this:

Hi Chris, it’s Ken. I am out here in the middle of Sunset Lake, treading water.