Malcom E. Scully and Tamara L. Thome purchased 91 Pepperbush Way in West Tisbury for $775,000 for July 3.

The water isn’t the only thing heating up midsummer in Oak Bluffs. At a Tuesday meeting of the town selectmen, residents held passionate debates about the new lifeguard force at Inkwell Beach and parking safety in the North Bluff neighborhood.

Moviegoers should not look to Oak Bluffs to catch the latest blockbusters, as both the Island and the Strand theatre are closed until further notice. The historic Island, currently roofless, will most likely not be in commission before next summer. And despite efforts to reopen it, the Strand remains out of use.

State Sen. Daniel A. Wolf, who represents the Cape and Islands on Beacon Hill, announced his candidacy for governor this week.

“With your encouragement and support, with an entrepreneurial spirit and love for our great commonwealth, I’m excited to announce my candidacy to be your next governor,” Mr. Wolf, a Democrat, said in a video posted Wednesday on You Tube and his campaign website.

The public’s confidence in the Steamship Authority has improved markedly since 1987, according to polls commissioned 25 years apart by the Vineyard Gazette and conducted by a leading national market research firm.

While shoppers at Morning Glory Farm amble about in slow motion, being seduced by brightly colored displays of fresh produce and aromatic baked goods, just inside the kitchen door there is a carry-in/carry-out, wash-and-sort frenzy of activity. The staff at Morning Glory Farm, like the roundabout at rush hour, is a flurry of individual purpose and intention carried out with high-speed finesse. They have been working since either 5 or 7 a.m. and now it’s almost noon. There will be close to 80 employees for lunch today.

After a cold wet spring, a week of simmering weather on the mainland brought tourists out in force last week for the Fourth of July parade in Edgartown, and our charming little seaside village has rarely looked so good. That is, except for a certain house on a certain corner. Year after year, we’re asked by friends and visitors about the blighted property that occupies a most visible spot at the intersection of Main and Summer streets.

A Chilmark zoning bylaw regulating house size is now official after the town received approval from the state attorney general’s office this week.
Kelli Gunagan, assistant attorney general and bylaw coordinator, informed the town in a July 9 letter that the state approved the zoning amendments passed at the annual town meeting in April.

“Based upon our review of the text of [the bylaw], the relevant case law, and all the materials submitted to our office, we conclude that Section 6.11 is not clearly inconsistent with [Massachusetts general law],” Ms.

Lines form at the Galley restaurant on warm summer evenings as people of all ages stand shoulder to shoulder for swordfish sandwiches and soft-serve ice cream cones. Around the corner at the Bite, the smell of fried clams hangs in the air. Down on the docks charter fishermen steam in from somewhere off Noman’s, their holds full of freshly caught striped bass and bluefish. And when the sun sinks into the western horizon, crowds form on the beach, as they have for so many years, to gaze across the water, look for the green flash and cheer the end of another day.

There is a real jail in the town of Gosnold in the basement of the town hall on Cuttyhunk.