The proximity to South Beach alone makes this Katama home highly desirable. If that isn't enough, several multi-level decks offer views of the Atlantic and plenty of opportunities for outdoor entertaining.

During the off-season, when summer visitors return to their homes and many on the Vineyard take a deep breath, the community of arts producers rolls up their sleeves and starts planning. They attend film festivals, read advance book copies, visit artists’ studios, make cold calls to writers and dancers, and hire summer staff. They also dream about arts-hungry summer audiences.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has released updated preliminary floodplain maps that predict increased flooding in coastal areas during northeasters, gales and other strong storms. The maps are the first significant update since the mapping program began in the 1980s and are expected to directly affect federal flood insurance premiums for towns and counties, as well as mortgage programs for some homeowners.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced in a ceremony at the Gay Head Cliffs Wednesday morning that it had named the Gay Head Light to its 2013 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Janice and Leo Frame teach completely different subjects and their classrooms, located at opposite ends of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School building, tell the story.

Mrs. Frame’s walls are covered in student artwork. Mr. Frame’s business classroom is clean, white and gray, and neatly organized. Both the Frames teach elective courses: art and business.

The breach at Norton Point, with its ever-shifting inlet, dramatic changes in currents and resulting severe erosion, has been billed as “one of the most dynamic coastal systems in Massachusetts.”

The U.S. Coast Guard has abandoned plans to modernize the optic at the Gay Head Light and will instead maintain the current sweeping beam.

Lieut. Matthew Stuck of the Coast Guard aids to navigation branch said Monday that the Coast Guard has found a replacement optic for the current aging lens at the light. The replacement will likely happen sometime in the next few months.

“We plan to acquire the replacement and install it for the failing rotating beacon,” Mr. Stuck said. “Our hope is to maintain it for the indefinite future.”

When Ned Fennessy began coaching the Vineyard boys’ tennis team in 1991, he often found himself working with athletes who were at a disadvantage. Some lacked racquets, others lacked proper shoes and nearly all lacked a tennis background.

“I was having to teach basic fundamentals — this is how you hold the racquet, this is how you follow through,” he said on Saturday, sitting on the team bus as the Vineyarders returned home from picking up their second straight state title.

Things have changed in the past two decades.

The arts took center stage in Vineyard Haven this week as three cultural organizations received grants from the state. Selectmen also voted to approve creating an application to form the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District.

On Monday, the Vineyard Playhouse, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center were awarded capital grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. Of the 10 projects funded in the southeast region, three are in Vineyard Haven.

It’s late June and few people are thinking about politics, even though a campaign to elect a new U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is in its final days.

A special state election will be held on Tuesday to fill the seat left vacant by John Kerry who left in January to take the job as U.S. Secretary of State.

The two candidates for this key Senate seat could not be more different.