Some are accomplished writers. Others are star athletes. Still others are artists. They have opinions and passions and disagreements among themselves. Their interests are so wide-ranging that even the students themselves are hard put to find a description for the class of 2013.

When Katy Smith saw the scholarship advertised under Diana Bardwell’s name, she was inspired to try for it. “She was always very warm, always willing to help . . . she was the kindest woman you would ever want to meet,” Ms. Smith said, recalling Mrs. Bardwell as a “mother figure” to the students of the class of 2013.

Most Islanders who pursue higher education opportunities leave the Vineyard. Some move away permanently, some temporarily and some on a day-to-day-basis, commuting to the mainland for classes. The new president of Cape Cod Community College is making the Vineyard a priority in the institution’s plans to increase enrollment, which may enable a growing number of students to learn closer to home.

There’s nothing easy about running a small business on the Vineyard. With the high season lasting fewer than a hundred days, a late spring or a rainy weekend can easily turn a slim profit to a loss.

When work got under way this winter at the old Oyster Bar building, now owned by the Edgartown National Bank at the upper end of Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs, small business owners were no doubt excited at the prospect of a fresh façade and respected community bank making its home at the top of the street.

Here are two words that are perfectly innocuous when standing alone, but always seem to raise hackles when put together: affordable and housing.

The term seems to evoke images of tenements and crack houses. And to be fair the history of affordable housing efforts on the Vineyard is not without hiccups. But the paucity of shelter that even middle-income people can buy or rent is indisputable and well documented. What makes the Island so attractive to summer visitors puts the price of real estate out of reach for many hardworking year-round residents.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $116,490 for the business week ending on Friday, May 31, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.

Tisbury firefighters extinguished a fire that destroyed two boats and damaged a storage trailer and storage unit off Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road Thursday afternoon. No one was injured in the blaze.

Fire chief John Schilling said the fire started just after 3:30 p.m. behind Carroll’s Moving & Trucking while workers were taking apart a fiberglass, gas-powered boat with an excavator. There was apparently some fuel left in the tank, he said, which sparked and caught fire.

Dredging in Vineyard Haven harbor will be postponed until after Labor Day due to broken equipment. The project was scheduled to begin last week and be completed before July. Tisbury town administrator John (Jay) Grande reported at Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting that the contractor, Barnstable County, had to repair their dredge, causing work to be pushed back.

“It certainly comes as a big bombshell to everyone to learn five days before they were supposed to start that the dredge won’t be operating,” dredge committee member Nevin Sayre said.

A wedding rehearsal fireworks display will be on full view next week in Edgartown.

The town selectmen this week approved an application for fireworks on June 14 at 9 p.m. from a barge off Fuller street beach.

The application was submitted by the Lobianco family, and the fireworks will be for a wedding rehearsal dinner with 190 people.

The West Tisbury selectmen voted this week to approve a request for proposals (RFP) for a study of the Mill Brook watershed. Drafted by the town conservation commission, the RFP seeks consultants qualified “to prepare and deliver a study of the watershed of Mill Brook,” which includes Mill Pond as well as Fisher Pond, Crocker Pond, and Priester’s Pond and several tributaries.
The RFP limits the cost of the proposed study to $15,000, the amount approved by voters at the annual town meeting in April.