A proposal to turn the building that until last year housed the Vineyard’s only nightclub, Outerland, into a delicatessen and seasonal package store will go before the Edgartown zoning board of appeals April 8.

Alexis Garcia, who submitted the proposal last month, and who with her husband, Paul, owns Garcia’s in the former Back Alley’s store in West Tisbury, would not comment yesterday on the potential purchase of the premises at the airport in Edgartown.

Revetments, armories, groins, jetties, ripraps — the walls of stone built to protect a length of bluff from erosion go by many names, but in whatever guise they pose a growing threat to the Vineyard shoreline, according to several prominent Island environmentalists.

Some Island beaches are getting plenty of attention.

Over a hundred volunteers gathered on the Oak Bluffs side of the Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Saturday morning to plant beach grass, part of an ongoing effort to stabilize one of the most popular beaches on the Island.

Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to come back to South Beach and to Chappaquiddick for a large-scale cleanup of leftover World War I and World War II ordnance. Their work will begin April 1, according to Chris Kennedy of The Trustees of Reservations.

Today is the first day of spring. Last Saturday, Tom Hodgson of West Tisbury reports, he pulled back some leaf litter at the base of a white oak in his yard to find these mayflower blooms awaiting the light of day.

It’s a sure sign of spring when American Cancer Society volunteers take to the streets with bunches of daffodils in hand. Vineyarders buy bouquets for themselves or use them as gifts in order to support cancer research; some even make anonymous donations so flowers go to hospital patients, nursing homes, and senior centers.

Nationwide, the American Cancer Society reports that during the last 14 years, Daffodil Days has raised more than $240 million dollars. The flowers always arrive in March to coincide with the first day of spring.

The man in black, from his boots to bejewelled beret, was impeccably groomed on Tuesday as he stroked he neatly trimmed white beard and lamented how he’d been type-cast. He is usually the guy who gets beaten up — “the biker, the trucker, the redneck,” in his words. This experience in taking fake fisticuffs was what Broadway combat choreographer David Brimmer was passing on to an enthusiastic group of Vineyard students.

A new federal law designed to protect children from lead products has forced the owners of Martha’s Closet II, the Island’s only consignment shop for kids, to go out of business.

The Gazette previously reported two that the same law has forced the two Island thrift stores to turn away donations and throw away children’s clothing, toys and books.

By JIM HICKEY

Edgartown police last week arrested a third man suspected in a string of recent break-ins.

Stephen Sullivan, 19, of Cat Boat Lane, West Tisbury, was arrested last Thursday and arraigned in Edgartown District Court on Friday. He was charged with multiple counts of breaking and entering, larceny from a building and malicious destruction of property. He was released on personal recognizance.

Tisbury selectmen have dropped an article from the warrant for next month’s town meeting which would have proposed taking private land near the Tashmoo overlook, to preserve the view from disappearing behind a wall of trees. At least, for now.

In executive session on Tuesday night, selectmen Tristan Israel and Jeff Kristal decided to drop the idea while the town continued to negotiate with the owners of the trees, Thomas and Ginny Payette, of Tashmoo Farm.

Following a 77 per cent deterioration in its bottom line last year, and continuing declines in traffic, the Steamship Authority has again reduced services to Martha’s Vineyard.

Tuesday’s meeting of the SSA’s board of governors voted to reduce the number of daily round trips for the freight vessel Katama from a maximum of seven to four during the spring period from April 4 to May 18, to account for a decline in the number of vehicles, particularly trucks, coming here.