Chilmark

Theonia Boyd and Jon W. Boyd purchased 5 Rhythm Road in Chilmark from Neil S. Braun and J. Paul Mohair for $866,500 on Sept. 15

Edgartown

Christopher K. Hulbert and Kathleen L. Hulbert purchased 459 Katama Road #E in Edgartown from Michael Connolly for $465,000 on Sept. 13.

Daniel F. Bortolussi and Carla Bortolussi purchased 3 Marsh Hawk Circle in Edgartown from Lesli A. Tull for $525,000 on Sept. 15.

Assessors in Your Yard

The Edgartown board of assessors has begun a property revaluation project to update property values for fiscal year 2012. The revaluation is necessary in order to bring local property assessments in line with local real estate market changes, so assessments meet the requirements of the Department of Revenue.

The initial phase of the project involved analyzing property sales for the calendar year prior to the Jan. 1, 2011 date of assessment and then comparing those sales to the existing assessments.

Off-season ferry service between New Bedford and Martha’s Vineyard will be curtailed even further after Steamship Authority governors voted this week to allow the high-speed passenger ferry SeaStreak to drop April from its schedule.

SeaStreak will suspend service between Dec. 1 and April 30, 2012.

“This is a month longer than this past year,” said Steamship Authority general manager Wayne Lamson at the meeting in Woods Hole on Tuesday.

Next Thursday is, as everyone knows, the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York city. For the majority of us this mean a little couch time watching the floats roll by and the participants perform. But for Alley Ellis, an eighth grader at the Edgartown School, it means kicking it, literally, on national television.

It seemed like the whole town of Aquinnah showed up Sunday afternoon to honor Walter Delaney for his years of service as fire chief and more.

The town hall meeting room, the same place where Mr. Delaney, who is 81, presided for so many years as moderator over town meetings, was decked out for the party. Tables usually set up for town business were cloaked in tablecloths and covered with dishes of homemade food.

“It was overwhelming,” Mr. Delaney said of the gathering.

A special town meeting in West Tisbury Tuesday night pitted the town’s humans against its dogs, as voters took up the divisive question of whether to continue to allow canines at Lambert’s Cove Beach in the summer.

“I don’t even go there anymore because the smell is so overpowering,” said Karen Overtoom. “I guess you have to decide whether the beach is for the people or the dogs.”

Oak Bluffs selectmen voted Tuesday night to turn part of narrow Dukes County avenue into a one-way road. Selectmen said the decision was motivated by concerns over safety and lack of parking.

The change will likely take effect before the start of December and is intended only as a temporary measure pending further study.

Construction for a solar array at Katama Farm is set to begin this winter, now that the Edgartown planning board approved a special permit for the project this week, clearing the last hurdle for what will be the Island’s largest installation of photovoltaic panels.

The town of Aquinnah awarded a bid to Vineyard Power this week to build a solar array at the town landfill, marking the first major project for the Island energy cooperative.

Pending approval from town counsel, the selectmen signed a preliminary agreement at their meeting Tuesday to place about 200 panels at the town landfill. The 50-kilowatt system will produce up to 60,000 kilowatt hours a year, which is equivalent to about 10 to 12 houses. The panels will produce enough electricity to power the town buildings.

I have often wondered what a town meeting would be like if the purpose was to educate the voters so that we can make good decisions. Now, after the Oak Bluffs special town meeting held on Nov. 8, I know.

There were 10 articles before us, the most important of which was number two — a budget reduction in the amount of $303,861. Given an overall town budget of $25.3 million, it seemed a small thing. But it was a teachable event and Bob Whritenour, our interim town administrator, took the best possible advantage of it.