The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank added a small but significant piece of land to its holdings at the scenic Gay Head Cliffs this week with the purchase of a single acre near the historic clay cliffs in the westernmost reaches of the Vineyard. The seller was the Vineyard Open Land Foundation. The purchase price was $225,000.

For many, Dolly Campbell is the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Thrift Shop. Her bright red hair, positive welcome at the door and ability to assemble a team of enthusiastic volunteers is a large part of the charm of the store. But after 15 years of working as a comanager with Sandy Pratt, Mrs. Campbell is retiring.

Chilmark residents and town officials made it clear they stand ready to safeguard their picturesque Menemsha village this week, as a U.S. Coast Guard design team presented preliminary plans to rebuild the historic boathouse that burned in the July 2010 fire.

Town leaders were adamant that the historic character of the town be maintained in the new structure.

The Oak Bluffs fireworks display, a cornerstone of Island summer every August, will be cancelled next year unless the town finds a way to continue the show after the town Firemen’s Civic Association voted to end their sponsorship of the event on Sunday.

A press statement released after the vote by civic association president James T. Morse and his fellow officers explained the decision while acknowledging the fireworks’ rich Island legacy.

The number of drunken driving cases filed in the Island’s district court has dropped significantly over the past few years, even outpacing a statewide downward trend.

According to figures obtained from the state Office of the Commissioner of Probation, drunken driving arraignments in Edgartown district court last year fell nearly 24 per cent — to 126 arraignments — from the previous year, and 38 per cent since 2008.

A broad-based effort to combat Lyme disease is now underway on the Vineyard, with the objective of better documenting and preventing the tick-borne illness that has affected untold numbers of year-round Islanders, summer residents and casual visitors.

They are among the fastest sailors in the world and they’ve been having a ball over the past two weeks on Vineyard waters. Eleven world-class kitesurfers are participating in the first North American Speed Sailing Invitational, racing across the Island coastal ponds at speeds faster than most cars travel on Vineyard roads. Yesterday they raced across Sengekontacket at high tide under dark skies, with large rollers coming onto the Joseph Sylvia Beach and wind coming from the north-northeast at well over 25 knots.

Friday night lights return to the football field tonight for the Vineyarders’ league game against Bishop Feehan. The game begins at 5 p.m.

After being postponed a week due to rain, the annual middle-school quad track meet — this year a pent meet, with the charter school participating for the first time — went off without a hitch last Friday at the regional high school track. West Tisbury, undefeated in the regular season, took first place on the girls’ side, and tied with Tisbury for the win on the boys’ side, despite showing up with a somewhat depleted squad of just five boys.

It was a long day in Edgartown district court, and amid the serious business taking place in his courtroom, the Hon. H. Gregory Williams couldn’t help but inject an occasional quip to leaven the proceedings, if only by a little bit.

After all, he faced a 15-page list of criminal cases last Friday, which included motions, pleas, arraignments and other pretrial hearings. That didn’t include small claims cases and a trial that spilled over into this week.