A few weeks ago when Sienna Dice met her grandmother for the first time, the older woman began sniffing her. Big sniffs. Audible sniffs. The kind of sniffs one might expect to receive after not washing for a while.

But her grandmother was in no way upset or even mildly concerned with Sienna’s grooming habits. She was merely welcoming her granddaughter back home, after 10 years, in traditional Cambodian custom.

The nonprofit Island Housing Trust, a community land trust serving Martha’s Vineyard, is currently accepting nominations for six community representatives to its board of directors.

Community members with expertise and skill in business finance, housing development, project financing, organizational leadership, fund-raising, housing services, and real estate and contract law are encouraged to apply.

Fibromyalgia Support

The Martha’s Vineyard Fibromyalgia Support Group will have their first meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

For more information and for the location, contact mvfmsg@aol.com.

West Tisbury town officials have mostly agreed that the rocks will have to go.

Members of the town historic district commission appeared before selectmen on Wednesday to denounce the large boulders in front of the recently renovated town hall which they feel are not in keeping with the town historic district.

“The rocks were an easy temporary thing, they weren’t on any official plans,” said historic district commission chairman Sean Conley. “It’s like making a cake and then putting ugly frosting on it.”

Ronnie Simonsen was most likely look ing forward to singing O Holy Night on Christmas at Triumphant Cross Lutheran Church in Salem, N.H. He loved to sing. But on Dec. 15 Ronnie lost his fight against leukemia. He was 55.

“The good news is that recurring thoughts of sorrow are overshadowed by feelings of joy, knowing that our son enriched the lives of so many,” said Jake Karrfalt, Ronnie’s stepfather.

Community service was the theme at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. dinner at the Harbor View Hotel on Monday night. More than 100 people attended the four-hour event which included speeches and an awards ceremony, concluding with the swearing in of officers of the local branch of the NAACP, both new and renewed. “Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy lives in the hearts and minds of all of us who believe the world can be a better place. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that only great heroes can make a difference.

Geography is a demanding discipline as stumped students of the Edgartown School discovered on Tuesday morning at the schoolwide geography bee. But while the Thousand Islands Bridge and Wabash River eluded school geo-buffs, by correctly placing Tianjin in China, eighth grader Charlie Morano will now enjoy the grand prize of another written test and a chance to qualify for the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C.

For almost 15 years the Edgartown School has taken part in the National Geographic Bee, thanks in large part to the efforts of teacher Gary Smith.

Theatre has a more vibrant afterlife than other art forms. Each play is a community event, a coming together of actors and directors interpreting a writer’s vision. With each performance the play takes on a new life and so, in a sense, a playwright’s baby never ages. It just continues to grow with each successive generation.

A fight over dirt bikes has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the rural backwoods of West Tisbury.

At a contentious public hearing before the West Tisbury zoning board of appeals on Wednesday, some 40 town residents and bikers attended either to defend the dirt biking at Nip ’n’ Tuck Farm off State Road as a harmless recreational activity or denounce it as an acoustic assault that is financially and psychologically injurious.

The Chilmark zoning board of appeals upheld two building permits for working farm wind turbines on Wednesday night at a standing-room-only public hearing that saw wide-ranging and at times heartfelt debate.

The turbine permits are for the Grey Barn and Allen farms, both on South Road in Chilmark. The hearing went on for three hours, and in the end the board of appeals also ruled that the turbines did not need to go to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission for review.