Over strong objections from competing taxi companies, the West Tisbury selectmen this week granted a new company a license to operate in town.

Lighthouse Taxi, owned by Nick Catt and Josh Tucker, will operate a year-round, 24-hour taxi service from the airport with four vehicles.

At the weekly selectmen’s meeting Wednesday, Ben Baldwin and Gary Davidson of Bluefish Taxi strongly objected to a new taxi company in town and said business is suffering.

When the Colonial Inn first opened for business in 1911, the big news about Edgartown’s largest hotel, located just one minute from Steamboat Wharf, was that it was “electrified,” offered hot and cold water baths and all the conveniences in modern plumbing. This season, as the hotel reopens on the anniversary of its 100th year, the air will once again be “electrified” — this time with big news about a new name, building renovations and plans for a 100-day celebration.

Last Friday Leonard Fogg ambled down to the Edgartown harbor from the Wharf Pub, led by his beloved eight-year old Bouvier des Flandres, Maui. Mr. Fogg made the same walk four years ago on a gloomy and frigid February evening and it nearly cost him his life.

This time a camera crew awaited Mr. Fogg at the docks as he reenacted the fateful stroll for the Animal Planet’s Dogs 101. Mr. Fogg paused behind a shed on the boathouse dock, the same one that he fell from years ago into icy waters, only to be rescued by Maui and a brigade of big-hearted Wharf regulars.

Savor the moment and save the date. Poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez, professor emeritus at Temple University where she was the first Presidential Fellow and held the Laura H. Carnell Chair in English and taught in the Women’s Studies Department, will be the featured speaker at Della Hardman Day on Saturday, July 30 at 4 p.m. in Ocean Park.

University Dean’s List

The following students were named to the dean’s list for the 2010 fall semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst: Katherine Bernier and Cassandra L. Nordstrom of Edgartown; Ashley E. Rebello of Oak Bluffs, Marta Ilse Azzollini, Celeste V. Bailey, Conor Coit Boland, Eleanor Josephine Hehre, Margaretta C. Hehre, Ruby R. Hoy, Katherine E. Keppeler, Christina J. Reppert, Mark A. Reppert and Rebecca M. Swartwood of Vineyard Haven; and Chantal M. Gomes, Eliza Rose Greene and Julius B. Lowe of West Tisbury.

MISSING SHAFER

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

This is a pagan story that happens at Easter. Or an Easter story that happens when pagans attend to the rites of spring. At any rate it has a little girl in bright clothing, grownups in shiny shoes with feathers in their hats, fruits and sweets and new laid eggs on the altar of a woven basket, and two little animals, the centerpiece of this day. Ultimately there will be a sacrifice.

Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from comments submitted by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission last week to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The complete text of the comments may be read on the commission’s Web site at mvcommission.org.

They call it a swarming, much like bees around a hive, but that’s how the Gifford family of Harthaven refers to their annual spring cleanup and construction project weekend. Using school vacations, the entire group of 22 converge to complete tasks ranging from cleaning leaves out of gardens to complex jobs like building fencing and replacing an entire garage roof.

That well-worn phrase — climate change. We know it’s out there, hovering over our lives like a heavy cloud. But what does it mean exactly — to you and the Island of Martha’s Vineyard?

It means striking changes in the three most critical components of Island life:

• The natural environment — the air, land and water;

• Our physical well being — our human health;

• The local economy.