Bronx Boy Turns Cowboy Genius

When Linda Ronstadt tells of someone with “an incredible power of history and tradition in his vocals,” you don’t expect she’s talking about a man better known for playing fiddle, banjo and guitar than for his singing, a man who didn’t even play music for a living before the age of 40. But Bruce Molsky doesn’t fit the usual logic of things. I mean, would you expect a Bronx-born trained mechanical engineer to be called “the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddle”?

Model Boat Show

Take advantage of the break in the rain forecast for Saturday by taking the boat over to Woods Hole to see other boats — a special show of model boats, radio-controlled model boat races, talks about boats, and the chance for children to sail a wooden model boat, too.

Parents’ Night Out

With no school next week, parents may want to stop, breathe and regain their personal equilibrium — or perhaps prepare a strategy for entertaining the kids while keeping their day jobs — before things really get going. So parents, take tonight off and pack your children (with bathing suits and towels) off to the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard.

Named to Dean’s List

Clea Baumhofer of Vineyard Haven was named to the dean’s list for the fall 2010 semester at Johns Hopkins University. She is the daughter of Mark and Kimberly Baumhofer.

Tabor Academy Honors

Headmaster Jay Stroud has named the following students to the honors and commended lists at Tabor Academy for semester one of the 2010-2011 academic year: William Kadison, son of Mr. and Mrs. David Kadison of Vineyard Haven; and Alex Nugent, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Nugent of Edgartown.

In sharp contrast to the previous night’s special town meeting, Tisbury breezed through Wednesday’s annual town meeting, approving all 38 articles, including the $20.45 million budget, in little more than two hours.

Only a handful of the warrant articles aroused any discussion at all, and among those the only significant disagreement was a reprise of the previous night’s debate about measures to deal with the unfunded entitlements of town employees.

In three of the four town meetings held on the Vineyard this week, proceedings began with a recitation of some fine words celebrating American values. In the fourth, it began with the actual exercise of the core American value — democracy.

But that decision in favor of democracy caused some grief for Tisbury town moderator Deborah Medders.

With only one contest on the ballot for finance committee, turnout was extremely low in the West Tisbury annual town election Thursday, with just 296 voters casting ballots, 12 per cent of those registered to vote.

In a three-way race for two seats on the finance committee, Gary Montrowl and Katherine Triantafilou were elected with 204 and 191 votes respectively, while Joseph K. Gervais trailed with 87 votes.

Edgartown has three new library trustees. In the annual town election Thursday voters elected Julie Lively, Deanna Ahearn Laird and Bob Avakian to the board, knocking out three incumbents in a year when building plans for a new library have occupied much public attention.

The total turnout was 515 voters, or 16.6 per cent of the town’s registered voters in an election that had few contests. Voting took place at the town hall on a sunny, spring-like day.

Nearly a week after he was arrested at his South Water street home and briefly jailed on criminal charges of embezzlement, Edgartown attorney Edward W. (Peter) Vincent Jr. yesterday settled two separate civil cases alleging he misused client funds in real estate deals.

Criminal charges are still pending.