Wee Farmers

Wee Farmer mornings are back at the Farm Institute in Katama, for children ages two to four and their grown-up friends ready for a morning of discovery.

Beginning tomorrow, Saturday, June 7, Farm educator Mary Baker will engage wee farmers with plenty of hands-on activities from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Participants will explore the friendship garden, meet new baby animals, hear stories and more. The cost is $15 per session.

To register or for details, call 508-627-7007, extensions 106.

Truman French , valedictorian of the class of 2008, is the son of Lew French of Edgartown and Patty Quast-French of Oak Bluffs. He will attend Harvard University in Cambridge in 2009.

Antonio Grillo , salutatorian of the class of 2008, is the son of Joseph and Kate Grillo of Vineyard Haven. He will attend Harvard University in Cambridge in the fall.

Jane Alexander , class essayist, is the daughter of Mark and Connie Alexander of Vineyard Haven. She will attend Boston College in Chestnut Hill in the fall.

Concluding an exhaustive 18-month study, the Dukes County Charter Study Commission issued recommendations for the future of county government in its final report released Thursday.

The report leaves intact much of county government as it is known today.

“The charter commission has opted for minimal change in the charter because in the course of its work it became apparent that governance structure was not the underlying cause of the problems that gave rise to the creation of the commission,” the report states.

Elected officials in Oak Bluffs failed to publish the warrant for last week’s special town election within two weeks of the vote as required by law, the Gazette has learned.

This means the town override election last week will require a special act from the state legislature to certify the results, or the town must call a new election.

The words “goofy” and “high school principal” are unlikely to follow one another in a game of free association. For Margaret (Peg) Regan, who will resign as principal of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School this month after nine years in the job, that’s been part of the problem, particularly recently. Sitting in her office last week she explained why it is time for a break.

Katie Mayhew sang twice at Symphony Hall in Boston yesterday, first in rehearsal and second as part of a competition for the Boston Pops High School Sing-Off.

Katie, 15, is one of 22 contestants in a statewide competition to be a singer with the Boston Pops this summer. They came from all over the state, from as far east as the Vineyard and as far west as Stockbridge. Each singer, aged from 15 to 18, was aspiring to be a winner. The grand winner will perform with conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops as part of the Fourth of July concert and fireworks.

One is a specialist in internal medicine and gastroenterology. The other is an internist by training who spent much of his career in emergency medicine. Both traded jobs at top hospitals in Boston for rural life on an Island off the coast of Cape Cod. They met many years later, at a walk-in clinic started in the 1980s by Dr. Michael Jacobs. They share a love of medicine and a commitment to practicing family medicine, much as country doctors did years ago, though now they give out their cell phone numbers instead of the number to a home telephone.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday continued a public hearing on a plan to convert a building at the corner of Ryan’s Way and Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in Oak Bluffs to a mixed use building with a Brazilian church, a community center and a day care center.

After two hours of testimony from applicant Valci Carvalho, pastor of the Assembleia De Deus Nova Vida (Assembly of God), and neighbors with concerns about the plan, the commission continued the hearing until June 28.

Vineyard homeowners who already pay some of the highest home insurance costs in the country will not see their rates go up this year.

After the state insurance commissioner last month rejected a proposed 25 per cent rate hike for the FAIR Plan, the state-backed insurance provider of last resort, some speculated officials for the plan would appeal the ruling.

But at a meeting last Thursday, the insurer’s board of directors decided not to appeal the ruling, at least for now.

The Edgartown North Wharf fueling dock remained closed today — much to the chagrin of early summer boaters and Edgartown harbor master Charles Blair among others — as the latest in a series of deadlines to ready the station were missed by fueling company R.M. Packer Inc.

“They changed some rules on us,” said Mr. Packer yesterday, referring to increased state fire safety requirements, “and there will be more changes in the fall.”