Aquinnah’s oldest road will be repaired by winter and the town may sport a new tour bus line next summer.

Selectmen last week awarded $14,350 to Deca Inc. of Vineyard Haven to repair an unpaved stretch of Old South Road, the town’s oldest byway dating back to the 1870s.

The Vineyard legislative liaison, a former Falmouth selectman and the speaker of the Barnstable County assembly of delegates are finalists for county manager here.

Russell Smith of Aquinnah, Troy Clarkson of North Falmouth and Thomas Bernardo of West Chatham will be interviewed by the Dukes County Commission tomorrow in the county administration building. The interviews begin at 9 a.m. and are open to the public.

Abel’s Hill cemetery is a place where people who like to keep tabs on their neighbors can do just that — for eternity, as they rest among them. From the gravestones off South Road in Chilmark you can hear the hum of cars speeding down-Island to the grocery store or up for a day at the beach. From the plot nearest the road, on tiptoe, you can just see who is in those cars. It’s a quiet cemetery, but graceful.

Island residents who stayed with their television sets on Sunday night past the Patriots and into Sunday Night Football were hoping to see the promised NBC coverage of the Island high school football team. It has been rescheduled for Nov. 18 and Nov. 25. Earlier schedules had the segment airing on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11.

It was déjà vu all over again for the boys’ soccer team Sunday as the team again found itself in a sudden death penalty kick shoot-out in the opening round of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament.

Although the Vineyarders prevailed in the shoot-out against Dighton-Rehoboth, thanks to the efforts of goaltender Nico Cuba, to win the game 3-2, there was a surreal quality to the game which marked the third time in three consecutive state tournament games the team’s fate was decided by a shoot-out.

Former Oak Bluffs police chief Joseph C. Carter has been sworn in as adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard by Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

Mr. Carter, who holds the rank of major general, commands the nearly 8,000 members of the Massachusetts Army and Air National Guard. He is the senior military advisor to the governor of Massachusetts.

Mr. Carter became police chief of Oak Bluffs in 1998. He resigned in 2003 to become chief of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority police department.

Children’s Book Writing

People interested in writing books for children will meet Monday, Nov. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the home of Carol Carrick in West Tisbury. This monthly meeting is for serious writers only. Members will read manuscripts and discuss them. They will also share news and advice from the children’s book world. For details and directions call Carol Carrick at 508- 696-6277, or Marilyn Hollinshead at 508-693-5803.

Harnessing Positive Energy

Eroding Confidence in County Affairs

With the county charter study commission midway through its work evaluating the vital topic of whether the Island needs county government — hiring a county manager at this stage in the game feels almost like a robotic exercise of going through the motions. The county commission plans to interview three finalists for the county manager post on Saturday.

Veterans Day 2007

Children learn it like a nursery rhyme: the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. That was when the first world war effectively ended, in 1918. After unbearable slaughter, at least twenty million people dead and millions more left as refugees, the war to end all wars was exhausted with a truce, an armistice. It became a day to remember.