It happened Halloween morning. Thirty youngsters picked up cans of blue spray paint and went downtown in broad daylight into Oak Bluffs to use them.

But the messages they painted on the streets weren’t graffiti. Plus, they had the full support of grownups.

The youngsters painted stenciled words next to storm drains under the supervision of Oak Bluffs shellfish constable David Grunden, as part of his broadening effort to raise public awareness about protecting coastal ponds.

“Don’t pollute, fish are cute” read one message.

Work began this week on the Lagoon Pond drawbridge — a project estimated to cost a total of $31.5 million and reach completion in 2013.

State highway officials plan to first build a temporary bridge for $9 million on the pond side of the current drawbridge, then demolish the existing bridge and build a permanent replacement in its place.

The drawbridge, which was built in 1935 and has been in poor condition for years, is a key link in the Vineyard road system. The bridge also provides crucial access to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs.

Harbor View Undertakes

Next Improvement Phase

In the second phase of a $77 million multi-year renovation plan for the historic Harbor View Hotel and Resort in Edgartown, the Harbor View, the Coach House restaurant and the Carlos Fuente Club House closed Oct. 21.

All hotel, restaurant and catering operations have shifted to the Kelley House and The Newes from America pub until the improvements are completed. Renovations are scheduled for completion by late next spring.

Hearing Talk

Audiologist Lesley Segal Pallas will be the guest speaker this month at the Parish Visitation’s meeting of the United Methodist Cooperative Ministry at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7.

The topic for discussion will be Hearing and the Elderly. The talk will focus on communicating effectively with hearing-impaired people. At Vineyard Audiology, Ms. Pallas provides hearing health care for children and seniors as well as counseling about living with hearing loss.

Nature Conservancy Seeks

Volunteers to Clean Seeds

The Nature Conservancy is seeking volunteers to help with seed cleaning at the organization’s Hoft Farm field station off Lambert’s Cove Road in West Tisbury.

Three two-hour sessions of seed cleaning are scheduled in November. Session times are Thursday, Nov. 8 from 3 to 5 p.m.; Tuesday, Nov. 13 from 9 to 11 a.m.; and Friday, Nov. 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Volunteers are also welcome by appointment during normal business hours.

A town gathered on Saturday to commemorate a much-loved Islander whose vivacity and self-determination affected members of the many different areas of the Martha’s Vineyard community she moved between.

The next time you sit down to a steaming bowl of clam chowder, consider this: your meal may be older then you are. Much, much older.

Indeed ocean quahaugs, often used in chowder, are probably the longest-lived animals on the planet. Earlier this year, researchers dredged up a 405-year-old quahaug from the frigid waters off Iceland. They did not eat it.

Samilly Arrives

Kamilla and Gilkleber Guimaraes of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a daughter, Samilly Guimaraes, born on Oct. 22 at Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital.

BOSTON — The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) publicly stepped back into the casino game this week, as tribal leaders formally announced that they have formed a business partnership with Seneca Nation, an upstate New York tribe that owns and operates three successful casinos.

Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal chairman Donald Widdiss announced the partnership at a press conference at the Omni Parker House in Boston late Wednesday morning, although news of the partnership had been reported in the regional print press early this month.