Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Sept. 7 72 61 .00

Sept. 8 81 67 .00

Sept. 9 80 66 .00

Sept. 10 83 64 .00

Sept. 11 72 65 Trace

Sept. 12 73 60 .53

Sept. 13 75 50 .00

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 71º F.

By JACOB KRAMER

Theories abounded when David Merry began pouring sand and shells in a plot in the backyard of Cleaveland House, the home of Island author Cynthia Riggs, “There was all kinds of speculation — was it a bocce green, a tennis court, a place where I could burn brush, a garden, a memorial pet cemetery?” A writer of mysteries herself, Ms. Riggs no doubt relished the suspense. The public’s guesses were soon proved wrong when a 34-foot 1967 Egg Harbor pleasure yacht was trucked in to be berthed on the pad.

A $5 million funding bill before the Massachusetts House of Representatives would provide relief for Island businesses and their seasonal employees struggling with chronic housing affordability problems.

Although the proposal’s political fate is uncertain, it would be a welcome buttress to disparate housing and retraining strategies already playing out on the Vineyard, where employers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to sustain a stable workforce.

Island town building inspectors are bracing for a run of new building permits over the next three months in advance of a new state building code regulation which could raise building costs on average by five per cent and as much as 10 per cent.

The news comes as renovation and addition permits have driven the Island construction business this year. Renovation and addition permits ranged from 64 to 90 per cent of total permits issued, depending on the town.

Being a seasonal Island resident, when I return to my other homeland I am often asked what do people on Martha’s Vineyard do in the winter? My most immediate impulse is to react to this probing inquiry by saying that they, the entire Island population, immediately after the last seasonal resident or tourist has disappeared over the horizon, take off all their clothing, paint their fundaments an intense shade of aqua and indulge in the worship of various forms of fungi.

With the 62nd annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby now at full speed, two events are running along on the side.

One is for youngsters. The other is a kayak fishing contest. Both start on Sunday.

While plenty of big fish were caught by grown adults in this first week of the derby, attention shifts Sunday morning to the youngest of anglers. Soon after sunrise, as many as 200 young children will gather for the Mini Kids’ Day Derby at the Steamship Authority wharf in Oak Bluffs.

Tomorrow calls for an all-Island end of summer celebration and Oak Bluffs is the host.

Organizers of the 30th annual Tivoli Day want the rest of the Island to know their party belongs to the whole Island. Nothing better would please Dennis daRosa and Bob Glover than to see their friends from around the Vineyard turn out for the events planned.

In addition to the street fair on Circuit avenue, there is a parade, an antique bicycle performance and serious and not-so-serious kite flying at Ocean Park.

It has taken them 12 years to do it, but the Edgartown board of health is finally getting tough over a breach of health and planning regulations which threatens the health of Sengekontacket Pond.

For the first time, the board is looking to impose a substantial fine on a homeowner who twice has breached undertakings relating to the size of a house and the treatment and disposal of waste water from it.

As Thomas Ricks was writ ing his definitive account of the planning and execution of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, he would sometimes look out his window and see children walking home from the kindergarten down the street, and have an awful premonition.

“I would look at those kindergartners and think ‘one of those kids is going to fight in Iraq’,” he told a small audience at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore last Friday night.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum has named Dr. Keith Gorman, the museum’s director of programs and archivist and librarian, to the new position of museum director.

With the creation of the new position, Mr. Gorman will be responsible for the museum’s operations, programs, staff, capital campaign, and the proposed museum move from Edgartown to West Tisbury.