Karen Berube was born 63 years ago in Oak Bluffs. She lived with her family in Edgartown and moved to Vineyard Haven after second grade. It was a time when town pride reigned and you only traveled off-Island to pick out school clothes for next fall. Today, Karen lives in Edgartown with her husband of over 30 years, David. They both agree they were aware of each other in high school but didn’t connect until 1976. Their first date was a clamming trip and they married in 1982. These days Karen travels from Edgartown to Boston once a week for chemotherapy.

There are two televisions at Tropical restaurant in Vineyard Haven, one tuned to CNN, the other to Brazilian soccer. Construction workers pack the place around noon, load up their plates with veggies from the salad bar and barbecued steak and chicken. Parents bring their kids, who like the idea of deciding what to put on their plate, even with the usual parental guidance.

“I like talking to people,” Tropical co-owner Johnnatans Costa said. “I love my job.”

Oak Bluffs voters came out in favor of making the annual shark tournament catch- and-release only, narrowly turned down a temporary moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and approved extensive repairs for town roads at a lengthy annual town meeting Tuesday.

Tisbury voters spent six and a half hours over two nights Tuesday and Wednesday tackling the 56 articles on their annual and special town meeting warrants, agreeing to fund new dredging projects, construct a new leaching facility and rehabilitate the town standpipe, but rejecting $1.3million to build a connector road between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and Holmes Hole Road.

A light turnout of agreeable West Tisbury voters Tuesday night approved nearly all of the 37 articles at the annual town meeting, including a $2.45 million police station and a $15,000 Mill Pond watershed study. But they would not agree to spend money on two unrelated countywide programs: pest management and an ongoing window replacement project in the county courthouse.

Monster Shark Tournament organizer and president of the Boston Big Game Fishing Club Steven James will takes steps to control the crowd at the controversial Oak Bluffs event, he told selectmen at a meeting Thursday afternoon.

Mr. James’s visit before the board was a condition of approval for the harbor use permit issued by the selectmen for the event. The event will take place July 18 to 20.