When an individual on Mar tha’s Vineyard dials 911 seeking assistance, a sheriff’s dispatcher answers the telephone, takes information and dispatches the appropriate emergency responder. This sounds like a fairly straightforward task, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Chief Thomas Wagoner of the Loveland, Colo., police department said it best, and to mark national public safety telecommunications week, I would like to share his remarks, which follow.

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In every generation each person should see him/herself as if he/she personally was liberated from Egypt.

GOOD FOOD, GOOD SCHOOL

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Artemis’s Caution

When you look at a deer

what do you see?

Carrier of ticks? Raider of you garden? Meat for your freezer?

Pest, scourge, rodent with antlers?

When you contemplate a deer,

the only large animal left to roam wild

in our woods, a brilliantly fired creature who bolts off

with lifted white tail, speed like a gazelle, consider

Up-Island School Lesson

The Up-Island Regional School District dodged a bullet this week when West Tisbury voters refused to cut the district’s budget despite a strong argument to the contrary from both the town finance committee and the three selectmen; as a result school administrators may breathe a little easier knowing that they will not be forced to make cuts in educational programs.

Treatment Required

Who’s minding the store at the Edgartown wastewater treatment plant? The question has now been taken up by the Cape and Islands district attorney, who is investigating allegations of fraud in connection with shoddy accounting practices flagged by town auditors. Under investigation is the way the sewer plant has documented septic pump-outs hauled by independent contractors; discrepancies were found between receipts at the plant and self-reporting done by the haulers on a handwritten ledger.