The fragile good will between the Dukes County commission and outgoing county manager E. Winn Davis began to unravel this week amid reports that Mr. Davis had refused to sign an agreement preventing him from bringing a lawsuit against the county in the future.

During a standing-room-only special town meeting in Oak Bluffs that featured more emotion than a game-winning home run, voters on Tuesday defeated a motion to rescind money to expand and improve the baseball park at Veira Park.

The decision proved one of the closest town meeting votes in Oak Bluffs history.

It is 2 a.m. on South Beach in Edgartown on an overcast and chilly evening in early June.

It is a gamble, of sorts, that most Island businesses are forced to take each year.

When seasonal employees shuffle off at the end of each summer to either return home or to college or to explore farflung corners of the world, employers have no guarantee the same workers will return at the start of the busy season next year.

It was the kind of early summer afternoon that was made for baseball.

The smell of freshly cut grass blended with that of grilling hots dogs and hamburgers during the Vineyard Little League championships at Veira Park on Saturday, while the dust kicked up by the infielders was quickly cleared away by a swiftly moving ocean breeze.

While special town meetings in late spring or early summer often are ho-hum affairs called to approve routine housekeeping matters and spending items at the end of the fiscal year, Tuesday's meeting in Oak Bluffs could pack as much punch as the town's annual town meeting in April.

The special town meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Oak Bluffs school.