Dardanella Slavin told him they were happy tears but her 20-month-old son Quinlan was having none of it. He began crying soon after selectman chairman Frank Fenner drew the winning ticket for a 2.1 acre plot of land in Chilmark’s High Meadow development and bawled through much of the remaining lottery draw, drowning out the selectmen in the process.

“He saw me crying and that made him upset,” said a widely grinning Mrs. Slavin after the draw.

Oak Bluffs school principal Laury Binney is leading the charge in cuts to Island elementary school budgets, with a proposed nine cuts to positions across six departments.

Principals are preparing to present their budgets to town leaders, in some cases still scrambling to cut operational costs while attempting to minimize the effects of a recession on students.

Residents of Holly Bear Lane in Edgartown wanted to complain about the collection of cars, trucks and boats that they see at the end of their road.

But putting a name to the problem at a Monday meeting of the selectmen proved tricky.

“We came here to express concerns and frustration at the junkyard,” said resident Margot Datz. “Over the years we have shown patience,” she said.

Discussion centered around whether Holly Bear Lane property owner Christopher Chambers is operating a scrap metal business or not.

As meteorologists yesterday charted a storm creeping inexorably toward the East Coast, in Aquinnah a race was on to get someone behind the wheel of the town snow plow.

Though the retirement of highway surveyor Forest Alley is apparently imminent, town coordinator Jeff Burgoyne said yesterday Mr. Forest will be manning the plow this weekend.

“He is ready, willing and able,” he said.

Yet selectman Jim Newman said that a new hire is waiting in the wings.

While the Martha’s Vineyard Museum continues to stall on the question of shifting its base to the old Edgartown school, selectmen have formally put the historic building back on the market.

Following six months of debate, the museum board of directors Friday voted to ask the town for more time, requesting a one-year option to lease the building for $1.

But that request was denied by the Edgartown selectmen, who voted Monday to prepare a request for proposals for the school, putting the building up for grabs once more.

Once a month, planner and grantsman for the Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) Durwood (Woody) Vanderhoop drives a sport utility vehicle down to the meteorological test tower on Old South Road, at the site of a salvage yard and an abandoned Long Range Radio Navigation (LORAN) tower. Taking care to ground himself by tapping on a piece of plastic at the base of a pylon, he removes a data card containing information which will help determine the tribe’s future energy policy.