Edgartown police chief Tony Bettencourt promoted four officers to the sergeant class on Tuesday afternoon before families, friends and the board of selectmen. Craig Edwards, Jonathan Searle and Thomas Smith were promoted to sergeant, and Chris Dolby to detective sergeant.

“As you know we’ve had a lot of changes in the last few months. Now I’ve been working on the top part of our police department,” Mr. Bettencourt said. “I interviewed everyone in the department personally and I selected out of this group who I think are going to be the best for me and the town.”

Mr. Bettencourt has known part of the group since their days at the police academy. “We know each other very well . . . It seems like yesterday we started. It’s a department with so much experience that it’s hard to choose who should be promoted but I think I’ve chosen a good group, I know I have,” the chief said.

“We’re delighted,” selectman Arthur Smadbeck said. “Edgartown is in great hands. We’re fortunate to have them.”

In other business Tuesday, like their counterparts in other Island towns this week, selectmen debriefed with town managers on the emergency response to the threat of Hurricane Earl last Friday.

Town fire chief and emergency management director Peter Shemeth told selectmen it was a good first run for the new code red system.

“It was a balancing act because you want the public informed and don’t want to give them doom and gloom scenarios,” Mr. Shemeth said. “We’re giving them information and we try to get it all out there so they can make a decision.”

Public safety was the primary concern before and during the hurricane, Mr. Shemeth said, and with three conference calls a day with local and state officials prior to the storm, he wanted to keep the town as informed as new developments occurred.

“I think overall we were extremely well prepared Islandwide, between equipment that was in place and ready to go and people feeling that they were very well informed,” he said. During the storm the town Web site saw 150 more people sign up for a state-of-the-art town text messaging system.

“All in all, I think it went extremely well,” Mr. Shemeth said. “It wasn’t last minute. All the plans were in place, it was a matter of when to put them in place.”

Storm damage was minimal, but extreme flooding between 1 and 3 a.m. affected downtown as well as police department headquarters on Pease’s Point way.

“I think you guys did an incredible job,” Mr. Smadbeck said. “I want to thank Peter Shemeth. The job you did taking over management of this emergency was first-class. I feel so comfortable. We were in really good hands in this emergency.”

Mr. Smadbeck also singled out for praise Adam Darack, Edgartown’s information technology manager, for his work in making the new text messaging system work. “This new way of communicating with citizens is remarkable. It gives us a whole new paragraph on how to deal with emergencies; we can rely on communicating instantaneously with anyone with a cell phone or telephone,” he said, adding:

“As we think about emergencies in future, this will be a different way of doing things. All in all, you guys make me feel comfortable. We’re in good hands here.”

Selectman Michael Donoroma agreed. “You did a great job. You got the storm to go away and that’s the best thing.”

Selectmen also gave their blessing for a sidewalk to be blocked off for a short time on South Water street in two weeks, when a 150-year-old safe will be removed from the Edgartown National Bank.