Voters in at least two Island towns will see contested races for town selectmen when they head to the ballot box this April. Races are shaping up in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, two of four Island towns that finalize their annual town election ballots this week. Others towns have no contested races.

Matthew V. and Paula DelloRusso of Edgartown announce the birth of a daugher, Violet Molina DelloRusso, born on March 6.

Elizabeth Davis Gale and Alec Gale of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a son, Bryer Ray Gale, born on March 4.

In a fight won inch by inch and hour by hour, an excavator aboard the On Time III dug a channel through a field of ice in Edgartown harbor Saturday morning, freeing the Chappy ferry to run for the first time since 8 p.m. Friday night.

The Steamship Authority is moving forward with plans to reconfigure its staging area and parking lot in Vineyard Haven in order to better accommodate vehicle traffic and prevent cars from backing up into Water street.

“Proud to be from OB” is a modest claim compared with past articles. In one Vineyard Gazette article a writer opined, “People have said that there would not be any Vineyard summer resort without Oak Bluffs. Whether or not there is general agreement on this, history has thus far shown that is largely true.”

Appointing members to the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission, once a routine task for the Dukes County Commission, has become steeped in controversy. With ongoing legal conflicts, three seats opened up this year on the airport commission.

Each morning Vineyard elementary school students gather at bus stops in their towns and head off to school. But for 119 students in the school choice program, their school is not in their town.

A complex and groundbreaking project that aims to bring back the heath hen is advancing “at lightning speed,” scientists said this week.

The Island’s first pediatrician has announced his retirement. Dr. Michael Goldfein of Vineyard Pediatrics, one of the few remaining private practices on the Vineyard, will retire on June 1 after 38 years on the Vineyard.