The Boston Pops concert at Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs was a highlight of summer last year, and with an attendance figure of 5,000 people it ranked among the most attended Island event of the season.

Building on last year’s success, promoters this year want to expand the concert to include food and alcohol sales and also have a longer running time from early afternoon to late evening. They also want to put up high barricades along Seaview avenue to control crowds and to block people from watching the concert for free along the road and town beach.

Beer and wine: fine? Or, wine and beer: oh dear? A barbed public discussion at the Katharine Cornell Theatre Tuesday night appeared to bring neither residents nor selectmen any closer to which of these — if either — should be Tisbury’s town slogan going into the annual town election this spring.

And in the lead-up to April 15 — when voters will decide on whether to allow the town to license the sale of beer and wine by restaurants and cafes of a certain size — few residents at the meeting were seeing the lighter side.

The founder of the Vineyard Energy Project, Kate Warner, is preparing to step down as director as the VEP shifts its focus from primarily education and advocacy to practical implementation of energy saving measures.

In Sengekontacket Pond in mid-February, there is no competition for shellfish. Kyle L. Peters, 47, of Oak Bluffs had the pond to himself.

Mr. Peters was fishing the flats, tolerating the wind and the cold, working amid drifting ice.

About a quarter mile away, Mr. Peters had an observer. A harbor seal sat on the beach at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary for most of the week. The reclining seal occasionally turned its head to watch Mr. Peters in his distinctly bright orange overcoat.

Dean’s List

Michael Gately of West Tisbury has been named to the dean’s list during the fall 2007 semester at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay.

A Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School senior may have saved the life of an Oak Bluffs man Monday night after he fell into the frigid waters of the Oak Bluffs harbor and was unable to pull himself to safety.

Shelagh Kelley, 18, was inside her family’s home on East Chop Drive around 11 p.m. when she heard the faint cries of someone in distress. She alerted her mother Patricia and her father Rick Kelley, a state police lieutenant who works off-Island, and together they strained to listen to determine where the cries were coming from.

Hello, Lyla

Amanda Mead and Mike Patricio of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a daughter, Lyla Kandace Patricio, born Feb. 12 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Lyla, who weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces at birth, is also welcomed by her big brother, Andre.

Brody Arrives

Brody Michael Royal was born Feb. 8 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He weighed 9.1 pounds. His parents are Chris and Jenny Royal of Oak Bluffs. His grandparents are Peggy and Wayne Royal from Edgartown and Connie and Dave DeSelm from Cambridge, Ohio.

Claiming that the contract between the West Tisbury assessors and Vision Appraisal Technology does not comply with state law, a town taxpayer called on the town selectmen this week to declare the 2007 real estate valuations invalid.

R.M. Packer Co. of Vineyard Haven, the Vineyard’s major oil supplier, has agreed to pay a $78,000 fine for violating the federal Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Prevention rules.

According to a release from the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, the Packer company failed to adequately implement a spill prevention, control and countermeasure plan. The EPA also said the company did not sufficiently maintain proper containment for its tanks and loading rack.