Three Island towns affirmed their support for the housing bank last week with a decisive win at the ballot box, while a razor-thin margin of victory in the Oak Bluffs select board race heads to a recount.

With requests for demolitions and teardowns at an all-time high on the Vineyard, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission is in the throes of redrafting its policy for reviewing demolition projects.

Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. Matthew D’Andrea has been offered the job as the next superintendent of schools in Wareham.

Incumbent Oak Bluffs select board member Gail Barmakian squeaked back into office Thursday, edging out challenger Dion Alley by just two votes.

Voters go to the polls today in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury to decide on new select board members and cast ballots on the question of whether to create a Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank. In Oak Bluffs, one of three candidates for select board has dropped out.

A startling new national report that uses computer imaging to flag the effects of global warming on the Massachusetts coast shows that the south shore of the Vineyard will be washed away and downtown Edgartown will be a swamp in 50 years — even if the most conservative projections about rising sea levels are correct.

The report was issued yesterday by the National Environmental Trust (NET), a nonprofit, nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C.

Buoyed by the outcome Tuesday night, on Wednesday the coalition to create a housing bank for the Vineyard was looking to the next steps.

The Martha’s Vineyard political season kicks off tonight with four annual town meetings, marking a return to a schedule that has been disrupted by the pandemic for two straight years. Voters will gather in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury.

Four of the six Island towns will take the first steps next week in deciding the pivotal question of whether to ask the state legislature to allow creation of a Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank.

Open space conservation, winterized housing for employees and generous assistance from a community bank are all factors in an out-of-the-ordinary purchase by the land bank.