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.

The state department of Fishers, Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement announced yesterday that it has taken ownership of the Leland beach - 100 acres of virtually unspoiled barrier beach stretching from Wasque to the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick.

Purchase price is just under $1 million; the beach, which has been owned by the family of the late Oliver and Edmund Leland since 1907, was purchased through land-taking measures under the state’s eminent domain laws.

As the Martha’s Vineyard business community begins to climb back on its feet, including the multi-million-dollar wedding industry, Big Sky Tents is planning for expansion.

A series of police reports released this week in connection with the alleged incident involving health agent Meegan Lancaster detail a confusing and at times garbled timeline of events.