Martha’s Vineyard residents are here for the outdoor lifestyle, rural character, beaches and coastline, and they stay for the sense of community on the Island. They are happy with their volunteer fire departments, their emergency services, their hospital and their police squads.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has an important role to play when it comes to planning and protection of the Vineyard environment, a majority of people polled by the Vineyard Gazette Harris Interactive survey said.

The commission was singled out for special questioning in the survey which polled more than 500 seasonal and permanent residents on issues ranging from quality of life to cell phone service.

Vineyard voters followed the rest of the state in electing Cong. Edward J. Markey to the U.S. Senate in a special election Tuesday.

Mr. Markey, a Democrat from Malden who has spent 37 years in the House of Representatives, was elected to the senate with 55 per cent of the vote, the Boston Globe reported. His opponent was Gabriel E. Gomez of Cohasset, a businessman and former Navy SEAL.

Voter turnout on the Island averaged 32.5 per cent, higher than the statewide average of 27 per cent.

Plans to add a large expansion to an Oak Bluffs church continued to face scrutiny at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission late last week, as commissioners and neighbors questioned the impact on the neighborhood and the environment.

The Alliance Community Church (formerly Nova Vida) has applied to build a 9,000-square-foot addition to its Ryan’s Way building in order to build a 150-seat church.

The breach at Norton Point, with its ever-shifting inlet, dramatic changes in currents and resulting severe erosion, has been billed as “one of the most dynamic coastal systems in Massachusetts.”