As opiate addiction continues to devastate communities across the commonwealth, the state has released data showing prescription rates and overdose deaths for Dukes County.

More than 10 years after the state began studying Tashmoo Pond as part of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project, a final report on the pond’s declining health is expected to be released this week.

A group of volunteers has fanned out across the Island this week, looking for people without homes who they hope to include in this year’s point-in-time homeless person count. Part of a national effort by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Vineyard count is organized by Dukes County in collaboration with the Cape and Islands Regional Network to Address Homelessness.

For the first time in more than five decades, there will be no basketball in Niantic Park this summer due to major renovations planned for the popular Oak Bluffs hangout. Construction is slated to begin mid-April.

Citing a need to divert cars from downtown Oak Bluffs, the town is moving forward with a plan to offer park-and-ride service this summer. The free bus service, provided by the Vineyard Transit Authority, will shuttle passengers between Ocean Park and a parking lot near the town hall starting June 20.

Three Vineyard teams qualified for the postseason, which began Wednesday as girls’ basketball and girls’ hockey played their first-round games. The basketball advanced in the tournament after picking up a decisive win, while hockey lost 3-1 to end their season.