Three Island Red Cross volunteers — Bill Howell, Shelley Christiansen and Sharry Stevens-Grunden — were among the responders to an early morning fire at an Edgartown duplex last month that affected nine people. The volunteers provided victims with clothing, toys, first aid kits and comfort kits.

It’s a good year for scalloping in Edgartown — so good that the town selectmen agreed Monday to increase the commercial scallop limit from three to four struck 10-gallon wash baskets.

In a letter to the selectmen, shellfish constable Paul Bagnell wrote: “The first limits are still being landed by 9 a.m., which indicates a good amount still left in the pond . . . this represents the first rise in the limit of bay scallops in over 10 years.”

Democratic candidate Martha Coakley was the easy winner on the Vineyard during the statewide primary on Tuesday to choose candidates to replace longtime Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who held the seat for 46 years before he died in August.

The Oak Bluffs affordable housing committee has hired a contractor for a project to convert the old town library at the corner of Pennacook and Circuit avenues into a mixed-used commercial building with a pharmacy and affordable housing.

Although project backers had hoped to hire an Island contractor to build the project, the lowest bid of $957,369 came from the Haynes Group of South Easton. The next two bids were $1,016,320 from John Jones, and $1,435,271 from Coastal Engineering, both local contractors.

For the third year in a row, Oak Bluffs is facing another large budget shortfall for the next fiscal year — around $1.4 million this time — and town leaders are already considering ways to radically cut costs and boost revenue.