Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at wellfleet-ma.gov for details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, Jan. 30
- Nauset Joint School Committees and Union #54, 5 p.m., NRHS Auditorium
(including the Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, and Brewster Select Boards and Finance Committees)
Monday, Feb. 3
- Shellfish Advisory Board, 5:30 p.m., Adult Community Center and online
- Affordable Housing Trust, 6 p.m. online
Tuesday, Feb. 4
- Wellfleet Elementary School Committee, 5 p.m., online
- Select Board, 6 p.m., Adult Community Center and online
Thursday, Feb. 6
- Local Housing Partnership, 4 p.m., online
Conversation Starter
Staffing the Fuel Dock
The select board and finance committee have been hearing from individual department heads this week about their needs for operations, salaries, and maintenance funding (see story, page A8). But at the joint committee’s Jan. 22 meeting, newly inaugurated harbormaster Mike Cavanaugh had only one major line-item request to add: to fund full-time staff at Wellfleet Harbor’s fuel dock.
In theory, gas and diesel fuel are available for boaters at the Wellfleet Marina west of the courtesy dock near the harbormaster’s office. As Cavanaugh said, however, “it hasn’t been staffed, and people have had to come to the harbormaster’s office, or call us, or search for someone to try to get them to pump fuel.” Without full-time, fully functioning fuel available at the harbor, the marina lost business, he added.
Starting his new job, Cavanaugh said he had “walked into a really neglected facility where there have not been a lot of improvements done.” He added that he has also found a lack of consistency on enforcing rules and regulations and in collecting fees.
If the marina budget is approved, Cavanaugh aims to have the fuel dock staffed 11 hours a day by 2026 for a total $35,000 in additional annual seasonal employee salaries. —Tyler Jager
