Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are remote only, but some are held in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.
Thursday, April 27
- Local Housing Partnership & Housing Authority, 4 p.m.
- Energy and Climate Action Committee, 7:15 p.m.
Saturday, April 29
- Town Meeting, 10 a.m., Elementary School
Monday, May 1
- Town Election, noon to 7 p.m.
Tuesday, May 2
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, May 3
- Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.
Conversation Starters
NOAA Grant for Herring River
The town will receive $14,690,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA for the Herring River Restoration Project. The award is part of NOAA’s Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience FY2022 grant program.
Town Administrator Rich Waldo said the grant will help support all phases of the project: “A little bit for the bridge, a little bit for low-lying roads, and a little bit for improvements in other areas,” he said.
The grant will provide the final funding needed to construct all water control infrastructure outside the National Seashore, a press release from the town said. It will also go toward property impact prevention measures needed to begin the tidal restoration.
Health Agent Resigns
Town Administrator Waldo announced at the select board’s April 18 meeting that Health and Conservation Agent Hillary Greenberg-Lemos had resigned. She will become Eastham’s director of health and environment, a role previously held by Jane Crowley, who retired on March 22.
“She has been instrumental in a lot of policies and decisions, so it was a sad email to receive,” Waldo said.
Greenberg-Lemos has been the health agent in Wellfleet for 18 years, according to select board member Kathleen Bacon. According to Waldo, Greenberg-Lemos does not have an end date in place and will stay on to help train her successor.
Waldo said he wished the town had been able to keep Greenberg-Lemos on staff. Her resignation came only four days after Building Commissioner James Badera resigned on April 14. Victor Staley will serve as interim building commissioner until the town finds a replacement.
Waldo appointed assistant collector-treasurer Christine Young as the new principal clerk for the town after Jeanne Maclaughlan retired in October, leaving another opening in the finance department, he said.
Mitigation Hearing
The select board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, May 2 to introduce a final mitigation plan for the dredging of the 23.4-acre mooring field in Wellfleet Harbor.
Per federal and state regulations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is requiring the town to offset the environmental damage caused by the dredging by dedicating an area of the harbor to oyster habitat enhancement before issuing a permit for the dredging project.
Members of the dredging task force will present a plan to place 14 acres of the conditional shellfishing area in the Herring River below the dike under mitigation for one year, after which the designation will be changed to a 28-acre area of Blackfish Creek in perpetuity.
Mitigation will involve the laying of cultch strips and spawning stock in Blackfish Creek to grow an oyster population to offset disruption in the mooring basin when dredging begins. The town will be required to monitor the site every year for the first five years, then once every five years long-term. The town will be required to send reports to the Corps with data to substantiate progress made with oyster habitat enhancement. —Sam Pollak
