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shellfishermen

    ENVIRONMENT

    Searching for Alternatives to ‘Beach Nourishment’

    Oystermen say ‘sacrificial sand’ is burying their shellfish grants

    By

    WELLFLEET — To preserve eroding property and maintain beaches, thousands of cubic yards of so-called sacrificial sand is piled on coastal banks and bay shores here. It does not stay put. Local shellfishermen say finding new ways to fight erosion is urgent because the sand that has been piled along 36 waterfront properties from Indian Neck to Blackfish Creek is burying their oyster grants and smothering native grasses.

    “We’ve watched them, year after year, bring truckload after truckload of non-native sand to fill this hole,” said shellfisherman Brad Morse, pointing to an eroding cliff off King Phillip Road. “With the next set of high tides, it’s gone.”

    Morse, who has a shellfish grant near the tip of Field Point, and Kurt Graham, who has a neighboring grant, have been attending conservation commission and select board meetings to let leaders know that the “sand is ruinous.”

    “My grant used to be a steamer grant before I got it,” Graham said. “You don’t see steamers down here anymore.” Graham has tried seeding both steamers and quahogs, but the sand “covers all the clams and kills everything,” he said.

    Morse said he’s been trying to grow oysters on his grant since he got it in 2009, but “it’s almost impossible there,” he said. “They always get covered in sand and die over the winter.”

    Select board member Michael DeVasto has a shellfish grant next to Morse’s. On a recent morning, DeVasto walked across an expanse of sand to reach a buoy he uses to mark the row of racks that hold the bags of oysters he is raising. Because of sand accumulation, the usable flats are farther from the shore than they used to be, he explained, as he dug down through a foot of sand to reach the pipe that anchors his buoy.

    It Started With Revetments

    The practice of dumping sacrificial sand is called “beach nourishment,” and it began as a response to problems posed by the construction of revetments — stone or concrete walls — meant to protect properties along the shore from erosion. Now, the sand — including 2,000 cubic yards dumped on the coastal bank at the Blasch house on Chequessett Neck Road in 2019 — is also being used in an attempt to prevent structures from collapsing over cliff edges.

    Shellfisherman Michael DeVasto digs through accumulated “sacrificial sand” to get to the pipe that anchors a buoy on his Wellfleet oyster grant. (Photo by Michaela Chesin)

    By the 1970s, it was clear that revetments were altering natural sedimentation, leaving beaches with sand deficits and increased erosion and destroying habitats needed by piping plovers and diamondback terrapins, said Health and Conservation Agent Hillary Greenberg-Lemos.

    That’s when scientists got together and worked with the state to come up with the Wetlands Protection Act, according to Barnstable County Coastal Process Specialist Greg Berman. “The idea was, if revetments continue, we’re not going to have beaches, dunes, marshes, and shellfishing areas,” he said.

    The act barred the further construction of revetments. It also requires property owners who have old revetments to add sand to the surrounding banks according to an equation that, Greenberg-Lemos said, takes into account the height of the bank, the size of the revetment, and the erosion rate, which is difficult to calculate year to year.

    The owners of each of the 36 properties along the Indian Neck to Blackfish Creek stretch of shore typically have to apply between 80 and several hundred cubic yards of sand each winter, theoretically replacing what has been lost because the natural sedimentation processes were interrupted by their revetments.

    The theory isn’t proving to be correct, Berman explained, because sacrificial sand doesn’t have any vegetation or roots that might slow down erosion. It moves swiftly, and, in the Field Point area, for example, aided by existing revetments, it is pushed down to the end where DeVasto’s, Morse’s, and Graham’s grants are.

    ‘Catch-22’

    The Wetlands Protection Act can be a fairly blunt tool, Berman said, “so we have to get a feel for how we can live with what’s being affected by these structures.”

    “It’s a catch-22,” Morse said. “If they had never allowed walls, the sediment would be natural.” Morse and other shellfishermen argue that, in some places, including along the King Phillip Road properties, it would be better to allow the walls to be finished.

    The problem is “tricky,” with competing stakeholders, Greenberg-Lemos said.

    Shellfishermen Kurt Graham and Brad Morse stand in front of an eroding cliff off King Phillip Road in Wellfleet. Just a few months ago, hundreds of cubic yards of sacrificial sand was piled there. Now, they say, that sand sits on their shellfish grants. (Photo by Michaela Chesin)

    In her view, “Sand is the best solution because there’s no structure. It’s natural. It ebbs and flows.” But she sees its effects on both shellfishing and boating and agrees further evaluation of the problem is needed.

    Gordon Peabody, director of Safe Harbor Environmental Services in Wellfleet, has volunteered to gather data that should help such an evaluation. He proposes to record the shifting elevations along the coast.

    “It’s a tidal and storm-driven process,” Peabody said, adding that it’s important to know more about how the sand moves from one area to another. “It’s up to us to figure it out,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the Wellfleet Conservation Commission is working “to try something new,” Greenberg-Lemos said, though possible alternatives are just starting to be explored.

    One solution could be to try adding less sand and transition the King Phillip Road site to a salt marsh project, Greenberg-Lemos said. Another solution would be to take a more holistic view of where the required sand should be placed. “We’re trying to evaluate the best places to put the sand to benefit the system,” she said. “I hope to have more defined answers about that ongoing work soon.

    “Coastal banks are going to continue to erode,” said the conservation agent. “The fishermen are going to have to figure out other ways to fish over time. Property owners are going to figure out what they’re going to do. We all need to get along to make it work.”

    ENVIRONMENT

    Study Finds Nutrients Increase Coastal Acidification

    A new council is proposed in hopes of protecting shellfish

    By

    WELLFLEET — With a minus-0.6-foot low tide at 5:11 p.m. and the sun setting at 5:26, Bob Wallace and Mattias Christensen have no time to lose. Their oysters have been overwintering in concrete pits on land for the past five weeks. Now, on this late February evening, the shellfishermen are returning them to the flats. When the tide reaches its lowest point, they move on to the work of breaking apart clusters of oysters.

    “Shellfishermen are observers,” says Wallace, while confidently using a hatchet to separate a cluster. “You’re just reacting to what Mother Nature throws at you.”

    He points to an oyster with a blackened shell, picked out of the muck. The dark color, he explains, signifies hypoxia — this oyster did not get enough oxygen in the substrate. Most of the other oysters appear to be fine — near perfect, in fact — and the two shellfishermen continue their work.

    For shellfishermen, reacting to Mother Nature is just one part of the battle. They are now faced with the rising threat of ocean and coastal acidification — a reduced pH environment in which mollusks (like oysters, clams, and scallops), with their calcium carbonate shells, are particularly vulnerable.

    Ocean acidification, a global threat, is one of the consequences of carbon dioxide emissions. Coastal acidification is driven locally by nutrient pollution and resulting eutrophication — excessive growth of marine plants and algae. Both are caused by human activities.

    Wallace has already witnessed eutrophication in action. “More and more weeds are suffocating the oysters,” says Wallace, who was one of the members of a 2015 working group on climate change impacts on shellfishing in Wellfleet Harbor. Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous feed phytoplankton, which feed oysters, Wallace explains, but the rapid growth of aquatic plants can also suffocate the oysters.

    Shellfishermen Mattias Christensen and Bob Wallace, on the flats in Wellfleet, say they see eutrophication and are on the lookout for signs of acidification. (Photo Tessera Knowles-Thompson)

    While neither Wallace nor Christensen has seen the effects of coastal acidification yet, they know what to look for; they know more acidic conditions make it more challenging for shells to form; they know the shellfish are most vulnerable in their larval stage of growth.

    Now, the state is confirming what local shellfishermen have long worried about. According to a report researched by a governor-appointed commission of lawmakers, scientists, and fishermen and released on Feb. 9, the threat of coastal acidification represents a crisis for Massachusetts. “The degree of harm that occurs,” the report states, “depends on the extent of mitigation efforts undertaken now.”

    A key finding: land-based nutrient pollution “amplifies localized differences in pH.” That means the eutrophication shellfishermen are already observing is likely a sign local acidification is on the way.

    On the upside: many of the land-based sources of the problem, from golf course runoff to septic system discharge, are controllable.

    Last month, in response to the report, state Sen. Julian Cyr and state Rep. Sarah Peake, both members of the commission, co-sponsored companion bills in the House and Senate that would tackle acidification in our coastal waters. “If we don’t find a way to mitigate ocean acidification,” Cyr told the Independent, “the marine economy is very much at risk.”

    That risk is especially high on the Outer Cape, where in Wellfleet alone “about 450 people make their livings in the shellfishing industry,” said Nancy Civetta, the town’s shellfish constable. Her figure includes wild harvesters as well as farmers and their employees. “That is 15 percent of Wellfleet’s total year-round population and 25 percent of its working-age population,” Civetta added.

    “Aquaculture has been a bright spot in the economy in a place that would otherwise be unaffordable to many young people,” said Cyr.

    One of the key features of the legislation is the establishment of a permanent council on ocean acidification. The council would commission independent studies to “fill acidification knowledge gaps.” It would also coordinate public and private monitoring efforts, provide monitoring hardware and technical training, and maintain a central repository for acidification data.

    Local monitoring efforts are already underway, but the bill would expand their reach and longevity. The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown has been monitoring water quality in Wellfleet and Provincetown harbors since 2006, said Amy Costa, director of the center’s Cape Cod Bay Monitoring Program. Last year, two different projects began focusing their attention on measuring pH and the effects of acidification.

    Wellfleet is still working on its state Dept. of Environmental Protection watershed permit, which will propose a range of nutrient-mitigating projects to bring the town into compliance with Section 208 of the U.S. Clean Water Act. Some of the proposed waste treatment plans being considered — from salt marsh restoration and shellfish propagation to nitrogen-reducing sewage systems — could also help fight acidification.

    For example, Civetta said she and Assistant Constable Johnny Mankevetch are working with the town’s wastewater committee to include a budget for sea clam shells in the watershed permit application. The shells would be used as cultch — material on which oyster spat is grown — but could also potentially add more calcium carbonate to the substrate. Civetta said she has more work to do “to understand just how much shell deployment would be necessary to actually have a significant mitigating effect” on acidification.

    Ginny Parker, president of the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association, said that her organization’s goal is to make sure “the voices and expertise of the Outer Cape shellfishermen are heard.” She envisions them as members of the permanent ocean acidification council, “because these decisions will have long-term effects.”

    VIRTUAL OYSTERFEST

    Chefs and Shuckers Take to the Stage for the 20th Annual Wellfleet OysterFest

    For the first time, staying home for the ’Fest means not missing the shuck off

    By

    WELLFLEET — Like almost everything else in 2020, the Wellfleet OysterFest will look very different this year. The town’s signature celebration, which in 2019 hosted about 23,000 visitors and routinely brings in several million dollars to local businesses, had to be completely re-imagined due to the pandemic.

    In early April, it was clear there would be no big in-person event. But before deciding on a virtual fest, its nonprofit organizers, Wellfleet SPAT (Shellfish Promotion and Tasting), focused on developing ways to support local shellfishermen who had, as restaurants closed across the country, abruptly lost the market for their harvests.

    During those first few months, SPAT put together two relief programs through which it has by now distributed $92,400, according to Michelle Insley, the organization’s executive director. First, a community food share program purchased oysters from local growers and donated them to organizations and restaurants that were providing free food for people in need. Next, SPAT put $50,000 into the Wellfleet Shellfish Harvester Relief program, a new emergency fund managed in partnership with the Lower Cape Outreach Council. Farmers and wild pickers may access the fund two times in a calendar year.

    The OysterFest usually nets around $100,000, which goes to SPAT’s work promoting the local shellfish industry. Funds also support two scholarships every year, Friends of Herring River, and Mass Audubon’s coastal ecology program at Wellfleet Elementary School.

    Insley said she hopes the upside of the virtual event will be the possibility of reaching a national audience hungry to know more about the history of the shellfish industry here, the unique growing environment, and the work of oyster farmers and wild harvesters.

    Going virtual has turned out to be a big production. But, Insley said, “We found all this great local talent to help pull it off.” Justin Lynch, a shellfisherman, has filmed and directed a series of promotional spots and a video with G. Love (who lives in Orleans). Liz Shook, who grew up in Brewster and went to Nauset Regional High School, has brought a background in advertising and film production to the virtual shuck off.

    “We knew people would be kind of ‘Zoomed out,’ ” Shook said. “There are so many virtual things and people are asked to watch so much content on screens — so how do we make this special?”

    The online ’Fest will feature the shuck off, but add some color with videos and a few well-known names. G. Love is the musical guest, while Ming Tsai, Jamie Bisonette, and Elle Simone Scott are featured chefs. Longtime SPAT board member Jodie Birchall will be the emcee.

    The format is similar to that of the Democratic National Convention. In between the shucking heats, there will be prerecorded videos of each chef sharing a favorite oyster recipe. Because it was impossible to send film crews, chefs made their own videos, which Shook says “really adds something awesome and homemade about it all.”

    Nancy Civetta, Wellfleet’s shellfish constable, who has been the producer of the live shuck off for years, sees lots of good in the virtual version ahead. “Because we’re having it filmed professionally,” she said, “you’re going to be able to see, close up, the people shucking, their technique and facial expressions, and much more of the banter.”

    Civetta said the new format will also provide a view of the judges at work — something the crowds have never seen before. “It will show just how meticulous and nit-picky they are,” she said.

    Music has always been an important part of the ’Fest. Since the very first year, only two songs have been played during the finals, Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” and “Jungle Boogie.” The organizers got the rights to “Miserlou,” and a local band from Orleans, The Stellwagen Symphonette, recorded a version that will be played during the shucking heats.

    The 10 participating all-star shuckers represent the very best of the past 19 years. Many have won or placed several times. William “Chopper” Young, who traveled to Galway, Ireland, and took the world champion title there, has entered five Wellfleet shuck offs and won every time. Barbara Austin, James Gray, and Calen Bricault have all won or placed seven times.

    Keith Rose, who won the very first shuck off, has been sea clamming from his boat in Provincetown. He thinks the shucking might be a bit comical this year because everyone is so out of practice with no raw bar work all these months. But all are glad to participate in what has become a townie tradition, and, at a time when the bars are closed, it’s a welcome chance to hang out and reconnect. And, of course, there’s the bragging rights and $1,000 cash prize for the winner.

    ‘The Shuck Must Go On’ will stream on YouTube on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 5 p.m.

    OUTER CAPE PORTRAIT

    ‘I’m Still Moving’

    RICHARD BLAKELEY / SHELLFISH GROWER / WELLFLEET

    By

    Blakeley
    Richard Blakeley.

    Richard Blakeley has been growing clams and oysters on the Wellfleet flats since the 1980s. A year ago, he spoke of slowing down, perhaps even getting ready to pass the torch to a younger generation of shellfish growers. But last summer, he seemed glad to be out on his farm. The trip, he says, isn’t over. It’s still offering gifts he might not have imagined. Here’s Richard in his own words.

    I’ve run over a few tides in my lifetime. So, I’m pretty broke up. My hands are arthritic. My back is arthritic, but I want to keep moving. Gotta keep moving.

    I started fishing in the mid ’70s, because that’s what young kids did around here. New Bedford was all union. You couldn’t get on a union boat unless you had a job. You couldn’t get a job on a boat without a union card. So, you had to be there when they were throwing the lines, and somebody had to miss the boat, and they needed a warm body. That’s how you got your card.

    A lot of New Bedford fishermen would take the winter off, because it’s miserable. So, the Cape boys would all charge up there and take the jobs. We weren’t too smart! But that’s what you did.

    I fished for about 15 years. And then I came home. Wellfleet boys are never far from Wellfleet. In the early 80s, maybe, they were starting to do aquaculture. So, I decided I’d give that a shot. And it was very good at first, a lot better than it is now. At the time, there was a lot of growth. There was very little disease. I’d say it was the heyday. It was a little bit like the Gold Rush, yeah.

    It was a good time to grow clams. It should have stayed that way, too. Those damn oysters. They’re heartbreakers. I’m the kind of person that if I start looking into what’s killing my shellfish, I’d never last. When I get up at two o’clock in the morning, I don’t want to know what the disease is that’s killing my shellfish. All I know is there’s a disease killing my shellfish. That’s good enough, or bad enough. It’s difficult to see your crop die, because your clam runs are paved with dead shells. They come to the surface and die, and it’s horrible.

    My farm is in pretty good shape. I don’t know about the farmer! I’ve got help. I just put my grant in a younger person’s name, and I’m happy to see that my partner wants to grow a lot of shellfish, and that makes me want to grow more shellfish. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the market with everything shut down.

    The market is just crazy for littlenecks, but not so much for oysters. If you take a ride downtown New York City, there’s a lot of restaurants that are shut down. And it’s like that down South and all over. There are 50 million people out of work. I’m selling a handful of oysters, but only about a quarter of what I did last year.

    Sometimes you think, we’re a dying breed. That may be true, that may be true. We have our bumps in the road, but we’re okay.

    It’s a wonderful thing to see younger people involved in the business that you’re in. The younger people today are educated, and they are very competent people. And it’s good. That breaks me up a little bit. They want to entrust this to their children, their little boys and girls. They want to turn over the harbor to them. And when you have that, you can’t go wrong.

    I’m not so sure about this aging thing. I’m still moving, just moving a little slower. I did something a little bit different last week, planting clams, and it worked out fantastically. I didn’t realize that I would get such a kick out of that, but I did! If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have those kind of feelings. My tank might be emptying, but it ain’t on empty yet.

    [Richard’s neighbor on the flats is Barbara Austin.] Barbara is always going to be there. So, I told Barbara once, “Barb, you’re never going to be able to divorce me! I’m always going to be right here.” Seeing her son Clinton with his sons. It’s an incredible feeling. I love that. Without shellfishing and aquaculture, I wouldn’t have had that. I wouldn’t have the closeness I have with the younger kids. I call ’em kids. They are grown men with wives and families. They’ve completed my life. They really have. It’s been a wonderful trip. I’m going to see it roll on a little bit longer, it looks like.

    SHELLFISHING

    Seasonal Permits Are Banned in Wellfleet

    But more costly year-round licenses remain an option

    By

    WELLFLEET — Vacationers and visitors received another blow from the select board last week — a ban on seasonal recreational shellfishing permits.

    On top of the short-term rentals ban through at least June 8 and the elimination of one-day beach passes for 2020, the select board voted unanimously on May 26 to halt the sale of seasonal permits.

    Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta requested the ban on the four-month permits to reduce the density of shellfish aficionados on Indian Neck.

    “It’s hard to social distance on Indian Neck when it’s the only place people can go,” Civetta said. “Sometimes, there are 40, 80, 100 people out there.”

    Civetta said she wouldn’t have enough staff to patrol the area adequately. Even before Covid-19, the constable had planned to petition the town for a budget increase for the shellfishing dept. to hire an extra person to patrol the Indian Neck flats.

    With no ability to increase the budget until the delayed annual town meeting, now set for Oct. 5, Civetta feels she can’t properly check for permits and keep people safe on the flats.

    Resident permits for year-round recreational shellfishing are still available, which helped persuade two skeptical board members to vote for the ban.

    “Shellfishing is a recreation that puts people outside,” said board member Kathleen Bacon. “I know there is a lot of concern because of Covid-19, but this is precisely the kind of activity that we would like to see continue.”

    Board member Michael DeVasto had a similar reaction, at least initially.

    “It just seems to me there is enough space out there,” he said, “and if there is already [a shellfishing staffer] there, it seems like there is enough space for that to function.”

    Though both Bacon and DeVasto opposed the ban at first, they later voted for it after Civetta said that nonresidents can still buy year-round residential recreational permits.

    Annual permits are $210, compared to $85 for the banned seasonal permits.

    Seasonal recreational shellfisherman Amanda Grabel said she doesn’t mind the extra cost.

    “I was happy to buy the annual one, knowing that the town will be losing a lot of income,” she said.

    Grabel, who recently bought a summer home in Wellfleet, has been shellfishing on Indian Neck with her family for six years.

    Civetta hopes that the higher cost of annual permits will keep the number of people on the flats lower while allowing passionate shellfishers to do what they love.

    Last year, the department sold 114 nonresident recreational permits, and 57 resident permits.

    “Even if we cut down on the numbers a little bit, it would go a long way,” Civetta said.

    Select board member Helen Miranda Wilson supported the constable, saying, “People who come in quickly aren’t accustomed to social distancing — right now, this summer, we have to protect people. This requires staff to get up close and personal. I just don’t want to add to their lack of protection. I’m thinking about the staff now.”

    currents

    This Week in Eastham

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Town Hall is closed to the public. Meetings are being conducted remotely. Check the town’s website, www.eastham-ma.gov, for information on meeting schedule changes and how to view and take part remotely.

    Thursday, April 9

    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m. The meeting will be conducted remotely, with a recording and minutes posted on the Nauset website and town website afterward. To attend remotely, go to Zoom Meetings and enter ID 116 337 791. The password is 010311. To telephone in, call 1-646-558-8656.

    Monday, April 13

    • Select Board (tentative), 5:30 p.m.

    Tuesday, April 14

    • Conservation Commission, 8:15 a.m., 555 Old Orchard Road and on to site visits
    • Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.

    Wednesday, April 15

    • Planning Board, 5 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Pencil in June 15 for Town Meeting

    It’s not official yet, but June 15 is the target date for the rescheduled annual town meeting. “Really the only date that allows us to have the town meeting and election in June would be if we pick June 15 … and have the election June 23 or 30,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe told the select board Monday.

    Noting that “there are quite a few tendrils to town meeting,” Beebe said she’s working with Nauset Regional High School on the date and is seeking to secure electronic voting equipment. As for the election, she’s consulting with Town Clerk Cindy Nickerson “about how much early voting we could have. We could have at least two weeks of early voting by mail or drop-off ballot. That would allow people not to have to congregate on voting day.”

    Nickerson and Town Moderator Steve Cole will be invited to the select board’s Tuesday, April 21 meeting (the Monday before is Patriots’ Day) to help settle on dates for town meeting and the election.

    No Races in Town Election

    Everyone running for town offices in the annual election is unopposed. Incumbent Aimee Eckman and planning board chair Art Autorino are seeking the two select board seats. Library trustees Al Alfano and Mary Shaw and Town Clerk Cindy Nickerson drew no challengers. Judy Lindahl is seeking another term on the elementary school committee, but no one took out papers for the second seat up for election; voters will have to write in a fellow citizen. Scott Kerry is the sole candidate for moderator.

    The ballot will have four questions covering funding for new police radios and dispatch consoles; the proposed education, housing, and human services special purpose stabilization fund; and the town’s share of the Nauset Regional High School building project, as well as a petition calling on town officials to ask the governor and legislature to do more to see that spent fuel is stored safely at the closed Pilgrim nuclear power plant.

    On Monday, Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe noted that, while the state has passed legislation allowing communities to hold annual town meetings after June 30, elections must still be held by that date. “We have ballot questions reliant on people’s understanding of the issues we are going to discuss at town meeting,” she said, stressing the need to have town meeting before the ballot vote.

    Two Looks for Town Budget

    The select board voted Monday to recommend most of the articles on the annual town meeting warrant but held off on a few at the request of Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe. One of the latter is the town’s operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

    The current number, $31,310,410, “is what I’m calling the ‘A’ budget,” Beebe said. “I have developed a ‘B’ budget that cuts about $400,000 based on reductions in revenue… We most likely will see drastic reductions in some of our revenues and have to make decisions… I don’t want you to vote [now].”

    New Finance Director

    Wellfleet native Rich Bienvenue, the Yarmouth’s municipal operations director, will be coming back to this neck of the Cape as Eastham’s finance director and assistant town administrator. Citing his “fantastic credentials,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe told the select board Bienvenue, a C.P.A., worked for many years as an auditor specializing in municipalities.

    “Rich spent the last two years figuring out ways to pay for all the wastewater needs of the town of Yarmouth, over $300 million, without raising the tax rate, which most of us in the business thought was totally impossible,” Beebe said. “Rich managed to pull it off.”

    “I don’t think we can go wrong,” Select Board Chair Aimee Eckman said, “having a finance director named Rich.”

    More Time for Shellfishermen

    Commercial shellfish and aquaculture permit holders will have until July 31, rather than April 30, to submit applications for this year’s season. Shellfish Constable Nicole Paine requested the change “due to the current market disruption and hardships brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic,” and the select board agreed unanimously.

    Honk for First Responders

    The men and women of the fire and police departments won’t have to toot their own horns this Friday night. The community will do it for them.

    The Eastham Elementary School Parents Group is inviting everyone to drive by the stations on Route 6 between 6:30 and 7 p.m. on April 10 to express appreciation for the town’s first responders in this trying time. Horn beeps, waves, posters, and flags are encouraged.

    Parents group president Ashley Vasques Foster said she saw a posting from a Provincetown firefighter who “thanked people who drove by their station and beeped. They were so appreciative. I said, ‘Let’s make this possible for Eastham.’ ”

    A celebration of the public safety officers’ dedication that also respected the need for social distancing made sense to the board, including a member whose husband is a firefighter. Foster wrote to both chiefs who, she said, “showed great appreciation.” Both plan to have department members outside to wave back. —Ed Maroney

    RESILIENCE

    Local Food Producers Search for Ways to Serve and Survive

    Right now, generosity and hyperlocal service are top strategies

    By

    WELLFLEET — With restaurants closed, fishermen have lost their usual income. But the people who grow, harvest, and market Outer Cape crops from land and sea are experimenting with strategies to make things work, at least for now.

    currents

    This Week in Eastham

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Town Hall is closed to the public. The meetings listed below are still posted but may change. Check the town’s website, eastham-ma.gov, for information on meeting schedule changes and how to view and take part remotely

    Thursday, April 2

    • Zoning Board, 5 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room, Town Hall

    Monday, April 6

    • Select Board, 5:30 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room, Town Hall

    Tuesday, April 7

    • Charter Review Committee, 5:30 p.m., Small Meeting Room, Town Hall

    Wednesday, April 8

    • Capital Projects Committee, wastewater meeting, 4 p.m., Small Meeting Room, Town Hall
    • Finance Committee, 5 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room, Town Hall

    Conversation Starters

    Riding Out the Storm

    The town’s public safety officials shared the latest on the community’s response to the pandemic at the March 26 board of health meeting. Director of Health and Environment Jane Crowley praised her colleagues throughout the town as “a unit trying to fight this war together.”

    Crowley followed that with thanks “to everyone in our community for your attention, understanding, and continued commitment to social distancing. It will take everyone doing the right thing to keep those most at risk safe, those over 65, those with compromised immune systems, and those with underlying health conditions. They are our family, our friends.” The health director praised the business community, volunteers, and school nurses for stepping up.

    “All my members are healthy and all working at this time,” Fire Chief Kent Farrenkopf reported. “I have enough personal protective equipment probably for two weeks with a heavy load. We started purchasing a month and a half ago, and things are starting to trickle in.”

    The fire station has locked its doors to keep the staff healthy. There’s an emergency phone at the front foyer which can be used to summon help. In another change affecting ambulance calls, one firefighter in full protective gear will enter the residence or business and assess the situation while the other responders wait. The department is conducting limited inspections, focusing on those that are time-sensitive.

    Police Chief Adam Bohannon said he’s “not had any officers with symptoms.” The front lobby of the police department is closed to all nonemergency business; if you call the department’s business line, someone will come out to speak with you. Anyone with an emergency can enter the lobby. Building renovations have been halted and firearms licensing appointments canceled. “There’s only police staff in the building,” the chief said.

    Bohannon thanked local businesses that have donated hand sanitizer and citizens who have brought in masks. He said a lot of businesses deserve credit for making changes to protect public health.

    Crowley said the building inspector is asking that houses be vacant when inspected, a policy that extends to plumbing and electrical inspections. The health director got approval from the board to suspend the rental inspection program and the requirement for water inspection for the time being.

    “Everybody has a part to play,” Crowley said. “If you’re in the high-risk category, please isolate yourself. Have others help you. Safe-distance yourself if you have to go out. Wash your hands. Think it through. With time, hopefully, this will pass.” 

    Condo Development Advances

    The board of health gave conditional approval last week for the septic system to serve a planned 18-unit condo development at 4615 Route 6 pending approval of a stormwater plan by the DPW and further review by the planning board and zoning board of appeals.

    Another project proposed by Coastal Companies CEO Tim Klink, a new mixed-used commercial-residential building at 4665 Route 6 with four apartments on the second floor and an accessory building out back, ran into tougher sledding. Its review was continued until April 30 to allow a site visit and a discussion with state and town officials and Klink about limitations on combining allowable septic flows on adjoining lots under common ownership.

    “We wanted to do something to benefit the environment,” Klink told the board March 26. “That’s why we wanted to transfer flow across lots. It would be a better designed septic system and development for the town of Eastham.”

    “We all know Eastham needs more housing and businesses,” health board chair Joanna Buffington said later in the meeting. “We want to support things, but also protect our groundwater and do things the right way.”

    Shellfish Grant Cleanup Deadline Extended

    John Milliken and Brendan Adams will have another year to remove unused and obsolete gear from their two-acre aquaculture site in Nauset Marsh. At the select board’s March 23 meeting, Shellfish Constable Nicole Paine asked that their license be revoked, as the shellfishermen had been given a one-year deadline in March 2019. “Very little effort has been made to get the site cleaned up,” she said.

    Speaking to the board by telephone, Adams admitted getting a reminder letter in August that he didn’t open because he was busy during lobster season. “We did go out on the grant and clean some stuff up,” he said. “We did plan on doing more of that. Unfortunately, we’ve been busy…. We planned going out in early March to harvest out quahogs. There’s nowhere to sell ’em, and now we have red tide. That’s all locked up. I don’t know if anybody will be able to sell quahogs or oysters for months.”

    Select Board Chair Aimee Eckman said she had “no desire to take anyone’s livelihood away at this point in time in world events.” She suggested a one-year extension of the deadline and urged Adams to work things out with the constable. Paine said she was happy to do that and “by no means do I want to take someone’s livelihood away. This grant needs to be cleared and started over. I want to keep the great working relationship with the Seashore and not have everything out there go to trash.” —Ed Maroney

     

     

     

     

     

     

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