Meetings are held remotely. From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda. That document will provide information about how to view and take part remotely.

Thursday, Dec. 17

• Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m.
• Local Housing Partnership, 4 p.m.
• Nauset Regional School Committee Negotiations Subcommittee, 4 p.m. 

Friday, Dec. 18

• Affordable Housing Trust, 4 p.m.

Conversation Starters

Covid-19 Update

According to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health’s weekly Covid-19 report, as of Dec. 8, Wellfleet had six active cases of Covid-19, 13 cases considered recovered, and one death from the virus.

Dredge Report

At the Wellfleet Dredging Task Force’s Dec. 14 biweekly meeting, assistant harbormaster William Sullivan confirmed that the town’s “piggyback” dredging operation had begun in earnest that same day.

“We’re off to the races,” co-chair Christopher Allgeier told the members, assembled over Zoom.

The Army Corps of Engineers (contracting to Quincy-based Cashman Dredging) has spent the last two and a half months dredging Wellfleet’s federal channel, which cuts through state- and town-owned portions of the harbor. Without the channel’s dredging, equipment the town needed to dredge its slices of the harbor could not even enter it. Now, though, no accessibility barrier exists.

Sullivan told the task force that Cashman (which is still handling the dredging operation, though now on a municipal level) had installed a silt fence earlier that day; that the barge, tugboat, and pushboat were in place; and that “all crews are out there, continually digging.”

Cashman has until Dec. 31, the Army Corps of Engineers’ absolute cutoff point, to dredge as much of Area I (from the harbormaster’s area, around the pier in the back, including all of the boatslips) as it can. On Oct. 1, 2021, crews will pick up where they left off, with the goal of completing Area I by the end of the year. Oct. 1, 2022 will ideally see the beginning of the dredging of Area II, the mooring field. —Josephine de La Bruyère 

Wanted: Committee Members

It has been a year since Wellfleet posted on the town website that the Commission on Disabilities is seeking to increase its membership. As of its Dec. 11 meeting, the commission had only two members instead of the required seven.

A warrant article proposal to amend the town of Wellfleet charter to bring membership down to five will be introduced at the next town meeting. Meanwhile, since there is no quorum, members can only discuss what they have worked on individually. According to the Mass. Office on Disability, commissions on disabilities “advise and assist local officials on federal and state disability laws.”

The current ADA coordinator and staff liaison to the commission, Courtney Butler, will soon be departing from her position with the town. “I have a lot of hope and good feelings about this commission,” said Butler. Anyone wishing to join it should fill out an application on the town website.

—Tessera Knowles-Thompson