WELLFLEET — A group of town residents has been working for the last year to bring Wi-Fi to three beaches on Wellfleet’s backshore. And it looks as if beachgoers may have internet access there as early as this summer.

Public safety is the goal, according to a presentation by the cable internet and cellular service advisory committee at the select board’s April 2 meeting.

The group’s plan is to extend the town’s municipal fiber optic network to Cahoon Hollow, White Crest, and Lecount Hollow beaches. With a $200,000 state grant secured, the project needs only the approval of town meeting for an additional $55,000 from free cash to break ground.

The committee, made up of Josh Yeston, Steven Kopits, Heather Doyle, and Larry Marschal, was reconstituted in March 2023 to spearhead this project, said Yeston, the chair.

The lack of reliable cell phone service on Wellfleet’s backshore has been on the minds of public safety personnel since Arthur Medici died in a shark attack off Newcomb Hollow Beach in 2018, according to Yeston. The dunes “cast a shadow” over the beaches, which stops cell reception from getting to the shoreline, Yeston said. “Cellular networks fall off a cliff, literally,” he said.

When Medici was wounded, someone had to run up to the parking lot to reach 911, said Police Chief Keven LaRocco, who was on duty that day. “We got numerous hangups, and when a cell phone hangs up it doesn’t pinpoint the location of the call,” he said.

As a year-round surfer, Andy Jacob said he is aware of the dangers of the ocean beaches. “I personally have had encounters with great whites in the water,” he said. “It is always on my mind.” But Jacob pointed out that after 2018 the town installed emergency call boxes at four beaches that automatically call 911 when they are picked up.

Yeston argued that the time it takes to get to the phone boxes at the top of the dunes can be a matter of life or death. “If something happens at the shoreline, it becomes challenging to reach those boxes,” he said. “It can be pretty consequential when time is of the essence.”

LaRocco said that the police department’s radio communications do not reach the beach. Typically, when an officer is on the beach, another must stand at the top of the dune, functioning like a radio repeater to reach dispatch. “My biggest concern are the radios,” LaRocco said.

Radio repeaters, however, are “currently not in scope,” Yeston said. But he told the Independent he hopes to secure future funding to add the repeaters in the coming years.

At the April 2 select board meeting, Yeston explained that Wi-Fi units will be installed on 35-foot poles at the edge of the parking lots and will reach between 500 to 1,000 feet in a 180-degree arc across the beach. Wi-Fi access will also cover the parking lots. The routers will be connected to fiber optic cables, which will run along a four-mile route from Lecount Hollow, down Ocean View Drive, and along Long Pond Road before hooking up to the fire dept.

The fiber optic cable will be an extension of the intermunicipal network that the town currently operates in its buildings, so private homes along the route — which from the power lines to Ocean View Drive are still not served by cable — will not be able to connect to Wellfleet’s network, Yeston told the Independent.

Newcomb Hollow Beach, where Medici died, will not be serviced because of a two-mile gap in utility poles along Ocean View Drive from Long Pond Road to Newcomb, said Yeston. Extending fiber optic cables to Newcomb would double the cost of the project, he said. But the committee hopes to apply for grants next year to reach Newcomb, Yeston told the select board.

The committee plans to put out an invitation to bid in the coming weeks for a contractor to install the network. The contractor will need approval from the conservation commission because the poles will be installed within 100 feet of the coastal bank, Yeston said.

Yeston is aiming for the project to be completed by mid-June, but added, “I will consider it a success if we are fully operational by August.”

The timeline may also be affected by whether the National Seashore, where much of the cable route will be located, becomes involved. Based on conversations with town administration, Yeston said, “We don’t believe we need any special permits from the park.” He added that the town has not yet reached out to the Seashore regarding the project.

“Our beaches are one of the last sacred spaces in town where there is no Wi-Fi or service,” said Jacob. There, he said, “everyone is present. It’s a beautiful thing in this modern age.”

Trips to Lecount Hollow are a ritual for Jacob. If he needs to text someone, he says, he does that from the parking lot at PB Boulangerie. After that, he said, “If you don’t hear from me, I’m surfing.”

Yeston said he is not worried about the internet being used for recreational purposes at the beaches. “For the most part, I think that people are going to be enjoying the beaches as they are meant to be enjoyed,” he told the select board.

Wellfleet is the first town on Cape Cod to bring Wi-Fi to its beaches, Yeston said. “This project is a tremendous opportunity for the town of Wellfleet to lead the region in deploying cutting edge technology to make all of our residents and visitors as safe as possible,” he said.