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. 10

• Natural Resources Advisory Board, 8:45 a.m.
• Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.
• Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m. 

Friday, Dec. 11

• Select Board, with executive session, 10 a.m.
• Commission on Disabilities, 3:15 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 14

• Dredging Task Force, 7 p.m.
• Energy and Climate Action Committee, 7 p.m. 

Tuesday, Dec. 15

• Emergency Management Team Covid-19 community update, 10 a.m.
• Barnstable County HOME Consortium, 3 p.m. 

Wednesday, Dec. 16

• COA Advisory Board, 11 a.m.
• Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, 4:30 p.m.
• Planning Board, 7 p.m. 

Thursday, Dec. 17

• Cable Advisory Committee, 10 a.m.
• Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m.
• Housing Partnership, 4 p.m.

 Conversation Starters

Covid-19 Update

According to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health’s weekly Covid-19 report, as of Dec. 3, Wellfleet had six active cases of Covid-19, 11 cases considered recovered, and one death from the virus.

Recycling

Wellfleet will return to dual-stream recycling on Jan. 15, reported transfer station foreman Mike Cicale at the last recycling committee meeting.

Social distancing measures at the transfer station will remain in place. Glass will once again be separated out and processed into aggregate in Dennis. Going back to dual stream will save the town a lot of money, said Cicale, and be more effective for recycling.

Cicale also reported that the use of pay-as-you-throw purple bags will be revisited by the board of health in March. There remain concerns about the added financial burden on residents and “making people go to the store just to purchase the bags,” he said.

—Tessera Knowles-Thompson 

Turtles

Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary volunteers rescued 87 cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtles last Sunday, on what marketing and communications director Jenette Kerr called the busiest day the Sanctuary has had so far this season.

Averaging 100 pounds and about two feet long, Kemp’s ridleys are the world’s smallest marine turtle. That makes them adorable, but delicate, too — frigid temperatures in the bay cause them to become hypothermic until they lose the ability to control their muscles and move with the rhythms of the tide.

Some of the Kemp’s ridleys are receiving medical treatment at the New England Aquarium, and others at Buzzards Bay’s National Marine Life Center.

Also hot in turtle news was the Tuesday washing-up of Wellfleet’s first cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle, a juvenile that weighed in at just 45 pounds — tiny compared to the 350-pound mature loggerhead, the Big Cc, that washed ashore in Truro and died in the New England Aquarium’s turtle ward last week.

The juvenile loggerhead’s cold stunning denotes “a new phase this season,” said Kerr. “Now we’re going to expect those larger turtles to start coming in.”

Truro leads this year’s cold-stunned turtle count, with 192. Eastham has recorded 160; Wellfleet 129; Provincetown, only 40.

Shellfish

The Woods Hole Sea Grant program doled out $10,000 in Covid-19 relief money to Wellfleet’s shellfish dept., matching the $10,000 allocated for propagation activities at town meeting.

Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta put that $20,000 to use on Tuesday, Dec. 8, buying 1,111 overstock oysters each from 40 shellfish farmers at 45 cents apiece. Each farmer walked away with a $500 check.

“Shellfish farmers have really been affected, because there’s just such a decrease in restaurant sales,” Civetta said. That includes markets near and far, she noted, “not only in Massachusetts, but in New York City, Las Vegas, everywhere. Oyster sales are way down.”

The bought oysters will be distributed in recreational-only harvest areas, which have seen more activity than usual as the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched on. While Civetta hasn’t seen an increase in requests for permits, she said that, across the board, people are using their permits more.

“It’s good exercise, you can social distance, it’s outdoors, and you’ll bring home food for your table,” she said. “The appeal’s all there right now.”

—Josephine de La Bruyère