The West Tisbury Mill Pond is a biological treasure. To remove the dam would be a biological disaster.
Town dredging needs, including the possibility of a lease or purchase of a dredge, and needed repairs to the dock at Owen Park topped the discussion at the Tisbury selectmen’s meeting Tuesday.
Selectmen heard a presentation from Steve Miller of Ellicott Dredge in Baltimore, Md. Mr. Miller gave estimates for purchasing or leasing a dredge, including operation, maintenance and fuel costs. To buy would cost about $500,000, and to lease would cost $30,000 a month.
Dredging is nearly complete at the Joseph Sylvia State Beach. For much of the fall, the Edgartown dredge has been pumping sand out of Sengekontacket, deepening a channel on the Oak Bluffs side, with the spoils trucked to Cow Bay for beach nourishment.
Norman Rankow, chairman of the dredge committee, said last week that the work in the area is winding down. The dredge will be removed from the pond probably by mid-January.
In what conservation commission leaders are calling the worst violation they have seen in decades, a West Chop homeowner has been cited for dredging a pond and filling a wetland without permission.
The property is owned by Mary Howell of Arlingon, Va., and Vineyard Haven.
Last April Oak Bluffs voters approved borrowing $500,000 to pay for a dredging project in Sengekontacket Pond, but this week town administrator Michael Dutton said the town is having difficulty keeping the long-stalled project under budget.
The Army Corps of Engineers will dredge a 10-foot channel in the Oak Bluffs harbor in the coming weeks, to improve navigation and provide safe access for boats entering the marina.
There was a 30-day public comment period on the plan nearly six years ago. No comments were received.
This week the Corps released updated details about the project. While the project approved six years ago called for 5,800 cubic yards of sand to be removed, the amount has now been reduced to 3,500 cubic yards, as the town conducted an emergency dredge of the harbor in 2006.