Will Rogers said if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

So it was for officials in Oak Bluffs, who tried for six months to move forward with a plan to dredge Sengekontacket Pond to improve its tidal circulation and reduce bacteria levels that previously forced the state to close the pond to shellfishing during the summer months.

But after numerous delays and problems with permitting — including the discovery of an artifact believed to be part of an old Wampanoag fishing weir, which put the dredging on hold — town officials in December announced they were postponing the project until next fall. They stopped digging.

Then, after some eleventh-hour deal-making this week, the dig was back on.

With the help of Dukes County manager Russell Smith, town officials were able to broker a scaled-down version of the dredge project, allowing approximately 3,000 cubic yards of sand to be dug out of the channel under the Little Bridge on the Oak Bluffs side of Sengekontacket. That sand was then used to renourish several sand-starved areas of State Beach.

Work began last Monday and was completed on Tuesday of this week.

Technically speaking, this project has nothing to do with the other dredge plan to harvest some 57,000 cubic yards of sand from a channel between the Big Bridge and Little Bridge. That project is being driven by a joint committee of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown officials, and it requires approval from several state and federal agencies.

It also will cost a great deal more; at last April’s annual town meeting voters authorized the town to borrow $500,000 to fund it.

The dredge project completed this week moved less sand and cost about $15,000. It was allowed under a routine maintenance dredge permit the town already had.

Mr. Smith moved on the dredging idea when he saw the channel under the bridge had practically filled in this winter and was no longer providing the tidal circulation required to flush out bacteria from the pond.

He contacted Oak Bluffs highway superintendent Richard Combra, who talked to officials from MIG Corporation, the Acton-based contractor hired by the state to replace the Little and Big Bridges along Joseph Sylvia State Beach. Mr. Combra said the two sides struck an agreement: MIG would dredge the channel and in exchange the town would allow the company to store some equipment at the town highway garage for free.

The town also hired Island contractor Russell Rogers to perform additional excavation and regrade parts of the beach. The final piece was to hire West Tisbury-based John Keene Excavation to transport the sand over the beaches.

The sand was placed behind several jetties along State Beach, where erosion has depleted the overall size of the beach, with the additional benefit of more beach areas for visitors this summer.

The dredging came as the state Division of Marine Fisheries last week announced the pond would be open for shellfishing this summer for the first time since 2007.

Mr. Combra said of this dredge project, “It shows what you can accomplish if people agree to work together for the greater good. This was a good thing for our beaches and for [Sengekontacket Pond].”

Mr. Smith agreed. “We had to get three different companies involved, and get a lot of town officials on board — but everyone wanted this to happen. [The channel] was almost closed up just a few weeks ago . . . now it’s dredged a good four or five feet. It makes a huge difference for the overall health of Sengekontacket,” he said.

Mr. Smith said Island officials had to act quickly: work had to be finished by April 1, the first day of the nesting period for piping plovers, when restrictions go into effect for access to many Island beaches.

“We had to get this done before the plovers arrived . . . it looks like we got it done just in time for the birds,” he said.