After nearly 18 months of struggles and setbacks, the town of Oak Bluffs this week received final approval from the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge Sengekontacket Pond, in a project that many view as vital to protecting the health of the pond.

“Feast your eyes on this document,” declared Oak Bluffs selectman Duncan Ross on Tuesday night, holding a stack of papers over his head. “It is finally here. This is the permit to dredge Sengekontacket.”

The project, which has been plagued by delays and government snafus, will dredge a channel between Big Bridge and Little Bridge along State Beach.

Mr. Ross is also chairman of a joint Edgartown and Oak Bluffs committee charged with protecting the fragile coastal pond. His announcement came at the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday.

The $500,000 dredging project was approved by voters at the 2009 annual town meeting. The original plan was to complete the dredging this past winter.

But following the discovery of an artifact believed to be part of an old Wampanoag fishing weir, town officials in December announced they were postponing the project until next fall. The artifact was discovered during a dredging project on the Edgartown side of the pond.

Members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) stepped in to register their concerns that additional dredging could damage or destroy other historical artifacts, and the town agreed to perform an archeological survey at a cost of $27,000.

The pond has been closed to shellfishing for the last three summers due to high bacteria levels recorded three years ago during state testing. The closure was lifted by the Division of Marine Fisheries this year.

Selectmen also reported this week that the cost of the dredging project has gone up, and is now estimated at closer to $750,000.

But that did little to dampen the enthusiasm at the meeting, as Mr. Ross read victoriously from the first page of the lengthy permit.

The permit will allow the town to dredge 57,000 cubic yards from a channel between Big Bridge and Little Bridge, and use the spoils to replenish three areas at Pay Beach, Inkwell Beach and State Beach. The permit will also allow the town to maintain the new channel for 10 years.

Mr. Ross said the two-town pond committee met last Friday and learned through Edgartown shellfish constable Paul Bagnall that the Edgartown dredge committee is prepared to offer the town a fair price to perform the work. “Paul hopes he can get them to give us a bid that is lower than what they are charging Cow Bay,” Mr. Ross said.

The Cow Bay Homeowners Association has been a partner in the dredging work on the Edartown side of the pond, paying to buy the spoils to replenish the privately-owned Cow Bay beach fronting Nantucket Sound.

Mr. Ross said the town is still working to obtain a final permit to allow dredged sand to be placed below the high water mark on town beaches. Without a permit, the town may have a new dilemma: where to put all the sand.

“If we dredge now and have this sand, and we have nowhere to put it, we could sell to someone like Cow Bay,” he said, adding: “But then we might get the permit, and have no sand — and then we have to buy sand. I must say that since the pond will be open this summer, I don’t feel we absolutely have to dredge this September, unless we find the pond isn’t going to stay open.

“If we can get through the summer with it staying open, then we can wait and see what happens.”

But Bill Alwardt, a well-known shellfisherman who circulated a petition last year to place the $500,000 dredging request on the town meeting warrant, bristled at the suggestion that the project may be delayed. “I was under the impression that it was going to happen in September; now you’re talking about putting it off?” he said.

“I am saying that we are considering it,” answered Mr. Ross. “We’re not saying we are definitely going to do it. I just explained why, the pond is going to be open [this summer],” he added.

“So what. There is still pollution going into it. The whole idea is to flush that pond out,” Mr. Alwardt shot back. “So why drag our feet on this. I want to see this done this year . . . the cost of this is going to go up, not down. Fuel prices are going up, manpower is going up, the cost of [leasing] the dredge will go up. Putting things off is never good.”

Selectman Gregory Coogan said the town has some time to make a final decision, since all the funding is not in place.

“The biggest issue is the $500,000 might not do it. It’s a nice number, but it might not be enough. So we might have to sell some of the sand just to pay for [the dredging], which in that case means we put off the beach nourishment. I understand that you are trying to find what works best for everyone at the same time . . . and it’s not easy,” Mr. Coogan said.

Mr. Ross said the town may apply for a state grant, or perhaps Community Preservation Act funding to complete the project.

Lynn Fraker, a consultant for the joint pond committee who helped secure the permit, said that while there are still decisions to be made, the hard part is over.

“We have the permit, finally, and that’s the big thing. A lot of hard work went into this, and we have the permit to carve out a channel to flush out the pond . . . that is the big thing. Hopefully everything else will fall into place,” she said.