The Oak Bluffs selectmen and town shellfish department vowed to work more closely this week after years of what the department has called neglect by the town.

Booked as a special workshop between the two town boards, Wednesday’s discussion ranged from understaffing on the waterfront to shellfish constable David Grunden’s expanding role in a variety of research areas not spelled out in his job description.

Last April Oak Bluffs cut its full-time shellfish deputy position to a part-time position following the departure of deputy constable Danielle Ewart, who took the job as Tisbury shellfish constable.

“From then until July 1 I didn’t have anybody,” said Mr. Grunden. “I foolishly tried to keep everything going as much as I could and put in a ton of uncompensated extra hours. It seems to me in a lot of circles that was unappreciated. It certainly took a toll on me personally and on my family life. Although I’m in a similar situation now, I’m not going to put those hours in.”

In recent weeks Mr. Grunden has lost a part-time deputy shellfish constable who was hired in August.

“I went on vacation and I left a long list of things that needed to be done and none of it was done, so now I’m way behind in getting gear ready to be put out,” he said. “I saw him one day when I got back to work and told him I was disappointed. He worked that day and I haven’t seen him since.”

The town is currently advertising for the part-time position, and Mr. Grunden said he hopes to have a new person on the job by Memorial Day.

Mr. Grunden described the way his job has grown over the years beyond simple enforcement, propagation and maintenance to include a variety of research and monitoring roles. As one example, he has worked with the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the state to carry out Massachusetts Estuaries Project studies for Farm Pond, Lagoon Pond and Sengekontacket, with studies on Sunset Lake and the Oak Bluffs harbor in the works.

“The ponds are in trouble,” Mr. Grunden said. “The biggest problem we have is nutrient loading. We need [monitoring] numbers to know what we have to do. We’re the first town on the Island and we’ll be one of the first towns in the state to have all of our ponds done.”

He also said a recent pilot project to raise winter flounder in Island ponds had proven unexpectedly time-consuming, after he had been asked to assist in taking samples of Lagoon Pond.

“I said yes. I wasn’t expecting to do it all by myself,” he said.

Shellfish committee member Mark Landers, who was unaware of the departure of the part-time deputy, said that while Mr. Grunden had been stretched thin, basic waterfront duties have been neglected.

“A lot of the complaints of the fishermen are basic: working boats, moving seed,” Mr. Landers said. “That’s where the knowledgeable deputy was so helpful. While our constable was doing other things in the office somebody could be on the pond, working on the propagation, the starfish predation, the boats and the maintenance. By the time you do all of these basic things, it’s a full day,” he added.

“You do wonderful stuff, David, but when you have limited resources you have to pick and choose,” said selectman Gail Barmakian.

Mr. Landers said the town should start by restoring the deputy shellfish constable position.

“I don’t know why the waters in this town are neglected and not looked on as a major priority,” he said. “This one department out of all the departments in town should not be cut because the water benefits everyone. Oak Bluffs looks good, the town looks good, the parks look wonderful but in the ponds you can only fish in the middle of the winter,” he said.

Mr. Grunden outlined how falling town support had hurt his department. The town, which pays $30,000 each year to the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group in return for more than two million quahaug and bay scallop seed, is poised to receive half that amount this year if a Proposition 2 1/2 override to restore $15,000 in cuts to the shellfish department is not approved in a special town election set for May 26. And Mr. Grunden said the shellfish department nursery-raised over 600,000 seed steamer clams purchased from Salem State at a rate of $4 per thousand. He said he was so understaffed last year that he had to rely on the volunteer work of the Friends of Sengekontacket to care for the baby clams in the town’s upweller.

As for the ponds themselves, Mr. Grunden said a microbial source identification study funded by the Friends of Sengekontacket has implicated birds, especially cormorants and Canada geese in the high bacterial count that has closed Sengekontacket Pond to shellfishing again this summer. He has obtained a permit and begun work sterilizing geese eggs, but cormorants are protected.

In a letter to selectmen, commercial fisherman Bill Alwardt suggested Mr. Grunden keep an hourly log of his activities. Fisherman Steve Amaral, said if the town wanted to carry out the kind of work undertaken by Mr. Grunden it should create a new position.

“He’s a shellfish constable, not a grant writer,” he said. “If you want a grant writer, hire one.”

The shellfish committee also reproached the selectmen for being out of touch. “We’ve been asking for support from the selectmen more than once ... and we’ve never heard anything back,” said committee member Fred Huss. “This is our first meeting since I’ve been on the committee.”

In the end board chairman Kathy Burton outlined priorities for the shellfish department and selectmen: hiring a part-time deputy, recruiting more volunteers, more participation by selectmen in shellfish committee affairs and appointing committee members as deputies to help Mr. Grunden with enforcement.

“Times have changed since the original founding of the position,” said selectman Greg Coogan. “[Mr. Grunden’s] job has grown and it’s a totally different position.”