The Massachusetts Seaport Council grant in the amount of six hundred and eighty thousand dollars awarded to Tisbury last week is much deserved and will be money well spent for an important purpose: maintaining public access to the waterfront. The award was the second highest award in a five million dollar package of grant monies for vital marine infrastrcture improvement projects across the commonwealth. Only New Bedford got more money than Tisbury (a million dollars went to the Whaling City for improvements on its own deep water harbor and waterfront).

In Tisbury, the money will be used to overhaul the Lake street landing, a modest facility that includes a public pier, bulkhead and launch ramp. It provides the sole public access on Lake Tashmoo, one of the town’s natural resource jewels.

The landing is used by commercial fishermen, sailors and recreational boaters, and family shellfishermen, to name a few. The town has been spending money at a steady clip in recent years for repairs, but the landing needs a complete overhaul. Credit harbor master John Crocker with making the case to the Seaport Council in a grant application that he wrote with assistance from shellfish constable Danielle Ewart.

Vineyard Haven has long been the main ferry port for the Island and has a rich maritime heritage, including and perhaps especially as a working waterfront community. The boat yards, marine stores and commercial wharves that handle barged goods and tugboats are a familiar presence stretching along Beach Road and the harbor.

Vineyard Haven sometimes gets a bad rap, in part because its waterfront is not manicured and gentrified, but in fact this is integral to its character and part of its charm. Edgartown has its white whaling captains’ houses, Oak Bluffs has its colorful gingerbread cottages, and Vineyard Haven has its eclectic, rugged working waterfront. This is the place where wooden boats are still built by hand using traditional methods at Gannon and Benjamin, graceful schooners, yawls and ketches make their home in the harbor and Steamship Authority ferries sound their horns as they glide in and out of port. As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Meanwhile, tucked at the end of a residential street, the Lake street landing is a hidden gem which provides access to Tashmoo, the tranquil saltwater lake fed by freshwater springs that empties into the Vineyard Sound.

Tashmoo has a history of human habitation that dates back for five thousand years, when native Americans made camps along its shores.

The Seaport Council singled out the Lake street for special recognition not only as a public facility vital to maritime interests, but also as a facility threatened by sea level rise.

“Without replacement, public access to the landing will likely be curtailed,” the council said.

Congratulations to Tisbury.