Oyster farmer Greg Martino quickly won the Tisbury select board’s approval for a one-acre shellfish farm in Lagoon Pond this week, bringing to three the number of aquaculture licenses in town.
Mr. Martino’s plan to grow oysters and bay scallops on the site near the shellfish hatchery was endorsed by harbor master John Crocker, shellfish constable Danielle Ewart and fellow aquaculturist Jeffrey Canha, one of the first two Lagoon Pond oyster farmers to receive licenses from the town earlier this year.
“I’m in 100 per cent support of the project. I think it’s fantastic,” Mr. Canha said. “We [three oyster farms] should be pumping and filtering upwards of 20 million gallons of water a day in the Lagoon in a couple of years,” Mr. Canha added. “Oysters are aquatic engineers.”
Mr. Martino and his brother Dan are co-founders of Martino’s Seafood, which operates the Cottage City Oysters farm in Vineyard Sound outside the Lagoon in Oak Bluffs. The new license also is in the name of Martino’s Seafood.
Among other business Wednesday, select board members heard a presentation from town building inspector Ross Seavey on revenues from registering and inspecting short-term rentals.
So far, 136 short-term rental units have been registered with the town, bringing in a total of $15,640 in fees designated for the town’s infrastructure fund, Mr. Seavey said.
Another $10,200 in inspection fees, which are $75 a visit, went to the Tisbury general fund, he said.
Host Compliance, the outside firm contracted to find and notify unregistered short-term rental hosts of their obligations to the town, has identified a total of 221 short-term rentals in Tisbury, while the state has a list of 356, Mr. Seavey said.
“Clearly, they’re missing units,” he said of Host Compliance, which charges the town $19,800 a year.
The board agreed with Mr. Seavey’s recommendation to drop Host Compliance at the end of its contract in February and have the town follow up on the state’s list of properties, continuing to mail notices to property owners.
Inspections to date have turned up some recurring problems at short-term rental properties, Mr. Seavey said.
Common issues included missing or non-functioning smoke detectors, dirty dryer vents, kitchens without fire extinguishers and bedrooms in excess of what the septic system allows, he told the board.
Inspectors — Mr. Seavey and his assistant building inspector, fire chief Greg Leland and his deputy chief — have also identified at least four illegal apartments and are working with the owners to either remove or legalize them, Mr. Seavey said.
“We’re getting onto some of these places that have been flying under the radar and avoiding the legal ways to make apartments,” he said.
Mr. Seavey also said his department plans to inspect short-term rentals every other year, instead of annually.
Updated wastewater discharge regulations will take effect with the board’s approval of changes recommended by wastewater superintendent Jared Meader.
The revised regulations specify in detail what can’t be discharged into the wastewater collection system, and also give Mr. Meader the power to enforce the rules.
Some restaurants in town still lack grease traps, Mr. Meader told the board, but there are enough alternative technologies now available to them — such as a chiller, now in use at Noman’s in Oak Bluffs, that renders grease solid enough to dispose of in the garbage — that he felt comfortable stiffening the regulations.
Also Wednesday, the board set a price ceiling of $75 on its new collectable coins commemorating the town’s 350th anniversary. Sales of the coins will benefit the school building project.
A limited edition of 350 coins were created, assistant town administrator Alexandra BenDavid said, at a cost of $12.26 each.
The coin will be available through a network of local merchants in the Vineyard Haven Business Association and the Vineyard Haven Harbor cultural district, town administrator Jay Grande said.
The board appointed seven members to the town’s new climate committee and agreed to expand the committee to nine members at the next meeting.
Mr. Crocker presented a preliminary drawing of a proposed replacement for the Owen Park dock. The draft varies only slightly from the current T-shaped design, widening the main pier to a consistent 10 feet throughout its length and adding a dock attendant’s shack at the T.
Ms. Ewart announced the town’s scallop season dates, with a caveat.
“It’s not going to be a good year for scalloping, unfortunately,” she said.
Recreational scalloping outside the ponds and in Vineyard Haven Harbor opens Nov. 6, inside Lagoon Pond Nov. 13-14 and in Lake Tashmoo Nov. 20.
The ultra-short season in the lagoon is a nod to tradition, Ms. Ewart said. “We’re not seeing a lot [of scallops there].”
The commercial season opens Nov. 8 outside the ponds and in the harbor, Dec. 6 in Tashmoo.
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