At the end of a discursive three-hour Oak Bluffs selectmen’s meeting on Wednesday emotions bubbled to the surface about the role of the shellfish constable and the state of the town’s shellfish department in general.

“I think right now the shellfish department is a disgrace,” said fisherman Steve Amaral. “You go up to the town highway department building and the boats are up there, the racks are up there, the flotation devices are up there. It looks like a junk yard.”

Mr. Amaral said he has found town boats needing to be bailed out.

“It’s not our job to do that and I’m sick and tired of hearing, oh, I’m only one person, how much can I do,” he said referring to shellfish constable David Grunden. “We don’t know where the shellfish warden is. I know Mr. Coogan gets up in the morning and goes to school, everybody knows where he is for eight hours a day — we don’t know where [Mr. Grunden] is.”

Mr. Amaral also took issue with Mr. Grunden’s expanding role as the town’s natural resources officer.

“Then he goes to seminars,” he said. “That’s a pretty good job when you can go to Hawaii, go down to San Diego, go to Louisiana, go to Galveston, Tex., and now he’s planning on going up to Montreal on our dime and he’s getting paid while he’s there? It’s a disgrace.”

Commercial fisherman William Alwardt said he has tried to arrange meetings with the selectmen and personnel board for months to no avail.

“I don’t think I should be shuffled four or five months to have a meeting,” he said.

Selectman Gail Barmakian agreed.

“They’ve been ignored and neglected and it’s inexcusable for this board and I don’t know why they weren’t on the agenda for this meeting,” she said.

Mr. Alwardt also complained that the shellfish committee, which is appointed by the selectmen, has had a vacancy for over a year that remains unfilled. Shellfish committee member Mark Landers defended Mr. Grunden as “such a knowledgeable individual” but contended that he was overstretched. He pointed to the upcoming summer closure of Sengekontacket as proof of the department’s shortcomings.

“As you can see we are desperate to have a meeting to address some of these issues,” he said. “For a summer town where so many people come down to use our waters and all of a sudden it can’t be used — our department needs a lot of work.”

Town administrator Michael Dutton apologized for not scheduling the shellfish department for Tuesday’s agenda. Selectmen will hold a special meeting with the shellfish department next Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Selectmen also voted to move the time of their regular meetings from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Earlier in the meeting the board agreed to request that the Martha’s Vineyard Commission extend its public hearing on a proposed second floor expansion of the Ocean Club in downtown Oak Bluffs. Ms. Barmakian said plans for the expansion had changed since the board voted to endorse the project in October. Ms. Barmakian was the lone dissenter in that vote.

“What I’ve heard has been planned there at the public hearing at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission is very different than what was proposed here, which was a function hall,” she said. “The last I saw at the commission it was basically anything — a nightclub, a comedy club, concerts — as well as a function hall.”

Ms. Barmakian said with the change in the composition of the board the project should be reviewed by the town again. Ms. Barmakian defeated Ocean Club owner Mark Wallace for a seat on the town wastewater commission earlier this month.

Also on Tuesday selectman Kathy Burton was elected chairman of the board and Gail Barmakian vice chairman. Ms. Burton, Mr. Coogan and newcomers Walter Vail and Michael Santoro had warm words for former selectmen Ron DiOrio and Duncan Ross. Mr. Coogan saw a lesson in their defeat.

“I was reading last night one of our local newspapers the comments that were in the paper and I just thought boy, they are all over the spectrum and obviously there’s a lot of strong feelings that people have and we’re held responsible so we have to keep in mind that perception is a big thing. Because some of it’s true and some of it wasn’t.”

Mr. Dutton also updated selectmen on the progress of the clay brick bathhouse at the steamship wharf. Ms. Barmakian was impatient with the progress.

“I’m just getting a little concerned because we’re getting very close to the Steamship Authority beginning to run [its summer schedule in and out of Oak Bluffs],” said Ms. Barmakian. “It looks awful, too.”

Mr. Dutton said plumbing and electrical work on the interior of the building was nearly completed but that work on the outside had been delayed by NStar.

“At this point we’re just going to work around NStar and not be held up by them at all,” he said. “The SSA is fine with the project as it’s been going along. They’re on schedule as of right now. I was in there two hours ago and I can tell you it’s cleaner than it’s been in 20 years.”

Ms. Barmakian also shared her concerns with the board about the inside railing at the big bridge on State Beach, a popular spot for diving and jumping. During the bridge’s final leg of reconstruction this winter contractors replaced the formerly shoulder-high wooden inner fence with a knee-high metal railing.

Mr. Dutton said he would look into the issue but cautioned, “[Dukes County manager Russell Smith] got nowhere last year trying to convince the state to redesign [the inside fence].”

Also on Tuesday, after some discussion about safety and precedent the selectmen approved a bottled water stand to be hosted by Boy Scouts at the blinker on Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend,

Selectmen also approved the seventh annual Martha’s Vineyard Goes Pink Breast Cancer Walk on Saturday, May 7, the 23rd annual Sullivan Run/Walk on August 27 and the second annual Little League Parade on Circuit avenue on April 30.

Selectmen also approved a new business, the Sweet Spot, which will take over the business formerly known as the Little Dipper at the dockside building on the harbor. The Sweet Spot will sell ice cream like its predecessor.