Reacting to an April 7 letter from the federal agency, selectmen sounded off about the decision to dredge Menemsha channel despite the town’s objections. “I’m not surprised but I am ticked off,” said selectman Jonathan Mayhew.

A spirit of cooperation traditionally prevails in the neighboring towns of Aquinnah and Chilmark, but there has been disagreement lately over an Army Corps of Engineers project to dredge the Menemsha basin and channel.

Funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project comes from the $50 billion Hurricane Sandy relief bill passed in 2012. Aquinnah wants the dredging, but Chilmark does not.

This is to express my concern about the proposed project of the Army Corps of Engineers to re-dredge the existing channel.

Edgartown selectmen signed off the dredge committee’s request to rent an excavator and move about 1,400 cubic yards of sand. The sand needed to be dredged as soon as possible because Edgartown Great Pond has a dredging deadline of April 1.

Work to deepen the channels at the entrance to Lake Tashmoo and at the west entrance to Vineyard Haven harbor wrapped up earlier this month. Sand was placed at the public beach in Tashmoo as well as the public beaches at Grove avenue and Owen Little Way.

The Edgartown dredge has been called in to help remove a large delta of sand that was Hurricane Sandy's legacy to the Great Pond last year.

On Thursday, Sept. 26, the Tisbury Waterways, Inc. will hold its annual meeting at 5 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre. The meeting will include a presentation on inshore dredging projects and what to do with the collected spoils. The program is a joint effort by the Tisbury Waterways Inc. and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Dredging in Vineyard Haven harbor will be postponed until after Labor Day due to broken equipment. The project was scheduled to begin last week and be completed before July. Tisbury town administrator John (Jay) Grande reported at Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting that the contractor, Barnstable County, had to repair their dredge, causing work to be pushed back.

“It certainly comes as a big bombshell to everyone to learn five days before they were supposed to start that the dredge won’t be operating,” dredge committee member Nevin Sayre said.

The town of Tisbury will be able to start one of its planned dredging projects ahead of schedule. Dredging on the small harbor entrance will begin June 1.
The projects, approved at town meeting earlier this month, were not scheduled to begin until after fiscal year 2014 began on July 1.
Voters approved a $500,000 borrowing item at the April 9 annual town meeting to approve the dredging of the harbor and Lake Tashmoo. Town treasurer Tim McLean said the town will borrow $260,000 at this time to dredge the harbor, the more pressing of the two projects.