Landing Commission - August 25, 2026

Welcome to the uh August 25th meeting of the Westport Landing Commission. We will begin as we typically do with a pledge of allegiance.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[sighs] going to go by the agenda. Um I item two after the pledge wanted the public to know that there are now handicap parking signs at both Hicksbridge East and Hicksbridge West. And I've actually seen tire tracks at Hicksbridge West. So, it does occasionally get used, which is good news because I mean to some extent it's overflow parking, but it's also a great spot to have a view of the river.

Welcome.

We already we pledged. Yep. Here's your stuff. Yep.

When three or more are gathered.

Uh so, anyhow, handicap parking signs are up at both places, which is good.

and uh hopefully folks will use them. Um item three, um I've been again concerned about our brand new floats should we ever get really high water in a hurricane. And I expect the highway department to put in some method of retaining the beach, the float that leans on the beach that starts people up onto the whole float system because if all of that starts to float in a hurricane, there's enormous leverage there and

wouldn't want to start losing things.

Those were expensive and we expect to use them for decades. Um, and it'll be just a a simple install.

I've already spoken to the concomments.

Otherwise, I will move on.

Hearing none. There was a concern about someone overnight parking and occasionally tent camping at the head of Westport Landing. Uh, it's been going on for a couple of years. It was one particular person and then a second. Um the resident appealed to the select board for signage and that signage has now gone up. There are three relatively discreet signs saying no overnight parking, no camping. Um and

the person has not been back there. Um they may be back somewhere else for all I know. And if people are concerned and see someone who's regularly sleeping at landings, they should let us know and we will think about what to do.

My personal feeling is that it's actually a a town regulation and while we may need to inform some, I think it is important to kind of get the message out and um so anyhow, that's at least been solved for the moment.

Is there any particular knowledge or concern people have about other landings? I I don't know if you ever even see people at Adamsville when you go home at night.

Not nobody that I thought was staying there.

There's definitely people using the river at night, the landing, right?

But I've never had any reason to think that people were actually staying there overnight.

It would be difficult to know because actually by regulation, people are allowed to park at the landing and fish at night.

So if someone was there going for eels or something, that's just fine. We just don't want them also be having their eels for breakfast over a small fire or something.

Snakes and cakes.

Um, and I know in the past there have been some issues about overnight parking at the point.

Yeah.

Does that continue and is it growing or person leave during the day or Yeah. And this would not be commercial fishermen who are allowed to park overnight because they are out in the ocean someplace.

Um well most many I think I shouldn't say most I think several people who when they have um over they have people staying at their house and they can't park in front of their house. I think sometimes they park there overnight but they don't they don't stay there not sleeping in their vehicles.

Not sleeping in their vehicles. Yeah.

That's that's our concern, right?

Yeah. I think the point is a special situation because parking is so compromised by all kinds of things that it's an important resource to make keep it available to the public somehow.

Moving on. Item five, uh, Hicksbridge landing renovation. We went before the conservation commission last week and, uh, got approved. It was um so that project will move to the next steps once we get a letter from the conservation commission. We'll start going before coastal zone management and other various boards for further approval and see how that goes and then eventually start going after grant money to build

it. Um but it was approved as it stands.

There was some concern about public safety and the reality of entering and exiting out the same piece of the same road basically. But we pointed out that um that historically has been the way it was done for the last 20 years. There was an exit up the hill, but that was just temporary while the bridge was being rebuilt. Um and this new plan would widen that road. Uh, and so the sightelines are actually better than up

the hill. Um, and certainly it means a lot less asphalt and a lot less expense because you wouldn't have to pave that exit road. So we hope that will continue to go ahead. Um, any questions about that?

Just what's coach out of curiosity?

That's coming at the end. Oh, okay.

That's something not on the agenda.

Those guys. Um, number six, file cabinets.

Anybody ever looked at our file cabinets?

Anybody else besides me know where they are?

No, I don't even know where they are.

Well, they used to be down the hall.

They may still be there. Um, I do have some concern and would like more of you to know where they are. Uh, and I am not good at keeping paper records. And so I've recently been in touch with the town clerk about what's our responsibility to keep things like agendas and minutes. And I've not been a good boy. So, I'm going to have to go look in my hard drive and

print some things. Uh, but I suppose we should be keeping it.

Well, no, this is going back five or 10 years.

Okay.

Yeah, she's she's good with paperwork.

I've noticed that already.

So um yeah. So, I will be trying to pull that together. Um, I'm not clear how important it is to make that all that stuff available on the town website or not. Um, certainly our agendas go on and, uh, I don't know, is there a general feeling in town about that that anyone's aware of?

Most people want to see the minutes on there.

You've had people ask for minutes.

Oh, yeah. On the beach committee.

Oh, really? Huh? What do you know?

Do you publish your minutes?

What's that?

Are [clears throat] are your minutes published at the end of every meeting?

Yeah. Yeah. Uh Dana has been putting them posting as we go along now, but going back 20 plus years, they're just in a file somewhere.

the end of the hall maybe with ours.

Okay. Well, that's actually a good idea.

See what we can do about that also. Um and at some point if you want to go on a field trip, we can go down the end of the hall and a lot of interesting things in those file cabinets.

Yeah.

History and all that. This is going pretty quickly. We are at past minutes meeting approval. You should have in front of you the minutes um from our last meeting. Oops. You may not have those.

No, I gave the chil June minutes.

Are these the meetings?

No, that's March.

I'm sorry. I I copied the wrong one.

[cough] Printed them. [clears throat] June 21.

Yeah, they were sent to you by email.

You got a chance to look at them, didn't you?

No, I've been um on the phone. Really?

But we'll talk about that later.

Okay. We have a paper copy here. I can share around, right? Actually, you can read my trying to make sure this is this.

Yes, this is the July one.

It says 721 on the top.

I'm sorry. This is the right one.

July.

Yeah, this is the right one.

My mistake.

I can have yours.

It looks funky. Not like yours. See, it was Oh, okay.

But it is the same.

It says July 21st and it does.

Okay.

Are there any corrections?

Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve.

[clears throat] I move that we approve the meeting. The minute it's for Westport um for the landing commission on 722 721 2026 you're going to second that second.

All in favor?

I I have to abstain. I wasn't here.

I It was a fun time our first meeting outside.

Oh god. That's right.

Now we are on to other business not anticipated at time and posting.

Gentlemen, will you come forward and identify yourselves, please?

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee.

Um, for those who don't know me, I'm Rick Smith. I'm a um deputy harbor master and shellfish constable in the town. And as you know over the past year plus we have been working on collectively and collaboratively with um the Nature Conservancy and the Department of Marine Fisheries and a whole other slew of acronyms to um bring together and hopefully regenerate the oyster fishery and the oyster beds uh

within the Westport River. um uh mission is to build um the rebuild the beds um and at the same time reap the benefit of an oyster fishery back in the river. Um not just an oyster fishery but the pluses that comes with um active living reefs including all types of crab and fin fish and whatnot within the river. This is a great project. Um we're working actually we're a partner with the Nature Conservancy

um and Dian Gulot who has been working tires tirelessly to get this project up and running. We've been through numerous boards of conservation committee. We've been to the select board a bunch of times um and we've all had approval all the way along the way. So now we're at the point where um last night within the last 24 hours, we received approval for the um NOI to be signed by the town and

make the town basically the steward of the project. Um, and having that happen within the last 24 hours, um, we figured it was time, the next step, the next logical step for us would be to come before the landing commission to talk about, um, uh, a plan to get the clean shell into the river so that we can start to put the oysters back in the river so they can throw a spat and

hopefully start to regenerate. So, that's the introduction from me. I'm going to turn it over to the expert and Dan will talk to you. um about how we anticipate and what we look hoping to get um as we move forward to get this project up and running. Um we're we're at the mechanical end of it now and and um we do have other permitting to do with the Army Corps of Engineers and

other state permits, but uh we're the NOI who was signed in the last 24 hours.

It puts us uh pretty much in that road.

So, I'll turn it over to Dan and um he can talk to you about it. Thank you.

Hi, members of the committee. Thanks for having us. Uh Dan Gulard from the Nature Conservancy. I'm a coastal project manager. Um prior to that I came from Buzzards Bay Coalition. Um where I worked on uh the Buttonwood to Bay project revitalizing Buttonwood Brook and trying to clean up a Ponagans at Bay. Um so this oyster project is is part of a broader statewide effort to restore oysters throughout the state

where we've seen a 95% decline in oyster populations over the last 150 years. Um the biggest reason behind that is overh harvest and then not having shell go back into the water. Shell is a critical piece of the oyster life cycle. Um without shell in the estuary, oyster larae have nowhere to settle. Um eventually they'll move and settle on muddy bottom and the larae will die off.

So um we do see sporadic settlement of oyster spat within the Westport River on rock and other substrate. But when you get down underwater and you do actual dive surveys, what you see mostly is that the bottom is silted over. Um, in the dive surveys we did last year, um, we actually borrowed down with a grab sampler and, um, found that there is oyster shell down below that silt where

there used to be oyster reefs. So, couple of combinations of things that cause the decline of oyster populations.

And you know, a lot like clear cutting a forest, when all the trees are gone, what happens is invasives move in and they cover the ground and then new trees will find it really difficult to come back. Um, oyster populations are similar. without us coming in and putting out shell substrate and then giving them a little helping hand by bringing some additional um breeding biomass in in the form of adult oysters

which we'll purchase from Toph and Kyrion the local oyster growers. Um and then also bringing in some juvenile oysters in the form of seed that's been attached to shell fragments will regenerate that and that'll take place over several years. So the first step in this is is getting the shell out there.

We just did this in Mashbby um in a project right off of Woyet Bay. If anyone's familiar with that area, there's a small pond called Hamblin Pond and um we just rebuilt a reef, repopulated it with oyster, and we'll be putting that juvenile seated spat out there in the fall. Um, and it was really amazing to see within one week of building the reef and putting those oysters out there how quickly that reef

was colonized by dozens of different fish and crab species. So, the the impact is immediate. And, you know, when we go out around Massachusetts and we look underwater in these estuaries today, it it really does look like a desert. Um, and oysters are this amazing keystone species that creates structural fish habitat, anchors sediments in place, so we reduce erosion, and every oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of

water per day. So, the water quality benefits are immense as we start to multiply this out. And over the course of three or four years, we are looking to put a million oysters a year back into the Westport River. Um, some of those will die or be eaten by blue crabs, that's for sure. Um, but you know, millions of oysters will survive and they will filter, you know, millions of gallons of water and make the water

cleaner. So, we're really excited, um, to be embarking on this project here.

Um, so the shell piece is probably, you know, the most labor intensive, logistically difficult piece of this whole project. Once we have shell down, bringing oysters in can be done iteratively using small skiffs and other things. So, it's really not a big impact on the community. Um, we're talking about moving roughly uh 2500 cubic yards of shell out onto these restoration sites which have

been mapped out um you know using a surveyor grade GPS and approved by MEPA and Mass D and now the conservation commission um which will require us to stage some volume of shell at the landing, understanding that the landing is an important resource for the community. We don't want to take too much of the space or make it unusable on any given day. So, our plan, as it's depicted in the image there, is

to work with Lenny Potter, um, pay him to store the bulk of the shell up off the quarry site off on the side of the dirt road and only move down every day what we plan on putting out on the sites. And our thinking right now based on what we did on our project in Fair Haven in NASA Bay and the project that's ongoing in Mashby is that we can get

roughly 250 cubic yards a day out if we have two barge uh operators working in tandem back and forth between the reefs and being loaded. So [snorts] the plan would have a,000 cubic or 1,250 cubic yards coming in the first week with 250 being advanced staged at the landing. Um that 250 cubic yards would take up roughly 200 square yards of footprint which is basically the small bump out for parking

on the south side of the landing where the portaotty is. That area would be that strip would be where Shell would be staged. And then we would have a conveyor staged along the shore south of the boat ramp. So the boat ramp would not be impeded during these operations and a bobcat would move shell from the pile to the conveyor and that conveyor would be cantalvered out over the water

so the barge could be loaded by that conveyor without having any impacts on the shoreline.

um that would allow us to get 250 cubic yards out. By the end of the day, the the landing would have no shell. And then the next morning, we would pay the potter company to bring in the next load. And then we iteratively empty the parking lot again or empty that strip of parking lot.

So, where are the shells going to go when when they're put in the water?

Where's it going to be?

So, we have six restoration sites, and we we should have brought that map with us just to to give people a better idea, but they are three sites along the eastern bank of the of the river south of Hicksbridge.

Um, where the winery property is, and then where the first bend under to Cadmin's Point is, and there's a small mooring field there. There's an elbowshaped site there. Then there's no sites around Cadman's Point. And then there's a site on the east side of Cadman's Cove, again facing the winery property. And then there's a twoacre site off each of the spectacle islands.

So, and those are set far enough off the spectacle islands that they won't impact um recreational use of the islands. Um so we selected sites the final version that was briefed to the select board was actually version nine.

So we started with an initial version, then Rick and Bill basically told us, "Yeah, no, you can't go there. you're crazy. You can't do that. We ended up doing five public meetings, including a meeting with the Cadman's Neck uh home homeowners improvement association um who provided sort of final feedback to us on, you know, the goes and no goes of where those oyster sites could go. Um so

those sites are roughly one and a half to two acres, different shapes and sizes because of the topography of the shoreline. Um that shell will come out and it'll be distributed using a water cannon to blow it off the barge within the four buoys that mark each site. And it should roughly be four to 6 in thick on the bottom. And that's really to get the oysters up off the bottom where you

have a lot of um muddy sediment that has a a slightly low oxygen layer right above it. So getting the oysters up off the bottom is bears out in a lot of peer-reviewed research to increase their survival rates. And it's sort of what we see in wild reefs where the first generation of oysters establishes and then we start to see subsequent generations establish on top of them. Um and then we see the reef start to get

more and more healthy as it gains elevation. So, um, this would be roughly two weeks, um, Monday to Friday with no work occurring on the weekend because we know that's a much busier time at the landing. Um, with maybe one or two days, um, for weather. We did get weathered out in H in in Mashp. Um, but that was because we were doing this in December when it was really rough weather and

really cold. We had a day where there was 40 mph winds and we couldn't be on the water. The reason why we're doing this in the springtime in Westport is because unlike Hamlin, which had no oysters, we were literally bringing them back in from zero, Westport has a a 2 to three acre wild population in existence right now. And if we can get the shell in right before those wild oysters spawn,

we have a really good chance of all their larae hitting our shell and actually getting a freebie. Um, you could have millions of oysters, oyster larae attach and grow out into uh juvenile oysters at really no cost because oyster seed is fairly expensive.

So, we're using grant money and some private funding that TNC has to um fund the purchase of these oysters and we're also paying uh Spin Drift and Babies oysters to grow out some of the seed for us. So, you know, the the economic benefits are almost immediate, at least for the oyster growers and for local contractors who are going to help um move the shell, distribute it with barges, including um you know, hopefully

uh Manchester.

Manchester. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, too many names in my head.

Brenda, I can see I I know what your next question is. First of all, the just so everybody knows, all of these sites are not in navigable waters. They're not anywhere near a channel. They're not anywhere where people do a lot of fishing. We did move the upper spect off a little bit into a little bit of deeper water, but it's in an area where there's not a lot of transit up there. Um, as

you know, um, and what Dan was alluding to is that uh, up around the Lakes Island area and then north of Hicksbridge, there are those historic oyster beds which we're going to use to our advantage up there.

Yeah. Now, another point that that Dan made, and I want to um try to run this home a little bit, is that in the lot um like Dan said, that lot will be cleaned every night. Um that area will be cleaned. It's only at the most. Um and that time of year, we should be able to get it done within two weeks. No weekends involved as Dian said, but our

goal is to make sure that that area is accessible every night and every day.

Yeah, we will not block the ramp at all. So, there will be free access to everybody who uses that ramp. Um, we're going to be in early spring, so there's not a real lot of traffic up there at that point in time. Yes, we know the rowers are up there and whatnot. Um, some of the early bass fishermen are up there right now. There's no there's no oystering up there. That's to be

determined later on on another project.

That's a whole different thing. Um, so our impact and our footprint there is aiming to basically benefit and keep commerce, if you will, for lack of a better term, moving up there. So that when people come to launch their boats in May and we're up there during those two weeks, we're not going to impact them at all. There's trailer room.

There's room to swing and we'll be off to the side and like Dan said and we can be in and out of there hopefully with a weather window within two weeks and get it done and then you'll never see us again. I wish.

Well, I can't say that, but I can say that.

Got a couple of questions. When you talk about shell, you're talking about uh ocean clams, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Are they broken?

No, they're mostly whole.

Okay. And um so you're going to somehow sweep the dirt every night. You said you said you're going to clean it.

We what we did in MASHB is because we used a Bobcat with a you know pretty smooth edged blade, we were able to get 99% of the shell up and then we just use a rake to rake up the final bit of shell and then the bobcat just scoops it. You know, there may be a couple dozen shells left on the ground. But they get run over a few times and they turn into tiny

fragments and they kind of just disappear.

And Jeff, just to to add to that, one point that we want to make perfectly clear is that these clams shells are clean. These are shells that have been they've been cleaned. They're not oy cohogs. They've been shocked. There's no sediment. There's no growth. There's no anything on these shells. They're cclam shells which are completely sh hand shocked and clean.

And for the public to understand, those look a lot like the shells that wash up on Horseneck Beach all the time.

Yeah, exactly. They're they're much bigger. They're they're sort of like that size.

Wow. No.

Because they're coming from an offshore surf clam fishery. Um, and you know, public that didn't see his hands, that was about half the size of a dinner plate.

Yeah, there's some big shells.

And we'll mix some sand and gravel in with those shells because that substrate also helps with shellfish survival.

And is the conveyor is that going to be on stands or laying on the ground?

The conveyor has its own wheels, so it can it's a basically a trailer that turns into a conveyor. It's very narrow, less than six feet wide. Um, and then it folds and then it can just be trailered out. So, we can trailer that up at the end of every workday and park it by the shell piles. So, there's really no residual and we have to work around high tide. So, so if someone wants to use the

portagons, is there a conveyor in the way? Yes, that that would have to be maybe moved to the opposite side of the parking lot or an alternate site within the parking lot because the shell pile will sort of go from the porta potty heading east in that bumpout to where the old entrance ramp comes down. Um, so it would be best because a bobcat would be working in there to move the portaotti to an alternate location

during that time frame.

Okay. And uh where it transits over the beach, I'll call it. Is it raised off the ground?

It is. It's canal levered. It'll probably be eight feet off the ground.

So it won't be hurting the grasses, right? It will never touch the ground.

It'll can lever out with the end rolling off with shell dropping onto the barge front because that's like an ongoing concern about everybody. Um, and when you talk about millions of clams of oysters, I expect that says to the public that suddenly there will be millions of oysters available to them in three or four years.

That's not the functional reality.

[snorts] Well, you know, by mass general law, we can keep these restoration sites closed to harvest for three years.

Um, over those three years, we're adaptively managing. We're diving, we're taking surveys, and we're adding oyster as appropriate.

At the end of the three years, it really becomes up to the town. You know, our suggestion and the suggestion we've made to MASHP is to keep these reefs as spawning sanctuaries, but then add more shell throughout the estuary and let that larae just populate for free. Um but at the end of three years the town could decide to open them for a month and let people harvest and then close

them again for a period of time. Uh that management decision will ultimately be Rick and Bills because um you know they they are the shellfish authority and they are the permit holders. So um you know we'll support whatever decision the town makes but you know in my mind 10 acres is just a down payment. You know, the the east branch of the Westport River historically had upwards of 350

acres of wild oyster habitat that was inhabited by wild oysters in the in the postc colonial period. Um, today there's two to three. So, you know, research tells us that if you can restore 15 to 20% of historic extent, you have a really good chance of the whole system coming back. So we're sort of shooting for 60 acres in the long term, you know, talking like 10 to 15 year term, [clears throat] coming back and

iteratively doing this, working our way south in the river until we, you know, reach Big Ram Island and around the corner into the West Branch O over the next 20 years.

And my last I would expect that active storm water runoff is part of why there's silting in the river and part of why we've lost the the population.

They actually aren't really bothered by pollution. Siltation is definitely an an issue if it's heavy and direct on the site. Um but you know overh harvesting and removal of shell um you know shell piles the size of this whole building um are you know documented in wearham and in New York City that shell never went back into the water and created huge caverns that were then filled in with

silt and then oysters just couldn't repopulate.

I would just love to get your support of our rehabilitation of the Westport Landing. Yeah, I I actually wrote a letter of recommendation for Mike Burus washing off regularly into the river creating sand bars and as we go before coastal zone management I some people are not excited about the idea of paving but the idea is to keep it from washing into the river regularly. I mean, we just did a mirror

project at Buttonwood Park where the senior center warming house on Buttonwood Pond was a a dirt lot on either side of the building with no runoff controls. Um, and they paved the parking lot, installed curbs, created rain gardens, and it's drastically improved the runoff. And I see your project as a very similar and I saw in your plans that you've actually got some subsurface infiltration chambers to help

maybe put some of that water back into the ground. And Mike Burus reached out to me and asked if I would write a letter of support with TNC letterhead on it. And I did provide that to him about a month ago. Um I'm not sure. I think that was for a grant application.

So if you need anything like that in the future, I'm more than happy to provide that. Yeah.

Any thoughts on the West Branch?

The West Branch? Um we would love to eventually move to the West Branch. The reason why we aren't in the West Branch right now is because of um higher salinities and um a bigger footprint where shellfish planting is prohibited. Um in the east branch of the Westport River, we're conditionally approved all the way up above the the the bridge itself.

Whereas in the West Branch, the prohibited areas take up a significant amount of the eastern shoreline of the West Branch. You say prohibited areas.

Uh the Division of Marine Fisheries does bacteria sampling throughout Massachusetts and over 800 different sites. And depending on what they find in those bacteria samples, they classify the area as prohibited, conditionally approved, which means it closes every time it rains, or just approved, which means it'll be open 99% of the time. So, um, salinity and a little bit more prohibited footprint

moved us to the better habitat in the east branch for this first project. But I definitely see it as a viable place. I also see it as a place we want to partner with Mass Autobon to combine salt marsh and oyster restoration into a single project where we use oysters to protect the frontal edge of salt marsh and accrete more sediment that helps build that marsh back up. So, we're actually um

in talks with Mass Autobond right now to do that first project on Big Ram Island if the SNEP grant comes through. So, we'll we'll see how that goes.

Jesse, a point. Um Sean um conditionally approved, approved and prohibited areas change seasonally in the west ranch right now from um 200 plus or minus uh river road across the Angeline Cove is closed across the grasshopper point is closed for the summer. It's conditionally approved, but this is the time it's closed. So um and then north of that is prohibited where there's no shell fishing because of

water quality. We do test the department of marine fisheries. Um myself, I go out with the biologists a minimum of five times a year and do test the waters. We test 35 sites around this around the river. Um five times a year, including three sites out front. Um so we, you know, we have a a a matrix that pretty much tells us what is open and what is not open. North of Snell Creek and the

east branch is prohibited. That'll probably never open, at least in our lifetime. But at this point in time from cabinets neck north those are all conditionally approved areas. So in the winter they're open in the summer because of a number of reasons um they're they're prohibited and as Dan said then we have what we call the 210 area and the 1 in areas. So it's this matrix that's very confusing but um the

east branch is as Dan said the east branch is the branch that has the most open and approved areas by the Commonwealth. And it's, you know, there is there's some factors. We want to go into prohibited areas. TNC has been lobbying the Division of Marine Fisheries to approve restoration of oysters in prohibited areas, but they're very afraid that it creates uh an attractive nuisance that someone is

going to go in there and poach those oysters and then get really sick. But that's where the greatest need for water quality improvements is. So, we're continuing to push that and say if it's within Rick and Bill's regular daily patrols and the public is aware of the danger of poaching from that area, then why not? You know, right now what we see is aquaculture brings a lot of great

water quality benefits, but it's all down at the bottom of the system where the water's already clean when we really need oysters up in the top of the system to build habitat and clean that water. So, and then there's the salinity factor, which oysters will live fine in high salinity um if they're in cages because higher salinities have much higher um incidence of oyster predators. So, we'd

see a much higher mortality rate if we go in that bottom end of the Westport uh of the West Branch um than we do up in the top of the east branch. But, we want to go there. I think that's part of the 60acre plan.

There was tremendous oyster fishery up the West Branch.

Yeah, I can only imagine. You know, there was a gentleman who used to harvest them all the time. Uh, and he had piles of shells in his yard and yeah, I'm curious as to what parts of the West Brand way up towards way up towards the Adamsole landing way up towards there was love that esturine mixed salinity water they would be a beautiful place to do a restoration in the future.

That's great.

There any questions?

Just um clarifying the time time frame.

I didn't.

So, right now we we got um the Westport River uh River Wershed Alliance is also a partner in this project. We didn't really mention that, but they have been instrumental in, you know, getting us access on their boat and providing us with data. And so, we looked at 30 years of temperature data, um knowing that oysters like to start spawning right around 65 66 degrees.

um and then looked at that curve over the 30 years of where that temperature range occurs and it sort of starts falling right in the last week of May into the first week of June. So we would be wanting to get the culch out a week or two prior to that sort of you know early May. The first two weeks of May would be ideal and then it would still

be clean because the danger is if we did like we did in Mashp and put it out in December, by the time June rolls around when they spawn, it's completely fouled with algae and the shell substrate itself is no longer available for the larae. So the timing on this is really important to get that first free set of larae from the wild broodstock that's out there.

Okay. And you used the word uh culch.

I was good at spelling bees. This one never came up. Just I'm sure this is going to be in the news a lot. So this is a word you'll see public. C U L T C H.

Yeah.

And that's basically the underlying mattress.

The little baby oysters are going to go to sleep on and get big.

Yeah. Yeah. And and auto correct will keep changing it to clutch.

Yeah.

So, you have to go back and check your um documents.

Mr. Selecman, I'm assuming this has come before your board multiple multiple meetings.

Well, it just came up last night and was on the agenda.

Yes, it was.

And did anyone show up with public concerns about it?

I don't think there was any public questions. It was not a well attended meeting.

There were only four select. Okay.

But no one from the public. I'm just a little concerned this was not on the agenda.

Um, how do people feel about voting on this tonight given that the public was not informed? Unfortunately, I found out about this an hour after I posted the agenda. So, doesn't require a vote or anything from us or anything. You're not looking for anything. Justformational. Correct. Or are you looking for something?

They're looking for permission to use the the landing. Yeah, we should let him.

But you don't necessarily need this tonight. You could We don't need it tonight, but I will say that there was a large turnout at the conservation commission meeting and we had multiple people come to the podium and speak publicly on behalf of the project um the night the notice of intent was approved by the conservation commission.

I just want to be careful with how we're making decisions just so there's not Yeah.

push back.

No, I absolutely agree, Mr. [clears throat] Chair. the the reason that we're one of the reasons that we're here tonight is that we did get um approval on the signature on the NOI last night. Um and the time is is is precious to us. So, we wanted to come before you without having to go out to another month. Um we knew we know about the 48 hour rule and we were within

that. Um like I said, it hasn't even been 24 hours since we got the approval um last night from the board um with no opposition. And quite frankly, historically, um, we have had no opposition and very few questions. Um, as we go forward through the number of times we've been in front of the select board, the concom meetings, I'm sorry, five public meetings. Uh yeah, yeah, we've including,

you know, we uh we're going into the winter and we want to get things set up um so that we can make sure we're within that window as we come around spring and we all know winter looks like a long, but it comes by it comes and goes pretty quickly and you know, we have a lot of work to do within that window. So, we didn't that's why we're here today.

And I would just hope that should the site end up being a little bit littered with broken shells, if they don't, would you have funding to run a roller over that?

Absolutely.

We're we're contracting with Diligent Marine out of New Bedford to provide the barges run in that parking lot. Yeah.

Bare feet.

Um so it would just, you know, once you're all done, it might just take take a look and if it needs to be flat.

Absolutely.

That would be great. wouldn't be a big expense.

We'll leave it better than we found it.

Some to put it on the job. You better be careful about that.

Should see how it looks at, you know, Mr. Chair, as you know, um, [clears throat] Department of Marine Service, we're in there quite a bit. When I start my mornings, I'm in there first thing in the morning. Um, you know, so I, you know, I see the trash. If there's trash, I see, you know, I, we're there all the time. Then in the springtime, we start to get the ramps ready to go, put put

the docks in. So once this project gets going, we're going to be there probably even at nauseium more, right, than a river up there because, you know, we realize the value of the ramp. We realize the value of the ramp to the people that use that ramp and we don't want to inconvenience them um along the way because we are members of the community and you know, and they're shell fishermen, too.

Fisher women, too.

I'm comfortable moving forward if the rest of the board is I certainly am rest.

So good.

Well, would you move then, please?

Yep. Yeah, I'll move the uh approval and endorsement of the project as specified.

And I'll second that.

Any further discussion?

Oh, we have someone from public. Paul, I I happen to have Could you go to the mic microphone, please?

Or you could just come to this.

I have waterfront property and um interestingly, I was recently up the river. Uh and I don't know the name of the island, one of the islands that don't have any houses on it. And I did see oyster shells and I was like, "Woo, look at that. That's exciting." because I read and I'm sure you know but I was would recommend ated this board if you haven't read it the big oyster I haven't yeah and

I was so overwhelmed by reading that book about the what oysters do for for the environment and rivers and stuff so I I think this is great and I wish you the best and I look forward to it thank you thank you any further discussion hearing none all in favor favor.

I I I That's unanimous.

Thank you.

We're done.

No.

Oh, there's always more.

Oh, good.

You're done with us, though.

We are done with you. Yes.

You'll keep us informed as things move along. Ricky, one quick question. 2500 cubic yards.

How many times would that fill this room to the ceiling? Probably this one's probably 80 times probably 30 by 20 or 80 times over.

80 times maybe a hundred times over.

So this would be this is going to be a daily dump the size of this room.

Yeah.

Cool.

But it'll be a long skinny row tucked up in that bump out and then the bobcat will slowly just take it down as the day goes on.

Wow. We have a daily goal and you know we'll adaptively adjust that number every day based off of what we're putting out.

And there's sides on this so that the stuff doesn't fall off into the marsh grass.

There is the conveyor sort of bellied up so it just rolls over and falls out and if it does we'll have to go out there and release those shells up.

Great.

Okay. Thanks guys. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Come in see this discussion again. This was informative.

More informative than last night actually.

No offense.

No offense taken.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Is there any other business not anticipated at time of posting?

Just a rub rail were still on the list, you know, to be installed on the side of the dock.

Oh, we're still on the list is what Wendy's had. So, you know, the the bumper the on the side of the Right. My understanding was that the Arma Voyage was contracting with someone to install that that the Brendan the guy that did Yeah.

Yeah. We're on his list.

So, you expect that to be installed at some point?

We've been on the list since last spring. So, who's Brendon?

He's the dock builder.

Doc guy. Yeah.

So, that's all that's I know Wendy's been kind of Wendy Henderson's been kind of keeping gentle tabs on it because she was the one that would had contacted him, but I just asked her this morning if there was any progress and she said we're still on the list. So, I think it's just he's going down the line and he hasn't gotten to us yet.

Well, I would encourage you to let him know that his name was brought up at a public meeting and so should move along because I'm sure he wants to bid on this next multi-million dollar project.

Ah, that transfer that information. So, yep.

Next meeting date.

Um, we don't necess I guess we should try to keep doing this monthly at least for the warm months in case something comes up.

So that would be the end of September.

How does the 22nd or the 20 How about the 29th?

29th sounds good.

four o'clock here.

Yep.

Okay.

All right.

On our way out, I will point in the vicinity of the file cabinets.

There you go. They have those those old old documents in there, too. You know the ones that are handwritten or are there some place amazing some of the old documents I found in there.

Wow.

That had nothing to do with us that I passed on to the town clerk in the Westport Historical Society. An incredible receipt book for hundreds of pieces of property that somebody in town all entered the leases for longhand with with all kinds of gritted numbers for all of $5 a year.

And I'm not even sure exactly where they were.

Probably the head It's probably the head landing.

I I don't know. I You can take a look.

The the book is I was just like, "Wow."

And these things were just smashed in the back. I only found them because I couldn't open the file door completely.

And I was like, "What's the problem here?"

Yeah. Most of those houses and build their other buildings up there are on the town landing property.

Right. I think though I mean there were hundreds of these things. So I think it might have been more on East Beach or maybe Horses neck beach for I I haven't or maybe even out on Gooseberry is surprising but nice handwriting. All right, so we need an adjournment then.

I make a motion to adjurnn.

Second.

All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi.