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Banner file photo
Town Meeting voters will be asked for $1.1 million for improvements to Pamet Harbor. |
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Jetty & harbor fixes tallied at $1.1M
By Elspeth Pierson
Banner Correspondent
TRURO — The time has come to make improvements at Pamet Harbor, town officials say. Article 10 on the draft Town Meeting warrant, which proposes to borrow $1.1 million to rebuild the north jetty of the harbor and repair the Pamet Harbor parking lot and parking lot revetment, has the support of the selectmen and the Pamet Harbor Commission.
According to Pamet Harbor Commission chair Tim Silva, now is the time for the town to proceed with what he called an overdue project. “We’ve known that the jetty has been in bad, deteriorated condition for about 10 years,” he said, “and the parking lot is pitched right towards the harbor. I was advised by the town administrator that this year would be the year financially to do it.”
Selectman Fred Gaechter agrees. “I think it needs to be done at some point, and if Town Meeting doesn’t want it to be done now, they’ll have to tell us that.” Gaechter is particularly concerned about the repaving portion of the project — which would require about half of the proposed funding — as he believes parking lot run-off could pose a threat to the health of the Pamet River if it is allowed to continue pouring into the harbor untreated.
“Recent tests have indicated that there isn’t a current problem,” the selectman says, “but we don’t want to cause one just because it’s not there now.”
As for the jetty, a 10-year plan for harbor improvement drawn up by Coastal Engineering in Orleans over a year ago calls for repair and realignment of the structure, along with dredging of the channel. The plan points to an “on-going problem” affecting the channel entrance at its landward end, where the jetty’s fragility makes the channel vulnerable to potential blowouts and erosion during storm events.
Coastal geologist Graham Giese, who advised the engineers, the board of selectmen and the Pamet Harbor Commission in planning for the proposed project, says that he believes the solution put forth by Coastal Engineering to be a good one.
“Sediment moves from north to south in that region, but is interrupted by the jetties,” Giese explains, “so the jetty on the south side collects sand and gets wider, while the north jetty doesn’t receive the sand it normally would and is eroded.” The engineers plan to stabilize the bank beneath the jetty by joining it at its eastern end to the dune and filling the area with sediment dredged from the channel.
The jetty has been frequently moved and rebuilt over the course of the town’s history. According to Silva, the remains of an original jetty dating back to the early 20th century, which separated the Pamet from another river with a mouth in the Corn Hill area, still lie on a sandbar inside of the harbor and could be used in rebuilding the current structure. Rocks from a 1938 jetty, moved in 1953 because it caused too much riptide in the river mouth for small boats, still remain in the channel, posing a safety hazard, and should also be moved.
Silva says the commission has known about the need for all of these repairs for many years, but the issue has come down to a lack of funding. “The state has no money to do anything,” he says. “It all goes to Boston and the Big Dig, and federal money goes to Iraq, so pretty much the town has to do stuff itself.” Silva says the commission has received enough money from the State Board of Access to fix the harbor boating ramp, a much-appreciated contribution.
“It’s all part of the same project, though,” he adds, explaining that rebuilding the jetty would help Gull Island, keeping some of the sand from being blown back into the harbor in the winter, and remove the safety hazards. “Plus the run-off goes right into the harbor, along with all the pollutants,” he says. “We know it’s expensive, but it’s time.”
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Apr 3rd, 2008