Tisbury officials are considering a proposal to raise mooring fees and leases on Vineyard Haven waters next year.
A town policy, enacted by an earlier select board, calls for a 10 per cent increase in the mooring permit fees every other year, harbor master John Crocker told the select board Wednesday. Mr. Crocker is also calling for a $5 an hour rise in dockage fees and sharply increasing fees for dinghies, kayaks and paddle boards kept on town property without associated mooring permits.
A permit to keep a dinghy on town property without a mooring is currently $25 and the town’s natural resource advisory committee has endorsed raising it to $200 for non-Tisbury residents.
Tisbury residents would be exempt from that increase but not from Mr. Crocker’s request to hike the cost of reclaiming a dinghy or other small vessel from the harbor department. All dinghies not associated with moored vessels are cleared from town property in mid-December and stored for the winter, with owners required to pay $50 to get them back.
Mr. Crocker wants to see that raised to $250, to encourage dinghy owners to handle their own winter storage instead, he said.
A public hearing on the proposed increases is tentatively set for Nov. 15.
Among other select board business Wednesday, Tisbury shellfish constable Danielle Ewart announced this year’s scalloping dates.
Recreational scalloping outside the town’s ponds and harbor opens Oct. 28, with the commercial season beginning outside on Oct. 30.
In Lagoon Pond, recreational season opens Nov. 4 and commercial scalloping begins Nov. 6, matching the Oak Bluffs season.
Areas of the pond that were closed to quahaugging will be open for scalloping, Ms. Ewart said, but all shellfishing is prohibited in the town’s experimental eelgrass project.
“There should be no scalloping in areas I marked off with … the bright orange buoys off of Hines Point and also at the head of the Lagoon,” she said.
Ms. Ewart also asked shellfishermen not to drag for scallops in the pond’s designated family dipnetting area.
All dragging is forbidden in Lake Tashmoo, where the recreational scalloping season begins Dec. 2 and the commercial season Dec. 4.
Shellfishing hours are from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the week runs Sunday through Saturday — meaning that if a permit-holder reaches their weekly limit on a Sunday, they’re barred from harvesting more until the following Sunday, Ms. Ewart said.
Also Wednesday, the board appointed Troy Vanderhoop of Edgartown as the town of Tisbury’s newest full-time police officer.
Originally from Aquinnah, Mr. Vanderhoop is a Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School graduate who completed police academy training in Randolph earlier this year and most recently worked for the Edgartown police department, Tisbury police chief Christopher Habekost told the select board.
The board also appointed Greg Monka as the town’s building inspector for a three-year term.
Mr. Monka, who has been working conditionally in the position since March while pursuing state certification as a building code inspector, has now achieved the necessary credentials, board chair Roy Cutrer said.
