Despite a clash of personalities and differing ideas about how repairs to the Oak Bluffs waterfront should proceed, improvements are underway at the old Pay Beach and Inkwell Beach along Sea View avenue, including the addition of much-needed sand and a new drainage system for an outfall pipe.

Work crews from the town highway department over the past few weeks have been busy installing new railings along the beach, and were also scheduled to install a new energy dissipater infiltration system at the Inkwell to catch runoff from an outfall pipe to remove contaminants and reduce erosion.

A new universal access walkway was also scheduled to be installed this week. Sand will be moved up along the seawall and down toward the jetty to support the walkway that will be gradually graded to allow easy access for people with handicaps, the elderly and baby strollers.

Perhaps the biggest improvement — certainly the most noticeable — is the addition of approximately 10,000 cubic yards of sand collected from recent dredging of the channel near the Little Bridge at Joseph Sylvia State Beach. Placed at the Inkwell Beach, the relatively small stretch of waterfront between the two jetties, the sand has been groomed to remove rocks and shells.

Repairs and improvements to town beaches have been a priority since last February when a 30-ton retaining wall holding up a sloping bank along Sea View avenue suddenly collapsed. Since then selectmen have hired CLE Engineering to draft plans to repair the coastal system and appointed the Sea View Waterfront Committee to oversee the work.

Work has inched forward but has been hampered by infighting and a number of well-publicized spats among town officials who sit on the various committees that oversee town beaches.

Some oppose the universal access walkway, some have advocated portable bathrooms at the Inkwell and some have pushed for the old comfort station and snack shack previously located at Pay Beach to be rebuilt, but there has been far more disagreement than consensus.

And there has been confusion about a $300,000 matching state grant awarded to the town last year, some of which is planned for waterfront improvements.

“We’re making progress — day by day we’re getting closer to where we want to be,” conservation commission chairman Joan Hughes said. “I think people will enjoy Pay Beach and Inkwell this year . . . they’ve been redone and they look lovely. But meanwhile we are moving forward with more permanent solutions.”

She said the most pressing problem, stabilizing the coastal bank, has already been addressed. Native plants with strong root systems including rosa rugosa have been planted along the bank. This type of so-called soft engineering is the preferred method for shoreline and infrastructure protection, Mrs. Hughes said.

She agreed there is much left to be done, including repairs to the North Bluff on the other side of the Steamship Authority terminal. The state rates all coast bank systems on a scale of A to F, and the North Bluff has been rated D-minus, she said.

Meanwhile the town is chasing permits from state and federal agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries, the state division of conservation and recreation and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The town still must complete a sediment transport study, littoral drift monitoring, essential fish habitat study, and near-shore habitat study, all of which are required to obtain permits for shoreline protection. The sediment transport study and littoral drift monitoring will show where sand is coming from and where it goes, and could require the removal of the two jetties that bookend Inkwell Beach.

Mrs. Hughes said although the town is now authorized to put sand and dredge spoils above the high tide mark, the study information is needed before sand can be placed below the high tide mark.

“We want to put sand all the way down, that is the only way to make lasting improvements. But when you are dealing with the shoreline you need to do a lot of engineering and get approval from a large number of permitting agencies . . . our situation is complicated further because the bank is also holding up a state highway,” she said.

There are also questions about funding, although the town hopes much of the work will be paid for through state and federal grant money. At the annual town meeting in 2007 voters approved $65,000 for a shoreline stability survey along Sea View avenue; voters have also approved $75,000 in Community Preservation Act funding for related waterfront work. “Basically we will take any money we can get our hands on. But the key is to have your permits first. Nobody will give you money unless you have the engineered plans and permits first,” Mrs. Hughes said.