The Edgartown annual town meeting is on Tuesday, April 9 at 7 p.m. at the Old Whaling Church. Article 62 should be of interest to Chappaquiddickers. That article asks to appropriate money for the installation of two firefighting water storage tanks. Fire cisterns help provide a supply of easily accessible water when your house is on fire. On the town website you can find the warrant advisory book.

The work on the south slip of the Vineyard Haven terminal of the big ferry has started just in the nick of time. The Katama sluiceway project needs to be completed before the plovers show up to nest on Norton Point. Way back when the Federal Infrastructure Bill came to pass, we got a grant to do something about the erosion of the barrier beach that connects Chappy to the Vineyard. The plan is to create an artificial well defined permanent opening so that mother nature won’t go making the usual devil-may-care breachings.

There are many benefits to a sluiceway. The natural openings occur from the inside out when big storms fill Katama Bay to overflowing. A sluiceway will let the water out as we saw during the last year-long breach. That will greatly reduce seawater flooding on Dock Street and at the Chappy Ferry landings. That will also greatly reduce the erosion at Wasque caused when the opening migrates to Muskeget Channel during the closing process.

Additionally there will be a drivable land connection to Chappy. That’s where the SSA comes into the picture. The south slip will be getting a brand new transfer bridge and the old one needs to be recycled. We get to have the old one to span the sluiceway. It will look very similar to the Little Bridge on the beach road to Oak Bluffs, but it will just be one lane.

It’s still in pretty good shape. Tractor trailers drove across it just a few days ago. It needs a paint job. Edgartown highway superintendent Alan deBettencourt is eager to get the project going. He says, “It’s a pretty simple job. It’s just a whole bunch of rocks and a tape measure to make sure we get the width right so the SSA ramp will fit. The dredge is already down there for when we’re ready to bust the beach open. I told the guys to be ready to go on Monday.”

Said foreman James Maseda: “But boss, Monday is a holiday!”

Superintendent, bewildered: “April first is a holiday?”

Foreman, now not so sure: ”Well if it isn’t, it should be!”

Happy April Fool’s day.