2011-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The police department coordinated various members of AmeriCorps Cape Cod helped with the special events throughout the year Pincluding w1 W w, the of the oyster and quahog the propagation program. Barnstable and funds from Mashpee community picnic, the Wampano g Pops concert, the Christmas Parade and several road Shellfish permit fees covered the rest. The amount of quahog seed was increased in 2011 for a new project to races and similar functions. control algae blooms and remove nitrogen from Great The police department supported a proposed By- and Little Rivers. 1011 shellfish permits were issued. Law regarding pawn dealers d new regulations were Only a few scallops were harvested in Waquoit Bay. approved at Town Meeting. The provisions should Water quality monitoring continued with collaboration an enable the police department to maintain better tracking of the Town, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and the of potentially stolen property and improve University of Massachusetts Darmouth SMAST. opportunities to recover said property in a timely The Harbormaster reported a rescue in the area of manner. Washburn Island in the summer of 2011. An off-shore The police department continues to experience rescue of occupants to a capsized sailboat in heavy seas two plaguing problems. One is illegal dumping in near Popponesset Bay was also recorded. The isolated areas such as Noisy Hole, Johns Pond woods Harbormaster also reported old docks, floats, ramps and Great Hay Road. Large quantities of debris are and boats were identified and properly disposed of. suspected of being disposed of in these areas by Town landings were also cleaned up. With the commercial vehicles. Residents are encouraged to assistance of Fire Chief George Baker, the report any vehicles observed to be traveling into these Harbormaster was able to secure a boat through federal wooded areas that are suspected of illegal dumping. surplus at no cost to the Town. The Harbormaster Secondly, vehicle car-breaks continue to be reported. started the reserve academy in September of 2011 and Residents are strongly encouraged to lock the doors to is scheduled to complete it in February of 2012. their vehicles and homes and report any suspicious activity accordingly. At the conclusion of 2011,Officer James Dorman of the Mashpee Police Department was issued the The Shellfish Constable reports that quahogs department's Medal of Honor for entering a burning continue to be the most abundant shellfish with the wild building in the Town of Barnstable. Thick smoke and population supplemented by seed from the propagation high heat posed extreme danger to Officer Dorman, program. Waquoit Bay was closed for shellfishing who was subsequently credited with saving people except scalloping from November 15, 2011 through through his evacuation efforts. April 30,2012 to protect large numbers of quahog seed As always,I would like to tend m appreciation and littlenecks from exposure to predators such as I'! _ e winter waterfowl.Approximately 100,000 oysters from to the commitment of all part-time and full-time j; the propagation program were harvested in 2011. This members of the Mashpee Police Department who removed about 50 kilograms of nitrogen from the protect and serve our residents and guests in order to estuary based on laboratory analysis of the nitrogen make a difference in elevating our quality of life. content of our oysters. The numbers were lower than in the past because of a problem at the hatchery Respectfully submitted, resulting in very low densities of seed in 2010. The Rodney C. Collins massive fish kill in the Mashpee River that occurred in Chief of Police the summer of 2005 because of oxygen depletion from a thick algae bloom growing on excess nutrients has not been repeated since we have been growing large numbers of oysters in the river. For the first time since the 1980s when the wild oysters died off, significant numbers of oyster seed have set in Popponesset Bay. Spawns of oysters from the Town propagation program and shellfish aquaculture sites such as the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's oyster farm at Punkhorn Point were carried by the tides to set in other areas. The 119