Edgartown selectmen hear dog report, approve beach nourishment

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Edgartown selectmen heard and approved animal control officer (ACO) Barbara Prada’s quarterly animal report Tuesday. Ms. Prada responded to 117 dog-related calls between October and December last year. Cats accounted for 70 more, and skunks made a poor showing, just two calls. Seventeen of the dogs were impounded, and in one case one dog attacked another. Leash law violations were about the same as last year for the period, Ms. Prada said.

Animal control issued 18 tickets for leash-law violations, 14 of which were warnings. The face value of tickets issued to date is $210, and each must be paid in 21 days or less. A state law approved October 31, 2012 nearly doubled the fines for first-time leash law offenders.

“If there are any dogs out today, they’re going to be sorry dogs,” selectman Arthur Smadbeck said.

In other business, selectmen approved a request from dredge advisory committee chairman Howell Kelly to begin the permitting process for nourishing Fuller Street Beach with sand dredged from Edgartown Great Pond.

Mr. Kelly told selectmen his committee has been stockpiling sand and would like to move part of it to Fuller Street Beach by the end of February.

“In the last month, Fuller beach has taken a tremendous hit, and the idea came up that we could possibly transport the sand over to Fuller Street,” Mr. Kelly told selectmen.

Under the town’s new protocol for dredging projects, the selectmen and the conservation commission must sign off on all dredging projects.