Pumping, excavation underway at Xtra Mart

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Water pumped from beneath the Xtra Mart property flowed into the harbor Saturday.

On Friday and Saturday Drake Petroleum Company gave Tisbury the necessary documentation to proceed with a tank replacement project at the Xtra Mart/Citgo station on Beach Road. The company’s contractors pumped water across Beach Road, down Beach Street Extension, and into the harbor on Saturday. Dewatering was ongoing Monday when contractors broke ground at the jobsite. An armored ramp across a hose on Beach Road last week stoked motorist frustration. Many vehicles bottomed out traversing it. On Thursday select board chair Jim Rogers asked Drake’s contractors to make the ramp more motorist-friendly. He sent a police detail to the ramp Thursday night. By Friday contractors lengthened the ramp and motorists had an easier time passing over it. 

Rogers visited the jobsite Friday with Tisbury town administrator Jay Grande and DPW director Kirk Mettel. Grande and Rogers informed Drake’s contractor that until an indemnity covenant and proof of insurance was received by the town, the hose would not be permitted to run along Beach Street Extension. Grande got preliminary documentation Friday and the remainder Saturday. Rogers also requested the contractor make sure smaller sidewalk ramps used to cover the pump hose comply with ADA requirements. On Monday, he said that had been achieved but he remained skeptical of the quality of the work.

“It’s not as good as I’d like it,” he said. “But it passes, according to what I’m told.”

Of the Beach Road ramp, he said, “It’s going to be a nuisance.”

Rogers said he would have preferred the pump hose cross Beach Road further away from Five Corners and reach the harbor by crossing Ernie Boch Jr’s new park or “bird sanctuary”. But that didn’t work out, he said.

There is no longer a Tisbury Police detail because Beach Road is the purview of the Massachusetts State Police, he said. “If things become an issue,” he said Drake’s contractor may hire a State Police detail.

 

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