BARNSTABLE – Barnstable County is currently in the midst of doing a study on rates for dredging, which in the past few years has forced the county to dip into reserves to underwrite the dredging program costs.
The county will need to realign their dredge rates, said Commissioner Mark Forest, with their costs and the report they will be receiving soon from the study will help in the process.
“This is a very popular program. We have an outstanding dredging department, we’ve got terrific staff, it’s well led, and has enormous support throughout Cape Cod, but the cost of dredging is going up,” Forest said.
Once the study is completed and reviewed, the commissioner’s office will be talking to officials in local towns to discuss what the revised rates might mean and what the towns would need.
The dredge department is a very important program, says Forest, and it is utilized by almost every Cape Cod town which is why the commission is focused on keeping its funding in a positive state.
“In the past we’ve had to tap into reserves, so our hope is that we won’t have to do that. We did develop an overall plan and set of recommendations which we discussed with the assembly the other day,” said Forest.
In those recommendations, the Commissioner’s office identified a number of areas that need to be focused on with the remaining reserves, and one of the major areas is PFAS which town officials are always vigilant about handling.
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