Posted on December 15, 2025
The town did not budget enough to pay the county for the full job
TRURO — The county’s hydraulic dredge, the Codfish II, is in Pamet Harbor this week, set to go to work there for the first time in two years. But it might not get the job done to every boater’s satisfaction.
That’s because the town failed to allot enough money in this year’s dredging budget to cover the full cost of the job.
Ideally, the hydraulic dredge would remove 9,501 cubic yards of sand from Pamet Harbor this year, Ken Cirillo, director of the Barnstable County dredge program wrote to Truro Harbormaster Tony Jackett in a Dec. 4 email.
The hydraulic dredge “is like this giant eggbeater that goes back and forth, and it sucks up the sand with a lot of water,” Cirillo said. The dredged sand is deposited on the adjacent Corn Hill Beach, which is losing sand to coastal erosion. Jackett said that, unlike Wellfleet Harbor’s sludge, Truro’s sand is safe to use for beach enrichment.
At the county’s rate of $26.50 per cubic yard of sand, doing the full job would put the bill at a little over $250,000.
The town budgeted only $102,750 for the job, however, according to Town Manager Kelly Clark. Truro has also received a dredging grant from the state in the amount of $94,000 — it’s one the town counts on regularly, Clark said.
But those funds combined will cover the removal of only about 7,000 cubic yards of sand, or three-quarters of the job that needs to be done.
Given the shortfall, Jackett said, “the priority is going to be the channel, so that boats launching from the boat ramp are going to be able to get out.” Not everyone is likely to be happy with that solution. “The guy that’s used to being able to go out at low tide is going to have to wait an hour,” said Jackett, “because he doesn’t have as much water under him. His boat is touching the ground.”
Barnstable County’s hydraulic dredge, the Codfish II, is at work in Truro’s Pamet Harbor this week “like a giant eggbeater,” sucking up sand to be deposited on Corn Hill Beach. (Photo by Paul Kopicki)
Having to wait an hour to take your boat out is not “super critical,” Jackett said. His bigger concern is that sand will build up quickly after an incomplete dredging job. “The thing is, if you let that go, it’s only going to pile up more,” he said. “It’s only going to be more expensive the next time.”
Jackett said on Monday that the town was considering an arrangement with the dept. of public works in which the dredge program could use funds that the DPW would have used to buy sand for beach nourishment, since the dredging will provide much of the sand the DPW would have otherwise had to buy.
Cirillo said on Dec. 9 that dredging would likely begin on Dec. 10 and that once it begins, dredging should take two or three weeks, leaving Truro little time to come up with the extra cash needed for the full job to be completed.
Ideally, Clark told the Independent, Barnstable County would send its hydraulic dredge over to Pamet Harbor every year. Clark made Truro’s case for a complete dredging job in her grant application to the state last year: “We are so vulnerable to the shifting sands and really need to dredge to full allowable depth on an annual basis to keep up with the sand deposits that make for dangerous conditions,” she wrote.
But last year’s pre-dredge survey conducted by the county showed that there wasn’t enough sand in the harbor to warrant hydraulic dredging, Cirillo told the Independent. In cases like that, he said, it’s better to use a mechanical dredge.
Truro did so, paying just under $50,000 to the Robert B. Our Company, which used a mechanical dredge to address what Clark said were “only the most critical areas” of the harbor in May. The county does not have its own mechanical dredge.
Truro will also consider a stabilization fund so that, going forward, if the hydraulic dredge can’t be used in any given year, the funds that were allocated to that year’s dredging can be added to the following year’s dredge budget, Jackett said.
