e t c e t e r a
1. A number of unspecified additional things; 2. pl. additional items, odds and ends

CHILDREN'S BEACH BOAT RAMP COULD REOPEN THIS WEEK If the weather cooperates, the Children's Beach boat ramp and finger piers should be completed by the end of April.

Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto told the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board last Tuesday that the Robert B. Our Construction Co., Inc. of Harwich is preparing to lay the ramp and its headwall.

"We're getting the last shipment of concrete slabs on Thursday [April 5] and will have them set on Friday [April 6]," said Fronzuto. "On Monday, we're going to pour the headwall, then we'll grade the apron and lay the gravel down. We're hoping that by Friday, April 13, the ramp will be open."

For boat owners needing to get their boats in and out of Nantucket Harbor before the ramp is open, Fronzuto arranged for Grey Lady Marine to haul and launch boats with its Travelift for free until the new ramp is operational. He added that boat owners should contact him before they want to move their vessels.

Fronzuto said he expects work on the finger piers on either side of the boat ramp to be completed next week.

"We're still waiting for the blacktop plant to open, but we hope to be able to pave the week of April 23, but as far as the gravel is concerned, there is no reason we can't use the gravel on the ramp," he said.

At a cost of $578,000, the project includes aligning the boat ramp with Harbor View Way and the ramp's channel, widening the ramp from 23 to 33 feet, lengthening it from 55 to 70 feet, changing its pitch from seven to 11 degrees and making the channel six feet deep at mean low tide.

The Marine Department also orchestrated the replacement of the Polpis Harbor bulkhead last fall by AGM Marine of Mashpee, Mass. The bulkhead is designed to catch the sand flowing into the harbor on the incoming tide to prevent the channel leading up the west side of Polpis Harbor from filling in.

During the winter of 2005/2006, the Marine Department had AGM Marine repair the end of the town pier and install a free-standing bulkhead to act as a fender when large, steel-hulled fishing boats tie up to the pier during storms.

LACK OF WATER OF LITTLE CONCERN, DESPITE SNOWLESS WINTER Although the white stuff made only the occasional appearance, Nantucket did receive its fair share of precipitation this past winter.

Meteorologist Hayden Frank of the National Weather Service office in Taunton, said that the weather patterns this winter did not cooperate enough to make Nantucketers run for their snow shovels.

"Generally what we call in meteorology, the upper level pattern, wasn't favorable to produce a lot of snow," Frank said. "You want a trough in the east, which allows cold air to dive down from Canada. But, you also want the axis of the trough to be further west than it was, otherwise they [storms] flow out to the east.

"We did get a couple good storms. We had the Valentine's Day storm and the storm [the second week of March], which caused Nantucket to get mostly rain."

"February was like the lowest precipitation since 1991; not even an inch of precipitation," said Bob Gardner, manager of the Wannacomet Water Company. "Other than that, it's been great. Both November and December were above normal and it looks like January was normal. We got three inches in March to date [March 23]."

The amounts are crucial to Gardner's efforts to ensure adequate water levels for peak usage periods during the summer months.

"From our perspective, we're going into the season picking up a little more precipitation than in 2005," said Gardner. "The ground water level is a little above last year at this time."

Frank admitted that the region experienced some strange weather during winter's three months. For Boston, the average temperature was 41.4 degrees Fahrenheit Dec. 1 through Jan. 15, 8.5 degrees above normal and the warmest climatologically, first half of winter on record.

"In that period for Boston, we had no days with subfreezing temperatures," he said.

Conversely, from Jan. 16 to the end of February, the average regional temperature was 26.9 degrees Fahrenheit, 4.6 degrees below normal.

"It's hard down in Nantucket," he said. "You could be in the warm pattern with winds off the ocean, and it could still be cold."

NANTUCKET POLICE DEPARTMENT TO RECEIVE $33,100 The Nantucket Police Department will receive $33,100 from the Department of Homeland Security as part of its Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program.

"We are most appreciative. This grant will allow us to purchase a piece of equipment we never would have been able to purchase before," said William Pittman, Chief of Nantucket Police Department.

CEDAP provides first response training and equipment to law enforcement agencies and other emergency responders.

$36.4 million in equipment and training has been awarded under the Department of Homeland Security to 2,000 first responder agencies nationally as part of FY 2006. I