County commissioners are trying to decide whether to allow a reshelling program to get started in early February.
The Franklin County Seafood Workers Association has asked that the county spend 100 thousand dollars it has from the Department of Agriculture to pay local oystermen to transport shell and to pay the seafood workers association to oversee the program.
County commissioners are concerned that if they spend the money now while the bay is open that there won’t be any assistance for oystermen if the bay gets shut down because of rain or red tide.
The money has to be spent by June 30th because that’s when the contract with the state expires.
Seafood workers say the shelling would be more effective if it’s done now because it will give the new shell time to settle before the spat starts looking for places to attach to.
Besides, oystermen say times are hard right now.
Seafood workers President Taunya James said the oysters they are finding right now are pretty small so it’s getting harder to bring in more than 5 or 6 bags of legal sized oysters in a day.
The shelling program does help a lot of oystermen when they need money.
Nearly 230 took part the last time the program was held in October.
County Commissioners say they will reconsider the issue at their next meeting and till then they will try to see if any other state r federal money is available to pay for the reshelling so they can save some money for when its really needed.
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