The Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission received a briefing about the Virginia Working Waterfront Coalition on April 24, one day too early to hear the good news about a Gloucester project.

Lewis Lawrence, executive director of MPPDC, said he was notified on April 25 that the Perrin Wharf project in Gloucester would receive a $6,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for pilings to construct a dozen slips for use by local watermen.

Besides the dozen slips approved, several other slips might be possible using large poles donated to the Gloucester Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Lawrence said.

Captain Don Hobby of Acelution in Yorktown will be the contractor for the project, Lawrence said. The initial phase of the project should be completed by September.

This project is significant, Lawrence said, because about 15 commercial watermen were displaced with the closing of Cook’s Seafood at Bena.

Lawrence said the commissio...