The old saying goes that fences make good neighbors. Four years after residents appropriated nearly $25,000 to replace one at Cherry and Webb Beach, a group of nearby residents hopes the adage will soon prove true here.

Last week, resident Jim Mullins appeared before the beach committee to ask that the town finally take steps to replace an aging, worn-out fence that separates the town beach from several properties to the east, just off the access path from the parking lot. The fence had been installed by the town around 1980, 11 or 12 years after Westport entered into an arrangement with the neighbors to install and maintain it. It’s been in poor shape for 10 years and has needed replacement for at least five, and in 2019 voters approved funds that, at the time, would likely have been sufficient to replace all 600 feet of it.

But since that time, Mullins noted, nothing’s happened. The group of neighbors he represents want to see progress:

“I’m not here to pound sand. As a town asset and as a neighbor, if it was your neighbor and your home and that was encroaching on your property or vise versa, I think everyone would have the same conclusion,” he told commission members. “It’s an eyesore on a pristine piece of property that benefits both private and town. It’s got to be one of the town’s greatest assets.”

Committee chairman Sean Leach has known about the fence’s deteriorating condition for some time, as well as the funds that have been sitting unused in town coffers. But for a variety of reasons — Covid, piping plover season, the rise in materials and labor costs, and the like — it’s never gotten done, he said.

“It gets kicked down the road, kicked down the road,” he said.

At this point, Leach said the rise in materials costs has put the project well over the $25,000 appropriated at town meeting, enough to exceed the threshold that would allow the town not to use prevailing wage labor. Laborers’ costs alone is $68 per hour, he said, and he estimates that currently, the town only has enough to replace about half of the fence.

But while the ultimate decision to spend the money lies with the Board of Selectmen, Leach said he has been talking to the head of the highway department, who he said is willing to do the job — a move that would save the town “boatloads” of money in labor. But he needs to be sure that the department can handle the job, and will speak to officials more in the coming weeks.

In addition, he said he would try to have the issue put on Monday’s select board agenda, so board members could review and expedite the process.

Once town approval comes to spend the funds, Leach said he hopes to have the work begun by the beginning of November.

“We’re all aware and I think we have supported” the effort to replace the fence, Leach said, speaking on behalf of his fellow committee members. “We need to get a commitment from the selectmen that we need to get it done. I would think that by Nov. 1 you could get it in.”