WELLFLEET — It was raining steadily on Monday night as a few hundred denizens of Wellfleet filed into the elementary school gym for the special town meeting.
Looking out at the crowd ready with its neon green “Wellfleet Voter” cards, Town Moderator Dan Silverman made it clear he understood the sacrifice that townspeople had made in coming.
“I am aware that there’s a Red Sox game,” he said. “And Monday night football. I fully expect that we will be able to complete the meeting tonight.”
A common theme seemed to be a lack of proofreading. Article 2 needed to be amended before debate could even begin because of a series of mistakes in the wording. Article 8 proposed to define timber as trees “with a diameter of 16 inches” — not 16 inches or more, as Helen Miranda Wilson pointed out, meaning that 17-inch trees would not have counted.
“It seemed a lot of the articles weren’t well prepared,” said Lynda Shuster.
Select board member Ryan Curley explained the official definition of timber as 16 inches at breast height, which he said was forestry industry lingo, where “breast height” is 4.5 feet.
“That’s not my breasts,” said a woman in the crowd.
Following a speech on the trees, Curley said, “I’ll finish with kind of a story.” Murmurs of impatience could be heard. It was 8:20 p.m. — over two hours since the meeting began.
Wilson walked up to the podium. “Two more examples,” she began. The murmurs turned to groans.
Just when it looked as if Article 10 would be put to a vote, Tim Sayre approached the microphone. “I’d like to make an amendment,” he began. The groans grew louder. But the trees won their protections.
When Article 12, the nips ban, was introduced, the energy in the room turned electric.
Alan Kogos, owner of Seaside Liquors, spoke first, expressing his love of the tiny drinks. “The 50 ml — so fondly named ‘the nip’ — there’s no substitute for that,” he rhapsodized.
Jessica Madoc-Jones, “your unpaid litter-picker-upper,” followed Kogos, and was perhaps the article’s most ardent detractor. She described regularly picking up trash on Lecount Hollow Road and being dismayed at how many nips had, presumably, been tossed out of people’s car windows. “Maybe tourists drink them, or teens,” she said. “I don’t know. It’s probably not the people who voted to protect rare trees.”
John Cumbler had some sympathy for nips fans. If passed, he said, “this is going to be a severe hindrance to the alcoholics.”
Wilson said she appreciated how affordable nips are. “Some of us — not me, I have enough money — don’t have enough money” to buy larger bottles, she said.
As soon as it was clear the nips would not be banned, around 30 people left the gymnasium.
The remaining five articles were decided within 20 minutes, and everyone went home at 9:40.
The Red Sox beat the Rangers, 4-2.
