Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, Dec. 19
- Board of Assessors, 11 a.m.
- Open Space Committee, 4 p.m.
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Cannery Wharf Park
The opening day for Cannery Wharf Park has not been announced — but it should be soon.
According to a Dec. 4 memo from Town Manager Alex Morse to the select board, the last items that need to be completed at the park are a brick apron at the entryway, the installation of a swing bench under the trellis, and the installation of power to the site by Eversource.
The safety lights and pathway lights require power, and the town doesn’t want to open the park without them, Morse wrote. The park will therefore remain closed until Eversource can electrify the site “within a few weeks” of the Dec. 9 select board meeting.
VSB Budget
On Dec. 9 the select board approved a 5-percent increase in the tourism-promotion budget allocated to the Visitor Services Board, bringing the total to $1.13 million for fiscal 2026.
Figures presented by Tourism Director Tony Fuccillo showed a healthy tourism sector, with total spending in the town’s food and beverage businesses up 4 percent to $115 million. The total sales figure for accommodations in town, including hotels, campgrounds, and short-term rentals, was up 7.5 percent to $92 million.
Total sales in the town’s four marijuana dispensaries came to around $6.7 million, based on the town’s share of their state tax receipts.
Fuccillo then posed a question that the board has repeatedly asked: “The elephant in the room is, are these increases due to increased visitation, or are they due to higher prices and inflation?”
The town has a new contract with short-term rental market-research company AirDNA, which recently bought a visitor-tracking platform called Arrivalist. Fuccillo said he hopes to have more detailed data to present on visitation trends when the higher-quality Arrivalist data begins to comes in. —Paul Benson
