Meetings Ahead Thursday, Jan. 16 Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m., Council on Aging Monday, Jan. 20 Town Hall closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day Tuesday, Jan. 21 Community-wide Production Information Session, 6 p.m., Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater Conversation Starters Bacon Won’t Run Again Kathleen Bacon announced at the Jan. 7 select board meeting […]
HOUSING
Task Force Envisions Up to 46 New Rental Units
Apartments near school would be in two clusters
WELLFLEET — The 11-member task force that has been planning for affordable rental housing across from the Wellfleet Elementary School presented its work so far to a receptive audience of more than 70 townspeople on Monday. The panel sees up to 46 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units serving a range of low- to moderate-income tenants […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Massacre of the Drones
The news lately, both locally and at a distance, has been filled with drones. Kristian Sexton of Wellfleet says that he is developing the technology to spot great white sharks in the water using drones. Farmers in western Nebraska and eastern Colorado have been reporting swarms of unidentified drones hovering over their homes and fields […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
To Eccentric Friends
We collected a lot of advice while researching the possibility of a new newspaper here. What we heard inspired us to go ahead and dive in, but every now and then someone said something that scared us. On one of those occasions a very smart person looked at us over her drink at the Red […]
KITCHEN TABLE
A Theory of Latkes
In which crispiness is prized above all
Latkes, which of course are potato pancakes, are right up there with horseradish-on-homemade-matzo sandwiches among my favorite Jewish holiday foods. There are at least as many theories about how to make the best latkes as there are ways to spell Chanukah. (My friend Jay Gurewitsch and the New York Times prefer “Hanukkah.”) Jay has provided […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
New Baby in Town
This is the 13th edition of the Independent, which means we have now produced exactly one-quarter of a year’s worth of newspapers. It’s been fun, but we’ve had quite enough, thank you, so we’re quitting to do something else. Just kidding. Sort of. A new newspaper, it turns out, is like a new baby. Acutely […]
FACT CHECK
Claims on Nitrates by Town Official Don’t Hold Water
A second look at Cloverleaf project opponents’ arguments
TRURO — Some statements made at the Dec. 5 zoning board of appeals hearing related to groundwater nitrogen levels expected to be produced by the proposed “Cloverleaf” housing development did not pass a fact check conducted by the Independent this week. The planning board’s Peter Herridge, an opponent of the plan to build 40 units […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Heart of Darkness
Here we are heading into the week of the winter solstice, the dark time, and I must confess that I see signs of that encroaching shroud almost everywhere I turn. That feeling is amplified, no doubt, by my having the plague this week. Well, it’s not really the plague, it’s just the disgusting cold that […]
KITCHEN TABLE
How I Recreated the Rye Bread of My Childhood
Discovering the secret to the perfect crust
When I was a kid, growing up in Teaneck, N.J., my favorite bread was the sour rye with caraway seeds from Gratzel’s, the German bakery on Cedar Lane. To paraphrase Levy’s line about its own rye bread, you didn’t have to be German to love that loaf. The Jewish bakery a little further down the […]
editorial
Advice From a Master
I had the good fortune the other day to talk with Marshall Smith, the owner of the Wellfleet Marketplace. We were having a little trouble finding the right place in the store to sell the Independent, as every spot on the newspaper shelf was taken. I thought it was a good excuse to call up […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Writing Thursday
It’s “Giving Tuesday” as I write this, and I can see from looking at the online posts of local nonprofits that people really are giving. We know firsthand about this generosity because so many of you have contributed to our own Local Journalism Project, helping us to build up the resources that will be needed […]
civics
Young Leaders Want More People to Focus on the Future Here
The vision: real villages, climate readiness, more housing, broadband
EASTHAM — Four of the youngest members of our local select boards, all elected for the first time in the last two years, met for a conversation about the future of the Outer Cape last Thursday at the Eastham library. The audience for the event, organized by the Independent, was small, but the topics that […]
letter from the editor
Fishing on My Side
The New York Times reported on Monday that 47 percent of Americans say it’s hard for them to know whether the information they encounter is true. Many people have simply stopped even trying to follow the news because it makes them feel “numb and disoriented, struggling to discern what is real in a sea of […]
ELECTIONS
Wellfleet Scraps Wooden Ballot Box
Questions about election security are dismissed by select board
WELLFLEET — The select board voted 3-2 on Oct. 22 to “retire the horse and buggy,” as board member Kathleen Bacon put it, and replace the town’s 95-year-old hand-crank ballot box made of wood with a $5,200 optical scanning machine to count votes. Interim Town Clerk Jennifer Congel requested the change in an Oct. 18 […]
letter from the editor
Where We Stand
“Why did you call it the Provincetown Independent?” That’s probably the question we are asked most frequently at our Open Newsroom sessions at the town libraries and in casual conversations about the reasons for launching a newspaper to cover the Outer Cape. The Independent, it’s true, is about much more than just Provincetown. Our mission […]
