TRURO — Staff don’t say much at town meetings here — even the town manager speaks only to answer questions. Instead, Moderator Paul Wisotzky cheerfully asks if anyone wants to introduce the next article, and the people — select board members, committee members, and the public at large — take it from there.
Meetings can last for six hours and often spill onto a second day. The town was blessed with bright, warm weather on Saturday, May 3, however, and the mood inside Truro’s big tent seemed to reflect the mildness outside.
People had shed their scarves and heavy jackets, and voters delivered their speeches a bit lightly — more like tennis players warming up than gladiators facing off.
The gentle air did not resolve the town’s longstanding divisions over the size of town staff, the cost of town buildings, and the problem of housing. Those issues all emerged early during a series of free cash allocations that became a free-for-all for objections.
The dollar amounts were often small — $45,000 for a zoning consultant, for example — but 11 speakers debated that item. At least five more were in line to speak when Lili Flanders called for a vote: there were about 200 in favor and 35 against.
The $60,320 for discounted beach and dump stickers for elders was also fair game; Debra Best-Parker offered a complex amendment that was ultimately ruled out of order. DPW Director Jarrod Cabral fielded many questions about a plan to consider expanding the town’s water infrastructure.
All told, the 16 sections of the free cash article took more than 90 minutes for voters to approve.
Suddenly conscious of time — or perhaps just ready for lunch — the voters endorsed a $3.2-million plan to remediate PFAS contamination on Town Hall Hill in what felt like seconds.
A major borrowing for large-scale solar installations on town property also sailed through. With only 10 or so voters against it, the $5-million measure was one of the most popular items at the meeting.
With spending settled and lunches consumed, the town turned to housing. Voters flocked to the four microphones, and at one point almost 20 people were in line to speak. Despite last year’s town meeting vote in support of 160 homes at the Walsh property, the number of units to be built there was repeatedly questioned.
“Walsh is vital to our future,” said planning board member Jack Riemer. “Its current value to all of us is measured in hundreds of thousands of gallons of drinking water per day. Walsh is the site for future public water supply development. If we apply the same pattern of extension as happened at the Cloverleaf, we could be looking at more than 550 units ranging from 30 to 45 feet tall.”
Michael Forgione upped the estimate to 660 units. “This is why some of us believe there’s a plan for Walsh City,” he said.
“I agree with Mr. Forgione,” said planning board chair Rich Roberts. “We do not know that the Pamet Lens can support development of the Walsh property at the densities implied by this proposed zoning.”
“Time and time again we hear this: housing is moving too fast,” said planning board member Ellery Althaus. “When one of my employees calls in and says their car won’t start, they were gonna get a cab but they stubbed their toe, and now they have a sore throat — at a certain point I have to acknowledge that person doesn’t want to work. I think we have to acknowledge that some people don’t want housing.”
Select board member Bob Weinstein said the expression NIMBY should in Truro be written as NIMSBY: “Not In My Second Back Yard.”
The seasonal communities designation passed with 60 percent of the vote, while the Walsh zoning overlay proposal carried 55 percent. The last article — a nonbinding vote to cap the cost of a new DPW building at $20 million — was rejected by 54 percent of voters.
The language had been civil, and the air in the tent never turned sour. But the bright skies had soothed the town’s divisions — not erased them.
