Wellfleet’s meetings are still being held remotely. From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda and find out how to view and take part remotely.
Tuesday, July 6
- Energy and Climate Action Committee, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, July 7
- Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.
Thursday, July 8
- Natural Resources Advisory Board 10:30 a.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Independent Is ‘Paper of Record’
The select board on June 22 decided to place the town’s legal advertising in the Provincetown Independent, while also continuing to put notices in the Cape Codder and the Provincetown Banner.
Select board member Ryan Curley recommended the town name the Independent the “newspaper of record.”
“One of the purposes of posting the meetings is to inform the public,” Curley said, “and to do that you need to be in a newspaper that people are reading.” He said he would like to remove the Banner and the Cape Codder as newspapers of record.
Board chair Mike DeVasto, however, said his mother reads the Banner. Member Janet Reinhart abstained from the vote.
Jeanne Maclauchlan, the town’s administrative clerk, told the select board the Independent requires advertisements be submitted two weeks before they are printed, and that the Cape Codder requires just a few days.
Teresa Parker of Wellfleet, the Independent’s publisher, said that Maclauchlan was mistaken, and that the paper needs just one week’s notice to reserve ad space.
As of Aug. 27, 2020, the Banner reported that its total paid circulation was 2,298. The Cape Codder, which covers eight towns on the Lower Cape, reported a total paid circulation of 4,452. Both newspapers are owned by the Gannett Company, the largest publisher of newspapers in the U.S.
As of June 17, the Independent’s total paid circulation was 4,220, according to Parker. —K.C. Myers
Oysterfest Canned Again
For the second year in a row, Wellfleet’s OysterFest has been canceled. The event attracts thousands of people to the town and was scheduled to take place on Oct. 16 and 17 this year. On June 25, Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting (known by the acronym SPAT), the nonprofit behind the festival, released a statement saying, “The uncertainty of the pandemic and the safety of all those involved was the main factor behind this difficult decision.” The OysterFest will return in October 2022, SPAT said. —Alex Sharp