Meetings Ahead
Meetings are held remotely. Go to provincetown-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch.
Thursday, Sept. 17
- Scholarship & Trust Administration Committee, 3 p.m.
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 23
- Public Landscaping Committee, 3 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 24
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
As of Sept. 9, Provincetown had zero active cases of Covid-19, 32 cases considered recovered, and one death.
Quorum Drops for Monday Town Meeting
It could be cold and cloudy, or warm and sunny, but democracy will go forward outdoors on Monday, Sept. 21 for town meeting in the parking lot at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, 11 Prince St., at 5 p.m. (A rain date will be set that day if necessary.)
The select board wants to make this pandemic town meeting as easy as possible. So on Sept. 14 the members voted unanimously and without any debate to lower the quorum required for a town meeting from 100 registered voters to 50.
Gov. Charlie Baker has allowed towns to lower quorums to 10 percent of the usual number to assist towns in passing budgets. Most communities delayed their town meetings until the fall. The budgets must get passed so that tax bills can be sent out and the towns’ main source of revenue, property taxes, can be collected.
If you are driving to town meeting, park at the Grace Hall Parking Lot. Check-in will be on Mozart Avenue, adjacent to the church rectory building.
Town Manager Firm Picked
You may get a feeling of déjà vu, but in fact, this is all new: the select board on Sept. 14 picked the lowest bidder, Groux-White Consulting LLC, to work with a town manager search committee to pick a new municipal leader.
Groux-White’s bid of $9,540 was chosen, and now the board is advertising for search committee members. They would like it to include a member of the general population, a member of the business community, and someone from the nonprofit human services community, along with the acting town manager, Charles Sumner, and Marianne Clements, a member of the personnel board. Clements, a long-time human resources executive, was on the last search committee, which picked finalists only a year ago.
Other than Clements, who the select board wanted because of her human resources background and long-time volunteerism, they asked for new people to join the committee. It was just a year ago that a different committee and a different consultant made recommendations that ended with the select board choosing Robin Craver. She lasted only six months before resigning at the end of her probationary period. —K.C. Myers
