All meetings in Wellfleet are remote only and can be watched online. Go to wellfleet-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.
Thursday, Oct. 28
- Board of Assessors, 10 a.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 2
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 3
- Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Back to Normal Hours?
The select board on Oct. 26 asked interim Town Administrator Charlie Sumner to get input from town hall staff on returning to normal business hours. And Library Director Jennifer Wertkin reported on progress at increasing public access.
“At this point, we’re only open 10 fewer hours than we are normally open, and at the beginning of November, town hall will be open on Sundays,” said Wertkin. “We are short-staffed. I’ve been doing my best to hire an outreach coordinator. I’m doing my best to not burn out the staff that we have.”
Sumner will report back to the board on town hall hours on Nov. 9.
MLK Walk Approved
The select board unanimously approved using the town hall green and parking lot for the 20th annual Martin Luther King Day walk, on Jan. 22, 2022. It will be a silent march down Main Street, according to the request from Sara Blandford of Artpeacemakers.
Rt. 6 and Main St.
The board supported an alternative plan for the Route 6 and Main Street improvement project that would increase the existing road width to include bike paths and a sidewalk.
The alternative design would include expanding the Main Street shoulders by two feet, as opposed to five in the original design. The two-foot bicycle and 11-foot automobile lane provide enough space for both vehicles and bicyclists, said Jill McLaughlin, a senior transportation engineer with Stantec, whom the town contracted to do the design.
“Property owners will get compensation for the impacts, even for temporary easements,” McLaughlin said. “The construction is only going to occur in off-season months,” she added. And, “Construction workers will be required to give property owners 48-hour notice for anything that would impact property.”
The improvement plan, first proposed in 2014 in reaction to a spate of accidents, has generated more letters from the public than any other topic, Helen Miranda Wilson said during a select board meeting in September. Wilson voted against an earlier plan on Oct. 12.
The Route 6-Main Street intersection work is being paid for mostly with state funds. The state requires the project to include bike and pedestrian lanes.
“I suggest we do this ourselves, that we don’t take money from the state and that we model this maintaining the current pavement width on what they have on Conwell Street in Provincetown,” she said. Select board chair Ryan Curley disagreed. “I don’t see what good it would be to move this onto the pocketbook of property owners,” Curley said, “when we have a project that’s being funded by the state.” —Michaela Chesin
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this report incorrectly attributed Jennifer Wertkin’s statement about library hours to Rebekah Eldridge speaking on town hall being open. At present, town hall is open only two days per week or by appointment, according to select board chair Ryan Curley.
