Some meetings in Provincetown are in person, some are online, and some are both. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details.
Thursday, April 28
- Board of Assessors, noon, Town Hall
- Finance Committee, 3 p.m., virtual
- Open Space, 3 p.m., Town Hall
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 4 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Tuesday, May 3
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, May 4
- Historic District Commission, 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 5
- Council on Aging Board, 10 a.m., Veterans Memorial Community Center
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Conversation Starters
New Equity Director
Provincetown resident Donna Walker has been hired as the town’s first director of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Walker, a 20-year resident of Provincetown and an admissions counselor at Cape Cod Community College, begins her role on May 2 with a salary of $75,000. One of her first priorities will be to conduct an “internal equity audit — examining town policies, bylaws, board and committee makeup and other data with a DEI lens,” according to an announcement by Town Manager Alex Morse.
In other words, Walker will try to increase the diversity on boards and committees and look at ways policies could be more inclusive for all.
Walker served on the group that petitioned town meeting to create the DEI office last year. She and other members of the Provincetown League of Visionary Revolutionaries then followed up and met with Earl Hinton, whom the town hired as its DEI consultant, to create the office.
Hinton’s demographic analysis showed that the town is 87 percent white, with a median age of 57. He found only 59 households with children under the age of 18.
Walker has worked for 27 years in educational administration. Her diversity, equity, and inclusion training includes attending the National Coalition Building Institute, a train-the-trainer program about institutionalizing the skills needed to recognize diversity and build a welcoming environment, according to Morse.
Walker has served as a member of the Racial Equity Justice Institute interdivisional team at Cape Cod Community College. She is a member of college’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Committee (IDEA). Currently, Walker is enrolled in Cornell University’s online DEI certificate program, he added.
Pitch Your Idea for Housing
Do you have an idea to alleviate the workforce housing crisis? If so, pitch it.
The nonprofit EforAll and The Commons are hosting a Provincetown Housing Pitch Contest on May 19 at 5:30 p.m. on Zoom. The deadline to apply is May 4.
The May 19 event is different from the usual Shark Tank model offered each year, said Jill Stauffer, director of the Commons, “as we’re asking locals to pitch business, nonprofit, and policy ideas that would help to alleviate the workforce housing shortage in Provincetown (and on the Cape more broadly).”
There will be cash prizes. First prize is $1,000, second $750, and third $500. There is also a $500 “fan favorite” prize. If the winner is a policy idea, Town Manager Alex Morse will meet with the winner to discuss making it happen, she said.
Judges include state Sen. Julian Cyr, restaurateur Mac Hay, a private housing developer, a nonprofit housing developer, and others. —K.C. Myers
