Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are in-person, typically with an online-attendance option for both committee members and residents. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details.
Thursday, Nov. 3
- Planning Board, 5 p.m., Town Hall
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Monday, Nov. 7
- Select Board, 6 p.m. — canceled
Tuesday, Nov. 8
- State Election, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Town Hall Auditorium
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m., Town Hall
Wednesday, Nov. 9
- Special Town Meeting, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Thursday, Nov. 10
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 5 p.m., Town Hall
- Planning Board, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Conversation Starter
Owner of Sal’s Fined for Contempt
Land Court Judge Michael Vhay has ordered Siobhan Carew, the owner of Sal’s Place at 99 Commercial St., to pay fines and attorney fees totaling $94,411.
The Oct. 27 order came after a two-year legal tussle between Carew and Gregory Connors, her neighbor at 101 Commercial St. In 2021, Connors filed suit against Carew for placing restaurant tables and chairs on the beach behind his house. The arrangement had been allowed by the zoning board of appeals under a Covid-19 ordinance granting restaurants permission to extend their outdoor seating.
Judge Vhay had already been assigned to an ongoing lawsuit, first filed in 2016, between Connors and Carew over access to the restaurant and a parking easement.
In 2021, Vhay issued an injunction barring Carew from seating customers behind Connors’s home. Carew continued to serve there anyway. So, Vhay imposed daily fines on Carew for being in contempt of court.
With help from Karl Buch, an attorney working pro bono for the neighboring West End Racing Children’s Community Sailing Club, Vhay was persuaded in November 2021 to dismiss the fines temporarily and see if the parties could negotiate a settlement. Buch got the judge to recognize that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts owns the intertidal zone at mean high water, not Connors.
After rehashing all that with the intertidal ownership clarified, Vhay came out with a new judgment on Oct. 27. It orders Carew to pay Connors $63,211 in legal fees and to pay the court $31,200 for violating the injunction, according to court documents. —K.C. Myers
