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. All meetings take place at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, April 27
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 5 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, May 3
- Historic District Commission, 3:30 p.m.
- Motta Field Community Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall
Thursday, May 4
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Select Board Candidates Forum
The Independent and Wake Up! in Provincetown are co-hosting a candidates forum on Thursday, April 27 at 6 p.m. at the Crown & Anchor. Erik Borg, Austin Knight, Austin Miller, and Gordon Siegel are running for two open seats on the select board, and all four are planning to attend.
Election day is Tuesday, May 9. Early voting is available at town hall during business hours every weekday until Friday, May 5, as well as on Saturday, April 29 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A Fire at Coffey Men
A fire broke out on the morning of Friday, April 21 in the rear area of Coffey Men, a retail store where clothes maker Scott Coffey sold his unique handmade apparel.
The historic building at 173 Commercial St. also contains the Yates & Kennedy retail store, an apartment, and a part of the Dyer’s Beach House motel. The fire itself did not spread into the units next to and above Coffey Men, according to Fire Chief Mike Trovato — but smoke and water damage from the fire was widespread.
The tin ceilings and walls of the retail space were “like an oven,” Trovato said, making the fire difficult to fight. To make matters worse, the sprinkler system did not turn on, and even when the fire dept. hooked water tanks to it, “nothing was coming through the sprinkler heads that had activated on the inside,” Trovato said.
“I haven’t got a report from the sprinkler company as to why, but I will find the answer,” the chief said.
“Within a very short time — within minutes — we had about 40 people there,” Trovato said, saluting the speed of the town’s volunteer firefighters.
Trovato also called for mutual aid from other departments on Cape Cod — about six of which showed up with trucks and personnel. The hot tin ceilings and the flammable insulation behind it meant that it took hours of backbreaking work to reduce the fire from “mostly controlled” to cold out, Trovato said. —Paul Benson
