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. Meetings take place at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, May 25
- Animal Welfare Committee, 10 a.m., V.M.C.C.
- School Committee, 5 p.m., Provincetown Schools
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Thursday, June 1
- Licensing Board, 5 p.m.
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Objecting to Dune Shack RFP
The Provincetown Select Board voted unanimously on May 22 to send a complaint to the Cape Cod National Seashore about its dune shack request for proposals, which seeks to establish new leases for 8 of the 18 dune shacks in the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District.
The board’s letter asks for an interagency meeting including the Park Service, the Mass. Historical Commission, the Truro Select Board, and the historic district commissions of both Provincetown and Truro.
The letter also asks for a suspension of the current RFP. At the same time, it asks for changes to the seasonal restrictions in it and to the provision that would allow applicants to compete with each other by offering higher rents.
Ten people criticized the Park Service’s RFP in public comments, including three who were involved with the now-disbanded National Seashore Advisory Commission. In 2010, that group had helped write criteria for an RFP that were adopted by the Park Service in 2012 but discarded this year.
“What’s happening here is a travesty,” said Mary-Jo Avellar, who was Provincetown’s representative on the advisory commission. “President Kennedy sought to preserve cultural heritage and way of life.” She called for Senators Warren and Markey to become involved.
“It seems like we’ve been fighting since 1976, when they wanted to knock all the shacks down,” said Paul Tasha, who was on the dune shack subcommittee of the advisory commission and whose family cared for Harry Kemp and his shack for generations. “Ever since they couldn’t,” he said, “it’s been this attempt to put it out to the highest bidder.”
“I have read the congressional hearings,” said John Thomas, who also served on the dune shack subcommittee. “The Seashore would never have been created but for that ‘way of life’ paragraph. The National Park Service fought it every step of the way, for more than half a century. That’s what we’re up against.”
Truro’s select board voted on May 23 to have members Bob Weinstein and Stephanie Rein write a letter to the Park Service for its next meeting. —Paul Benson
