Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held 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 are at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, Dec. 21
- Open Space Committee, 3:30 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 25
Town Hall closed for Christmas
Wednesday, Dec. 27
- Coastal Resiliency Advisory Commission, noon
Thursday. Dec. 28
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 5 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Opiate Settlement Spending Plan
At its Dec. 11 meeting, the select board heard a plan from Alex Nelson of Outer Cape Community Solutions and Lezli Rowell, Provincetown’s health director, to coordinate the town’s expenditure of money from nationwide opioid lawsuits with Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham.
Provincetown has received $46,445 since 2022 and can expect to receive another $83,968 over the next 16 years, Nelson said. The four towns together currently have $153,292 in settlement funds, of which they plan to spend $41,865 over the next six months.
The largest allocation is $25,000 to the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod to fund a mobile outreach van on the Outer Cape, wider distribution of the overdose-reversing medication naloxone (Narcan), and a discretionary fund that can be used to help people with urgent and concrete needs such as winter heating and car repair.
The next largest allocation, to the Families in Recovery Support (FIRST) program run by Cape Cod Children’s Place in Eastham, is $5,000 for a discretionary fund to help families facing similar urgent costs.
A $3,800 allocation will be divided between two recovery yoga programs, one for adults and one for ages 18 to 25, and $3,000 will go toward taxi rides for people on the Outer Cape who need transportation to recovery-related programs.
In the prevention category are a $1,925 allocation for a stress-reduction class for teens run by Wellstrong Wellness and $1,940 for a self-expression-through-art program for teens at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.
Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham had already approved the spending plan, which is for January through June 2024, Nelson told the board. Provincetown’s select board approved it unanimously. —Paul Benson
