Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option. 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, April 18
- Board of Assessors, noon
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Monday, April 22
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, April 23
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, April 24
- Harbor Committee, 2 p.m.
Thursday, April 25
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Napiville Hearing
At an April 18 hearing, the board of health will consider whether to condemn some or all of the 14 units at 25-27 Bradford St. that have long been known as “Napiville,” after their deceased owner, Anton “Napi” Van Dereck.
The property has failed cesspools, and the buildings have leaky roofs and need significant repairs. Town Manager Alex Morse told the select board last week that the town isn’t eager to order evictions that the property’s current managers, Bernie McEneaney and Lisa Meads, would likely welcome.
“From the town’s perspective, it seems like there were decisions made by private actors to incentivize the town to condemn it so they didn’t have to deal with tenants in a potential sale,” Morse said.
Morse added that there has been “a clear pattern of decisions by these actors over the last several months to divest from the property and its critical needs and then expect the town to step in and kick everyone out so they can sell it for more money. It’s pretty obvious at this point.”
Morse said that Van Dereck’s estate, which included $18 million worth of property and art and which his former financial adviser McEneaney now controls, is “well-resourced” enough to be paying for repairs at Napiville.
“The question is where those resources that they have are going,” said select board member Leslie Sandberg.
Read Moby-Dick
Provincetown’s fifth annual public reading of Moby-Dick will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 26 and continue for three days. More than 70 volunteers will be assigned five-page passages to read aloud on the second floor of Provincetown’s library, next to the half-scale model of the schooner Rose Dorothea.
Would-be readers should contact Assistant Library Director Brittany Taylor at [email protected] to sign up for a page assignment and time slot. —Paul Benson
