Obstructed View of Harbor Hill
To the editor:
Thank you for Paul Benson’s piece on “The View From Harbor Hill” [March 4, front page]. It was wonderful to read the vignettes that put in real world perspective exactly why the town made the great effort it did to give life to this project. The need for year-round housing solutions has been well understood for years, but it always seemed “a bridge too far.”
It got done — but there’s more to the story. What was the cost of Harbor Hill and what remains of the cost still to be paid? Unfortunately, your piece never gets to “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.
From the outset, the Provincetown Select Board characterized Harbor Hill as financially “self-supporting.” This is what taxpayers were told when they were asked to approve the project. The problem, though, is that this characterization was never accurate, and those who tried to make that clear were vilified. To the best of my knowledge, Harbor Hill is not now, nor can it likely ever be, self-supporting. I hope I’m wrong.
Confidence in leadership matters; credibility may matter even more. This is especially true if we hope to execute other bold projects like Harbor Hill in the future. The full story of its financial impact, past, present, and future, has never been told. Taxpayers deserve the full story.
Paul de Ruyter
East Orleans and Provincetown
Caring for the Vulnerable
To the editor:
We would like to give Outer Cape Heath Services in Provincetown a hearty standing ovation for protecting our residents, especially those who live at Maushope.
The team at Outer Cape Health made it incredibly easy for our vulnerable residents to receive both doses of the Moderna Covid vaccine without having to sign up online or wait in line in the cold. We are overwhelmed by how smoothly the process went, and grateful that our local clinic cares so deeply about Provincetown’s senior and disabled populations.
Kristin Hatch
Provincetown
The writer is executive director of the Provincetown Housing Authority.
