Taking, and Not Taking, Positions
To the editor:
We have two responses to last week’s Letter From the Editor (“A Silver Lining,” Oct. 28, page A2).
First, in response to Bob Kuttner’s wonderful American Prospect article that you cited, we want to affirm that the Wellfleet Seasonal Residents Association (WSRA) shares Kuttner’s enthusiasm for the contribution the Independent is making to the civic life of our four Outer Cape communities. And we want to publicly note that our board decided to use this year’s budget surplus to make financial contributions to three local organizations: the Independent’s nonprofit Local Journalism Project, the Fleet Fund, and the Wellfleet Affordable Housing Trust.
Second, in response to your denunciation of the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association’s opposition to the residential tax exemption (RTE), we want to state that the WSRA does not take that stance. We see our role as sharing information and facilitating discussion, not taking positions on town issues.
The positions expressed in discussions of the RTE at our board meetings have ranged from resigned acceptance to strong support. No one on our board opposed Wellfleet’s adoption of the RTE, although others in the seasonal resident community may feel differently. There was broad agreement among board members that the virtue of the RTE is that it modestly redistributes the property tax burden away from local home owners struggling to make ends meet and onto those with greater ability to pay because of higher incomes and greater wealth (even though it does this imperfectly).
The WSRA’s stated mission is “promoting community involvement and participation.” We do not define ourselves in terms of our taxpayer status. It was partly in order to avoid any confusion on this issue that in 2019 we changed our name from Wellfleet Non-Resident Taxpayers Association to Wellfleet Seasonal Residents Association.
Susan Reverby
Wellfleet and Boston
Jim Campen
Wellfleet and Cambridge
The writers are president and secretary, respectively, of the Wellfleet Seasonal Residents Association. Campen is an investor in the Provincetown Independent.
A Playground Vision
To the editor:
As reported in your Oct. 7 article “Loss of a Playground Has Wellfleet Kids Imagining a New One” [front page], our kids have not had access to a playground structure at school since March 2020. No swings, no slide, and nothing to climb on for over a year.
The school is applying for a grant from the Wellfleet Community Preservation Committee, which, if awarded, would pay for a significant portion of a new playground, but it would not cover the entire cost.
The vision is to construct a playground representative of Cape Cod: environmentally friendly, ADA-accessible, and engaging for children ages 5 to 12. Such a playground would not only meet the needs of our school children but also be available to the neighborhood, including the future affordable housing units across the street on Lawrence Road. It would be a point of pride for the community.
Letters to local businesses asking for support have gone out in the past few weeks, but no outreach has yet been made to individual members of the community. Consider this a call to action. Those who are in a position to help support this project financially, in a big way or a little way, can send tax-deductible contributions payable to Wellfleet Elementary School PTA, Attn. Playground Project, 100 Lawrence Rd., Wellfleet 02667.
Our children need a playground. We can make it happen, in our creative, community-engaged Outer Cape style, where everyone comes together. Our children deserve it, and our community will benefit.
Sara Blandford
Wellfleet
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