‘There’s No Free Lunch’
To the editor:
Voters at Wellfleet’s town meeting on Saturday overwhelmingly approved articles calling for an operating override and debt exclusions, but Wellfleet still needs those measures to be approved as ballot questions on June 21.
Opponents of the proposed operating budget override appear to have forgotten that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Other Cape towns pass operating overrides every five to seven years. Wellfleet has avoided this by raiding funds set aside for other uses like police cruisers. But we still need those items.
Putting off purchases and then borrowing to pay for them ends up being more expensive in the long run. It’s like paying with a credit card.
Kicking things down the road doesn’t work, especially now, when prices and interest rates are going up. Because the town did not install a sprinkler system in the school years ago when it would have cost very little, we now need to borrow $2.2 million via a debt exclusion to pay for it.
Let’s get Wellfleet’s finances on a firm foundation by passing the overrides, raising the funds we need, and paying our bills.
David Holmstrom
Wellfleet and Brookline
That ‘Unknown Variance’
To the editor:
I was one of the nearly 10 percent of Wellfleet voters in attendance at the town meeting on June 11 when we were assured that “the ship is righted” and we are back on a good financial course, in spite of no certified “free cash.” After appropriately giving kudos to Mr. Sumner, Ms. Souve, and Ms. McIsaac for their hard work on the financial crisis, the voters approved with mostly overwhelming “yes” votes about $1.5 million in increased taxes via the Proposition 2½ override.
There was no discussion or elucidation, however, of the approximately $765,000 “unknown variance” discovered by auditors in the town’s financial records (incidentally equaling about half of the approved override amount). This may seem a paltry amount to those administering the town, but to most of us it is a significant amount of our tax monies. Is the missing money in a metaphorical brown bag in someone’s basement? We don’t know.
Why hasn’t the auditing firm been replaced?
Jim Cornell
Wellfleet
Partisanship Rears Its Head
To the editor:
As Wellfleet finds its way out of the financial and governmental wilderness into a new day of fiscal responsibility and proactive, responsive town government, we come up on our special town election on Tuesday, June 21, with decisions to be made on filling the select board vacancy created by Helen Miranda Wilson’s resignation and several Proposition 2½ overrides. This election, as with at least the last two, is revealing a serious schism among our residents.
Town government on Cape Cod is and has always been nonpartisan. The often vicious partisanship increasingly present in the rest of the nation is now manifesting itself here in the form of baseless rumors being circulated regarding candidates for our select board. I found myself facing some of this ugliness during my successful run last year. It surfaced again, in somewhat different form, before the May 2 select board election, and has appeared again in advance of the June 21 balloting. I will not lend legitimacy to these rumors by repeating them, other than to state that spreading rumors is unworthy of everything our town should and, I hope, still does stand for.
Wellfleet has been mired in at least two decades of dysfunction, incompetence, and mismanagement, and is at long last finding its way back into the light of sound management practices and good government, with the help of a good number of talented, hard-working people who undoubtedly hold a variety of political views. What a shame it would be to sacrifice the opportunity to continue this trend on the altar of irrelevant political partisanship. Here’s hoping that local voters are better than that.
John Wolf
Wellfleet
The writer is clerk of the Wellfleet Select Board.
The Facts on Monkeypox
To the editor:
In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it was “homosexuals, Haitians, and hemophiliacs” who were labeled as people to avoid to prevent the spread of the virus. Beyond the resulting social stigma, physical violence was seen, particularly against gay men.
A similar reaction has occurred more recently against people of Asian ethnicity because of the Covid-19 virus and its apparent origination in China.
Unfortunately, history is beginning to repeat itself. A recent World Health Organization (WHO) publication titled “Public health advice for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men on the recent outbreak of monkeypox” points the finger in banner-headline fashion at gay, bisexual, and MSM persons. The more objective fact is that close physical contact is the way this virus is transmitted, as stated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which reports that “Monkeypox can spread during intimate contact between people, including during sex, as well as activities like kissing, cuddling, or touching parts of the body with monkeypox sores.” This statement suggests that any intimate contact can potentially transmit the virus. The CDC makes no claim about gay men being a specific source or vector for the disease.
The people at WHO need to know that their words can have negative ramifications — including physical violence — for those who are gay or bisexual. To let WHO know of your concern, write to the WHO director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at [email protected] and [email protected].
James Vesper
Provincetown
The writer holds a master of public health degree and designs courses for the pharmaceutical and biopharma industries.
‘Neighbors, Let’s Jubilate’
To the editor:
I know some people brace warily for this time of year. But the renaissance of Provincetown each spring never ceases to amaze me.
That is why, as snowflakes give way to rosebuds, I decorate my house at 46 Commercial St. — one of the “float-over” cottages — as I do for all the seasons.
The late, great Roslyn Garfield once thrilled me with a remark about my rituals: “If you aren’t aware of the season, stroll past 46 and feel the esprit de corps.”
It’s decorated for Christmas, winter solstice, Easter, Memorial Day, the film festival, the Portuguese Festival, and 4th of July. And also for the homeless walk-a-thon, Gay Pride, Carnival week, the White Party, “Hallowqueen,” and Thankxgiving. And this year, I’m flying the Ukrainian flag.
It’s a tradition I started with my friend Carl T. Stange, a new “townie.” We started it more than 10 years ago in hopes that it would become infectious.
Neighbors, “the season” is upon us. Let’s jubilate together.
Raffaello LaMantia
Provincetown
The Future of Housing
To the editor:
In his letter in the June 2 issue of the Provincetown Independent, Mike Rice voiced his concerns about the proposed purchase of Maurice’s Campground in light of Wellfleet’s temporary financial turmoil.
This purchase involves an important choice our town must make, with many substantive issues to be considered. This is why we have very qualified people working hard on the five subcommittees delving deeply into each aspect of the purchase.
To all townfolks: please join the conversation. Information about the proposal is updated regularly on Wellfleethousing.org. Should the purchase be approved at the next town meeting, please join one of the reconfigured committees and/or participate in one of the many forums that will help to build the future of affordable housing in Wellfleet.
Joan Zukas
Wellfleet
The writer is a member of the communications subcommittee of the Maurice’s Campground Working Group.
‘Nothing Like Asking’
To the editor:
The proposed purchase of Maurice’s Campground by the town of Wellfleet is a great step forward for affordable housing in Wellfleet. Once the new working groups get down to considering just what should be built, I hope that they will ask potential tenants and owners just what they would like to see on the site.
What would help them most? Would it be an on-site convenience store? A laundromat? An all-weather shelter for the bus stop? Pedestrian crossing lights? Or something else entirely?
There’s nothing like asking.
Martin Elvis
Wellfleet
Rah, Rah, Avis
To the editor:
I read the bird sightings in the paper, but the other day I had an experience I wasn’t sure how to report. It was not a sighting but a sounding.
On Thursday night, June 9, loud and clear, I heard a whip-poor-will calling in South Wellfleet. I had never heard one before, but there was no mistaking it. I understand that hardly anybody ever actually sees them anyway.
Margaret Burdick
Wellfleet
