A Vision of Wellfleet
To the editor:
I encourage Wellfleet voters to take a few moments before town meeting (this Saturday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. at the elementary school ball field) to consider their vision of Wellfleet in the future and what actions might ensure that vision.
As a retired teacher, a member of the Wellfleet School Committee (although not speaking for the committee), the parent of a Wellfleet teacher, and grandparent to two Wellfleet Elementary School students, I know what my vision is: Wellfleet as a vibrant, inclusive, year-round community with housing for all ages and all levels of income well into the future.
Several housing-forward initiatives are on the town meeting warrant. I can’t tell you how to vote but I can quote Henry David Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.”
There is a very high cost to doing nothing.
Joan Zukas
Wellfleet
A Vote of No Confidence
To the editor:
According to the Independent’s Aug. 25 article “Still Counting” [page A13], “Wellfleet has not had free cash certified since 2019, due to thousands of errors made by a series of employees,” and “In fact, the DOR does not have the town’s books from 2020, 2021, or 2022 yet.”
Stunning news for taxpayers.
Therefore, I have no confidence in the town of Wellfleet being able to handle the additional bookkeeping and accounting for Maurice’s Campground if the proposed purchase of it passes at town meeting and town election.
It’s a no vote from me on the select board’s proposed purchase of Maurice’s Campground. These days, the last thing the town needs is to add to its logjam of bookkeeping and accounting problems.
Mike Rice
Wellfleet
Time for New Leadership
To the editor:
I read with interest your Sept. 1 letter about the affordable housing questions on Wellfleet’s Sept. 10 special town meeting warrant [“Wellfleet’s Moment Arrives,” page A2]. I also read your report on the resistance of some members of the town’s planning board to solutions for the ever-worsening year-round affordable housing shortage.
It is striking that the proposals regarding cottage colonies and smaller buildable lots emanated from the select board and not the Wellfleet Planning Board. It is the planning board that should be generating solutions to the town’s housing crisis.
Worse still, the planning board’s chair, Gerry Parent, opposed both proposals. You point out that during Parent’s tenure as its chair, the board “has consistently opposed the development of affordable housing … making Wellfleet the Cape Cod town with the lowest percentage of affordable housing units.”
Wellfleet’s affordable housing crisis continues to worsen, but under Parent’s leadership the planning board has perpetuated an outdated exclusionary approach to zoning.
Isn’t it time for new leadership on this critical town board? New leadership should not be expected to rubber stamp the select board’s inclusionary approach to zoning. It should, however, be a reliable source of creative solutions to Wellfleet’s housing woes, rather than remaining wedded to the policies that have been fueling the housing shortage.
Carl Sussman
Newton and Wellfleet
The writer is a retired management and community development consultant.
Peace in Ukraine
To the editor:
In the Aug. 25 issue of the Independent, L. Michael Hager called for diplomacy as a means to halt the fighting between Ukraine and Russia [“Stop the Weapons, End the War,” page A3]. Mr. Hager worked for the International Development Law Organization. I don’t know what they do, and I’m guessing Vladimir Putin doesn’t care what they do.
If Mr. Hager thinks Putin will adhere to any brokered agreement or follow geopolitical norms, or that Putin can be taken at his word, he is exhibiting serious naivete. After invading a sovereign Ukraine, the Russians are now taking a beating at the hands of the heroic Ukrainians. Any brokered peace or ceasefire will simply allow the Russian military to regroup and rearm, and it will likely allow them to keep what they’ve stolen.
With Russia’s military on the ropes, this is not the time to let up. When in a fist fight with a crazed opponent, never let him up once you’ve knocked him down. We as Americans are beginning to see how precarious our own democracy is. Far be it for us to call to heel those fighting and dying for theirs.
War is never good, but sometimes it is just.
Brendan Noonan
Cambridge
Pickleball Hours
To the editor:
Over the course of this summer, it has not been uncommon for the pickleball courts at Motta Field to be played on with no regard to the posted hours. It seems anytime that it’s light out might be the rule — rather than the posted hours.
Of course, it would be beneficial to post the hours on something other than a weather-beaten 8½-by-11 piece of paper that no one pays attention to. A larger sign would benefit all — those who play, as well as those who must listen to the playing.
Walt Winnowski
Provincetown
