‘A Sustainable Truro’
To the editor:
I moved to Truro in 2021, and I have been shocked by the housing affordability crisis on the Outer Cape.
In the three years I have been here, my physician, my veterinarian, and my physical therapist have left because of the cost of housing. I have talked to medical staff who are forced to live in overcrowded apartments — two people in a bedroom. I have seen businesses I frequent have to close for days or even weeks because they could not find workers.
A worker I know will leave in May because he has lost his housing. He has been looking hard for nine months. Nothing.
This is a crisis. It has been on a slow boil for so long that some people don’t fully realize it. But anyone coming from out of town sees and feels it immediately.
Look at the facts. Truro’s working population continues to decline. Unless you were lucky enough to have bought decades ago, housing is now out of reach for working families. Towns don’t survive if they don’t have workers.
My current doctor, veterinarian, dentist, and dermatologist can live here because they bought 20 years or more ago. Ditto for my plumber, the two contractors I have used, and my two lovely yoga teachers. I expect it is the same for the town clerk I talk to and the kind workers at my post office.
The kicker is that all of them are in their 60s. Who steps in when they retire? Who can afford to?
I see in the Walsh property proposal a measured, thought-out plan that would be a huge step toward restoring the working population in Truro. I urge residents to read the plan, listen to the experts, and vote for a sustainable and vibrant Truro on May 4.
Cass Johnson
Truro
‘Think About Your Values’
To the editor:
I am an optimist with a tendency to believe in the humanity of this place where I have lived for 30-plus years. Yet my heart is heavy with the approaching Truro town meeting.
I will be voting that day with my daughters, who grew up in Truro and Provincetown and are raising families here, sustaining the year-round community that is our legacy. Unfortunately, that is not what a shocking number of Truro voters value.
At 65, I refuse to accept that I need a higher income to continue to call this place home. It is disheartening to read on Facebook that “you can’t expect to live in paradise forever.” I didn’t know there was an expiration date.
Elias Duncan wrote in last week’s Independent about the spring shuffle. For the edification of part-time residents, I want to call attention to the extreme stress that comes with the inability to find housing — or, in my case, having to pay rent that demands working beyond full-time. I understand the housing crisis is rampant across the country, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. I refuse to believe that this is “just how it is.”
There are people who own businesses in town and have lived here for 20-plus years now living in campgrounds, flipping their belongings twice a year. Many are leaving the town they thought they would grow old in.
The people who would take advantage of affordable housing are not coming “from all over,” as I have heard people say. They are people who already live and work here, building the economy and the resources we all share and appreciate.
I beg everyone to take some time to think about your values this week and to vote yes on the Walsh plan at the upcoming Truro town meeting.
Kathe Izzo
Truro
Managing the Restoration
To the editor:
“Wellfleet Offers Guerino Regular Town Administrator Job” [April 25, page A4] elaborates on the new chief executive’s qualifications. Apparently, the town did not require experience managing a $62-million public works project.
Wellfleet is responsible for all permits and funding for the Herring River Restoration Project from regional, state, and federal agencies. But no elected official or town employee has prepared the applications or is managing the funds. Those responsibilities have been outsourced.
In May 2022, interim administrator Charlie Sumner said the town would be the “managing entity” for a $29-million grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Yet the town’s management role has been limited to receiving funds and then disbursing them to a managing partner to pay the bills.
During an interview for the Independent’s 2022 article on the NRCS grant, Sumner reported that he had “received a few emails and phone calls from citizens concerned about Wellfleet’s financial liability for this project. That’s a fair concern.”
Yes, it is.
In 2014, Town Counsel Greg Corso reported, “I have reviewed the latest draft of the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the Town, Truro and the [National Seashore], and I continue to have concerns with respect to the Town’s exposure to liability as a result of proceeding further with this matter.” Four years later, Corso advised, “I suggest that you factor the potential for liability into your decision-making process.”
The outsourced management of the Herring River Project has provided no liability insurance to protect Wellfleet taxpayers from lawsuits filed by parties alleging harm from the project. Consequently, the taxpayers have financial liability but no effective oversight or control.
Ronald A. Gabel
Yarmouth Port
Senioritis
To the editor:
Reading Ardis Markarian’s and Khristine Hopkins’s recent letters about the Provincetown senior parking permit [published on April 11 and April 25, respectively], I have two other thoughts.
How did the town arrive at a four-year expiration period? Why not three or five years? I’m picturing an actuary in some remote office calculating and coming to the conclusion, “They’ll have stopped driving or be dead by then.”
On a more serious note, having a car labeled as belonging to a senior may put the owner at higher risk of carjacking and robbery. After all, seniors are frail and demented, not third-degree black belts in tae kwon do, right?
Perhaps this wouldn’t happen in Provincetown, but many of us shop in Hyannis or have medical appointments in Boston. Why chance it?
Donna Cooper
Provincetown
For the New Motta Field
To the editor:
I hope Provincetown voters will approve funding for the new Motta Field at the town election on May 14.
All of us from birth to 100+ need and deserve an improved field for pleasure, exercise, and relaxation. It may be used for ballgames, walking or running, simply relaxing under some shade, playing on the playground, meeting a friend, and much more.
Recreation is needed for our bodies, souls, and spirits in these fast-moving and confusing times. It can be a “game changer” in our way of life. A yes vote will give us a grand place for community growth and gathering.
You can see depictions of the new, improved Motta Field in the Veterans Memorial Community Center lobby.
Bruce Mason
Provincetown
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Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
