Two Truro Petitions
To the editor:
Two petitioned articles on the May 3 Truro town meeting warrant require clarification because of the misleading rhetoric being spread in the community about conflict of interest and the cost of the DPW project. Voters should know that the town already has structures and policies in place to address these issues, and they should be concerned by the lack of transparency in the presentation of these articles.
Petitioned Article 40 would cap the cost of the DPW project at $20 million. Since that project began over seven years ago, both the needs of the community and the cost of the project have been of primary concern. Limiting the cost without regard to the recommendations of town committees and their consultants would result in a facility that is operationally deficient and ultimately would increase costs.
The committees and consultants should be allowed to do their jobs, meeting openly with public comment and participation. Comprehensive design and cost projections are expected to be presented at the 2026 town meeting.
Petitioned Article 39 is an amendment to the town charter that would prevent members of the finance committee from serving on any other town board or committee. This proposal has merit but is poorly drafted. It is far too restrictive in its current form, barring members from serving on any other appointed or elected town body.
Other towns on the Cape have similar provisions that are more considerate of the needs of the community, allowing finance committee members to serve on other committees at the discretion of the appointing body. Article 39 should be voted down and referred to the charter review committee for further study.
It is unfortunate that some community members refuse to work openly with existing committees and instead make public statements of opinion as if they were facts.
Robert Panessiti
Truro
The writer’s views are expressed as an individual and not representing the Truro Finance Committee, of which he is chair.
A Call to Action
To the editor:
The future of WOMR — and hundreds of other community media outlets across the country — is at risk.
Congress is preparing to vote the week of May 5 on a proposal that would eliminate future funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For WOMR, that would mean a loss of $120,000 annually — 20 percent of our budget. These funds help support the music, conversation, cultural programming, staffing, and technical infrastructure that keep our independent station thriving.
WOMR is more than a radio station — it’s a platform for discovery. Our volunteers introduce listeners to music they may never hear otherwise, and our spoken word hosts offer thoughtful, diverse perspectives on life and issues here on the Outer Cape and beyond.
We’re also the only community access radio station on Cape Cod, a place where local creativity and independent media should have a solid home on the FM dial.
I urge everyone who values grassroots listener-powered media to speak up before May 2. Contact Congressman Bill Keating and ask him to oppose the proposed funding cuts. Feel free to contact the WOMR staff during business hours if you need help with your efforts.
Thanks for standing with us.
John Braden
Provincetown
The writer is executive director of WOMR.
Hope for Wellfleet
To the editor:
Re “Can Wellfleet Survive?” [Letter From the Editor, April 10]:
It is a crucial moment for our town. Every registered voter has the opportunity to keep the momentum going for affordable housing at town meeting on April 28. Let’s fund the $125,000 to keep the planning for the Maurice’s Campground project going, approve the community preservation committee’s recommended funding of a professional staff person dedicated to housing, and send a message to the select board to allocate 80 percent of the short-term rental tax to the Wellfleet Affordable Housing Trust.
If we don’t take a strong stand now, when will we? We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. We need diverse price points in our housing stock. The median price of a single-family home here is closing in on $1 million, the elementary school’s enrollment is shrinking, and the median age of our residents is 60 and rising.
The idea of year-round housing replacing the seasonal tents and campsites at Maurice’s is exciting to me. It offers opportunities for younger people and our seniors to secure a stable, reasonably priced home, or maybe a townhouse. That gives me hope.
It is hard to understand why those who have spent their entire adult lives here, raised a family here, or are newer residents, would not be excited by that, too. If we take our foot off the gas pedal, the thousands of hours of volunteer work that have gone into this project will be for naught.
Kathleen Nagle
Wellfleet
The writer is a trustee of the Wellfleet Affordable Housing Trust.
Immigrants From Acadia
To the editor:
I was pleased to see Amy Whorf McGuiggan’s article on Wellfleet’s French Cemetery and its Acadian emigrants, including some of my family’s history [April 17, page B7].
Henry DeLory was my great-grandfather. He and his brother Joseph hosted Catholic Mass in their living rooms, with Father Manuel Terra presiding, until 1900, when Henry bought the old schoolhouse (as the article notes) and moved it to the location on Route 6 now occupied by the Mobil station.
Our family provided material including large framed photographs of Henry and his wife, Marguerite, to Carol Ubriaco, who was researching the DeLorys’ emigration from Nova Scotia to Wellfleet for a booklet produced by the Wellfleet Historical Society. On a 2017 pilgrimage to the Antigonish-Tracadie area, my brother Peter and I discovered a 19th-century cemetery with headstones showing many variants of the family name: DesLauriers, but also Delaurier, Delorier, and DeLorey.
We’re grateful to Preservation Hall for preserving the windows that mark our history. I often wish that Henry and my grandfather James L. DeLory Sr. could experience how the former Our Lady of Lourdes building continues to serve the community.
Greg DeLory
South Orleans
Not Hard to Believe
To the editor:
Kudos to the Provincetown Independent for the excellent bit of fake news about the John Waters monument on your April 1 front page. You certainly had gullible me convinced.
The sad thing is that, based on spending history, it is not so hard to believe that our town leaders would actually seek to set aside $500,000 to purchase Tesla vehicles and use them in the creation of a monument to what some misguided individuals consider trash.
Jim King
Provincetown
An Inconvenient Truth
To the editor:
Bravo to Justin Samaha for his April 17 article on Jupiter’s moons [page B6], making this subject both informative and accessible.
He nearly buried the lead, however. In the final paragraph, he observes that satirists have noted that facts have a liberal bias. “It’s been an inconvenient truth to those who have clung to power throughout recorded history,” he adds.
I frequently find myself defending this idea, and I couldn’t have said it better.
I am also pleased at your use of the serial “Oxford” comma, not because I support tradition but because I support clarity.
Jackie Barchilon
Eastham
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.
