PARADISE
Provincetown Inn to Reopen as Margaritaville
The reimagined resort will be ‘all-inclusive’

By Teresa Parker

PROVINCETOWN — Linchris Hotel Corp., the Plymouth-based hotel and investment company that bought the Provincetown Inn in January, has announced it will reopen as a Margaritaville resort on May 15.

Company president Bob Anderson said that his redesign team, flown in from Pascagoula, Fla., was working on a makeover of the historic complex that “will seamlessly blend Margaritaville’s casual luxury with the beauty of the Cape Cod National Seashore.”

Commercial real estate broker John Ciluzzi, who sealed the deal between Linchris and the Evans family, who had owned the property since 1977, said he was at first taken aback by the Margaritaville vision. But the idea has grown on him, he said, adding, “It’s got to be 5 o’clock somewhere.”

“One reason we chose Provincetown for this project is that it’s so inclusive,” Anderson said. “I wanted to take the property to the next level and make it all-inclusive.”

The licensing board voted 5-2 on March 26 to approve Margaritaville Provincetown’s application for a swim-up bar license. The bar is just one of the amenities Linchris plans to “liven up” the hotel, according to Chief Decorating Officers Drew and Jonathan Scott. The pair, who confessed in an interview with the Independent that they are not actually twins, said they have a special fondness for the inn, where they met at a wallpaper conference in 2010.

“I knew when I saw them then that someday those murals would have to go,” said Jonathan, referring to the depictions of Pilgrims wearing tall hats and shoe buckles. He said they could trigger feelings of guilt among the resort’s mostly European-descended visitors. The walls will be tiled for the resort’s indoor water park.

The murals, painted by artist Don Aikens from 1966 to 1972, will be donated to the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, where interim director Courtney Hurst said she is launching a $16-million campaign to build a viewing wall next to the funicular for the paintings.

“I can look out the window of my office in Plymouth and see the Pilgrim Monument,” Anderson said. “It’s going to look a lot better now in the blue and pink glow of Margaritaville’s new signs.”

ROUND AND ROUND
Revolving Doors Installed at Wellfleet Town Hall
‘They go super fast,’ says a former town accountant

By Sam Pollak 

WELLFLEET — The long-awaited moment when the entrance to town hall would be replaced with revolving doors has finally arrived.

The town held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 22 to mark the completion of the $4.5-million project, which was funded in its entirety at last April’s town meeting using the town’s then newly replenished free cash account.

“It was serendipitous,” former select board chair Ryan Curley said at the ceremony, referring to the fact that free cash came in at exactly $4.5 million. “Aluminum is expensive these days,” he added.

Roughly 200 people came for the ceremony, with Town Moderator Dan Silverman presiding. “I believe we have a quorum,” Silverman told the crowd before handing the scissors to interim Town Administrator Tom Guerino, who handed the scissors to Executive Assistant Rebekah Eldridge, who handed them to select board chair Barbara Carboni.

After the ceremony, the public was able to try out the revolving doors, with first dibs going to current and former town employees. “They go super fast,” said former accountant Nick Robertson.

“Better late than never,” said Rich Waldo, the previous town administrator, who took the afternoon off from his new job in Orleans to take the doors for a spin.

“Wait for me!” said former assistant town administrator Silvio Genao, chasing after Waldo.

Not everyone in town hall was happy about the change. “I’m worried about what this means for my workload,” said Human Resources Director Christine Ezersky.

“I’ll be using the back door,” said assessor Nancy Vail.

CANINE COURT
Delinquent Dogs Will Be Read To
Classic dog stories as rehab

By Edward Miller

EASTHAM — A pair of delinquent dogs who had repeatedly escaped from their enclosure in recent months and embarked on a series of escapades around town received a unique sentence for their misdeeds this week: being read to by police officers.

At a hearing before the select board, it was decided that the two Siberian huskies, Fernando and Barkus Aurelius, will have to appear three times a week for the next six months at the Eastham Police Station, where Animal Control Officer Stephanie Sykes and other officers will first read them their rights and then proceed to read them a series of books about good and bad dogs chosen by a panel of experts from the Eastham Public Library and the Eastham Dog Owners’ Association.

(A third husky, Peaches, who had also been detained by the police, was found not to have been involved in the other dogs’ offenses and was excused from punishment.)

The selected books include Good Dog, Carl; Uh-Oh, Rollo!; Lassie Come Home; Go, Dog, Go!; Excellent Ed; Marley & Me; The Call of the Wild; and 101 Dalmatians. The panel agreed that, as a reward for good behavior, the dogs might also get to listen to Millions of Cats.

“We like reading to dogs in Eastham,” commented Town Manager Jacqui Beebe, “and we think this is a reasonable form of rehabilitation when they misbehave. As for their owners, that’s another story.”

TRURO-ISH
George Santos Slept Here
Pasta dinners show ex-rep’s devotion to town affairs

By Aden Choate

TRURO — After an X user spotted former U.S. Rep. George Santos last November amid the sweat and strobe lights of the A-House in Provincetown, Santos seemed to have found a refuge on the Outer Cape. But as he navigates his departure from the Republican Party and assesses his political future, Santos has faced an additional challenge: proving his residence in Truro.

Santos’s counsel, Joseph Murray, presented receipts for $44,805 for penne alla vodka from Montano’s Ristorante at a March 22 board of registrars hearing that challenged Santos’s voter registration. He also produced evidence tracing Santos’s OnlyFans account IP address to a house in West Truro.

What swayed the crowd, however, was a heartfelt declaration from Santos himself. Dressed in Hermès and visibly emotional despite Botox-induced facial paralysis, he declared, “Truro is the center of my civic life.”

Santos’s registration was upheld on a 3-1 vote.