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Cape Cod Rail Trail

    CAPE COD RAIL TRAIL NORTH

    Pedaling an Unofficial Route to Provincetown

    It’s possible to avoid the highway, but you can’t get away from cars or hills

    By

    Every year since I was 15 years old, I’ve biked the Cape Cod Rail Trail end to end.

    The tradition started when I was even younger; my best friend and I would bike sections of the trail. But as we got older, we started doing the whole 45-mile round-trip ride every year. It was a challenge that would leave us sore for days but satisfied with our achievement.

    Now that I work in Provincetown, it’s clear that there’s something incomplete about our feat. Yes, we were biking the length of the Rail Trail, but the Cape doesn’t end in South Wellfleet. What about all the rest of Wellfleet plus Truro and Provincetown that we were leaving untouched? Still, without an extension of the Rail Trail, our only option would be biking on Route 6 — or so I thought.

    The writer next to the official end of the Cape Cod Rail Trail in South Wellfleet and the start of his recent ride to Provincetown. (Photo by Sophie Mann-Shafir)

    In 2018, the Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation proposed extending the trail, which would have brought it a little bit closer to the bike paths around Provincetown. But the following year Wellfleet voters rejected the plan. The path now ends at the Wellfleet Hollow State Campground (formerly Paine’s).

    This year I decided to forge my own northern extension of the route, and I persuaded two reporter colleagues, Sophie Mann-Shafir and Dorothea Samaha, to join me. The rules were simple: we would bike from the northern end of the official version of the Cape Cod Rail Trail into downtown Provincetown using only public roads and avoiding Route 6 as much as possible. We anticipated it would take 90 minutes to two hours to get there at a leisurely pace.

    From the end of the trail, we turned left, biking through the campground despite the “No Bikes” and “Please Turn Around Here” signs, and onto Old Kings Highway. It was lovely, but we soon ran into a problem: there aren’t many back roads heading north through this part of Wellfleet. We had to choose between Ocean View Drive, which was out of the way, or a series of numbered “ways” that snake between the kettle ponds.

    The sandy roads around the Wellfleet ponds aren’t ideal for biking. (Photo by William von Herff)

    We opted to try the ways, and at first, things looked fine. The roads were dirt, but hard packed enough that we could bike through them. But when that dirt gave way to sand, biking became nearly impossible. I almost toppled off my bike when a patch of sand came loose, and then I skidded through a divot in the road. We decided to walk our bikes until we found firmer ground.

    Emerging onto Long Pond Road, we crossed the bridge over Route 6 and headed into downtown Wellfleet. It was clear our presence on this road was not appreciated: a driver with New York plates shot me a death glare as he passed.

    The ride through downtown Wellfleet was pleasant enough, though, and we took the road north by the Herring River marshes and Bound Brook Island. Here the green signs denoting a bike route seemed to mock us as cars roared by.

    Entering Truro, we cheered, figuring that the brutal dirt road biking around the ponds had made Wellfleet the hardest stretch.

    One of the things you don’t realize when traversing the Outer Cape by car is just how hilly it is. A five-degree slope in a car is nothing more than a little more pressure on the gas pedal. Not so when biking, and the back roads of Truro have so many five-degree slopes that this stretch began to feel like a joke: we’d crest a hill only to find on the other side yet another uphill climb. The downhill rides we did encounter seemed all too short and rarely gave us the momentum to get up the next hill. By midway through the town, we were walking our bikes up most of the hills.

    Walking up the hills of Truro when pedaling seemed too hard. (Photo by William von Herff)

    We stopped at the Truro General Store to refill our water bottles. We were tired and hungry and only halfway to Provincetown.

    After yet another uphill stretch with cars roaring by us, we were spat onto Route 6 at Castle Road. This was the one spot in Truro where the highway was unavoidable. It was a pretty unpleasant mile or so, thanks to the blaring sun and rumbling vehicles that sometimes passed too close.

    As soon as we could, we left the highway and were back to snaking our way through North Truro. I envied the people who’d set out in the opposite direction on the Rail Trail, heading from South Wellfleet to Orleans.

    On Shore Road, the route leveled out, and for the next five miles we enjoyed an easy (but windy) ride into Provincetown. Cars still whizzed by, but they gave us a little more space. By the time we were riding down Commercial Street, we were the ones speeding past them.

    Our trip ended with lunch and a quick dip in the ocean to cool our aching muscles. It had taken us nearly two and a half hours to cover the 20-mile route. As we lounged in the water, we all agreed that we were glad we’d made the ride. We also agreed that we never wanted to bike that route again. Until the Rail Trail is officially extended to Provincetown, I’ll be keeping my bike riding south of Lecount Hollow.

    STATUS QUO

    4 Years On, Uncertainty Lingers at Bike Path’s End

    Options for Wellfleet leg of Cape Cod Rail Trail get no hearing

    By

    WELLFLEET — When the Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) proposed in 2018 to extend the Cape Cod Rail Trail bike path, it was one part of an expansive vision: a 70-mile network of dedicated bike trails that would span Cape Cod.

    Signs at the end of the Cape Cod Rail Trail telling cyclists to turn around. (Photo by Elias Schisgall)

    The extension would be a key link connecting a dedicated 25.5-mile bike path with a bike lane on Route 6, putting cyclists who get as far as Wellfleet closer to the cherished dune trails in Provincetown.

    Wellfleet voters saw the DCR’s plan differently — as adding complexity to an already difficult intersection and as a danger to cyclists. At town meeting in 2019, they rejected the select board’s recommendation on going forward and passed an article demanding the town ask the state to halt the extension at the Wellfleet Hollow State Campground and consider other options.

    To date, no new options have emerged.

    The land for the trail’s extension was purchased by DCR in 2016. Three years later, the first phase of the project — an extension from the parking lot at Lecount Hollow Road to the campground — was well underway.

    Now, the trail extends for about a mile before ending abruptly in a small clearing at the edge of the campground marked with signs announcing “No Bikes Beyond This Point” and “Please Turn Around Here.”

    Over the course of about an hour on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, biker after biker coasted along the path to that point only to realize their journeys had come to an unceremonious stop.

    Joe Lardizabal and Monique Reyes were visiting Orleans from New York and New Jersey. They mounted their bikes and headed toward Provincetown because, Lardizabal said, there were “only good things in that direction.”

    “We love the Provincetown trails at Race Point Beach,” Reyes said. “That’s one thing that made us want to come back for sure.”

    Arriving at the turnaround sign, Lardizabal said, was disappointing and “a little bit anticlimactic.”

    Christy Karach, visiting from New Jersey, called the terminus an “abrupt question mark.” She was particularly baffled by a green “End” sign next to a dirt trail that appeared to stretch far beyond the paved road. “Do we stop? Do we keep going?” Karach asked. “It’s confusing to see a path and an ‘End’ sign.”

    The unpaved path, which goes to Duck Pond, proved too sandy for this reporter’s bike to travel much farther than 20 meters without its front wheel getting stuck. At least one other cyclist attempted the path before giving up and turning around.

    A sign marking the end of the official bike path in front of a dirt trail that appears to stretch far beyond. (Photo by Elias Schisgall)

    It was “inconvenient,” said McNeely Myers of Wellfleet, who emerged from the Duck Pond trail walking her bike. She had wanted to explore possible new bike connections to nearby ponds but left unimpressed.

    The planned extension would have deposited cyclists on Route 6 just south of Cumberland Farms and about a half mile from the intersection with Main Street. There, it would have connected with a bike lane on the highway, designed as part of the Mass. Dept. of Transportation’s plans for Route 6 improvements.

    Cyclists who reached the campground that Saturday, a mix of Cape Codders and vacationers, agreed that a full extension still holds appeal.

    Myers said she felt a stronger bike network could reduce reliance on cars: “We really need to upset things in order to put pedestrian and bike infrastructure in and get people out of their blinking cars.”

    “It needs to go farther,” said Kevin Barry of Dennis, though he acknowledged the scariness of biking along the shoulder of Route 6.

    The Wellfleet Bike and Walkways Committee played a leading role in organizing against the DCR’s plans. In August 2021, the committee produced a report analyzing the proposed Rail Trail extension and alternative routes on five objectives: safety, practicality, user experience, conservancy, and connectivity. Its analysis found that the DCR route ranked 28th among 28 possible routes and that it “unnecessarily promotes increased pedestrian and cyclist use beside a notoriously congested and dangerous roadway where users will be forced to contend with high-density motor vehicle traffic on the Outer Cape’s sole highway artery.”
    Under sustained local pressure, the DCR caved on the full extension in 2021, even as the first phase of the extension and the DOT Route 6 improvements proceeded.

    Brent Harold of Wellfleet, who lobbied against the extension in several columns in the Cape Cod Times, told the Independent that directing bicycle traffic from the Rail Trail along Route 6 was “a terrible idea” opposed by a large majority of locals.

    Concerns about road safety on Route 6 in Wellfleet — particularly along the stretch near Main Street — are not unfounded. In 2013, Wellfleet teenager Miles Tibbetts was struck and killed by a vehicle while biking to work near Cumberland Farms. A cyclist was injured by a car at the Main Street intersection in 2020.

    But Harold said the problems with the extension went beyond safety and had to do with the state’s process. “The story is the state trying to strongarm local people, and local people saying, ‘Look, we’re the ones who this is going to affect,’ ” Harold said. “Not only will we be affected more by it, but we know more about it.

    “It feels like the state’s just kind of waiting until the thing dies down,” he added. “Then they’ll go ahead and do what they want to do.”

    The planned extension of the Rail Trail would have connected with Route 6 half a mile south of Wellfleet’s Main Street. (Image courtesy Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation)

    John Cumbler, a former member of the bike and walkways committee who fought for the extension, also predicted that the state would eventually carry out the plans but for a different reason: lack of better options.

    Despite legitimate safety concerns, “the issue is, for me, what are your alternatives?” Cumbler asked. “If your alternatives are to do nothing, then the long run is less safe and less family-friendly biking in Wellfleet.

    “That’s where it sits: the state’s waiting for the town to come up with a viable alternative,” he added. “The town can’t come up with a viable alternative because there isn’t one.”

    In an interview, Harold proposed a possible route that would take cyclists from the Rail Trail to Wellfleet’s town center while avoiding Route 6. Cyclists could take Lecount Hollow Road to Ocean View Drive and then follow Long Pond Road back into town. Other Wellfleet and Truro back roads could carry cyclists further up the Cape. “It’s not an efficient way,” Harold said, “but it’s a winding way that gets you eventually to Provincetown.”

    The committee’s report did propose two alternatives. The highest-scoring route relies on Old Kings Highway to carry cyclists to Truro but faced resistance from Cape Cod National Seashore staff, according to the report. The highest-scoring route that would not travel through the National Seashore would take cyclists along Old Kings Highway to Gull Pond Road and then on to Route 6 into Truro. The report gave it an “acceptable” rating, ranking it 17th out of 28.

    The committee looked to the town to present these alternatives to the DCR. “If the Town Government and Selectboard do not take decisive action, MassDOT and the DCR will continue with their projects as the designs currently show them,” the report predicted.

    But now the bike and walkways committee is defunct — according to the town website, it held its last meeting in May 2022 — and the town seems not to have united around an alternative path. A DCR spokesperson confirmed that phase two of the extension was on hold until the Route 6 improvements are completed but said the agency still believes the extension will be an important piece of the Rail Trail.

    “Maybe the status quo is the best thing right now,” Harold said.

    ODD LOT

    DCR’s Route 6 Lot Is ‘Not a Parking Area’

    The state agency says property ‘will be gated and locked’

    By

    WELLFLEET — The state Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is finishing work on a new parking lot at 2520 Route 6 as part of its construction of a bike trail extension from Lecount Hollow Road to the Wellfleet Hollow Campground.

    The state DCR demolished the buildings on the property (including a cottage that had been rented by year-round tenants), graded the lot, and added a wooden fence, berms, and trees.

    But the lot won’t be used anytime soon, said the DCR’s Olivia Dorrance this week.

    The state purchased the 0.46-acre commercial-zoned property from Charles Amsler in 2019 for $341,000. Originally, it was going to be a parking area with benches and bathrooms at the end of the bike trail extension on the old railroad bed, two miles north of Lecount Hollow Road. It would have become the new terminus of the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which begins in South Yarmouth.

    But residents objected to the state’s plan, arguing that it was reckless to direct cyclists to Route 6, particularly at this spot, the site of a fatal bike accident in 2013. Sixteen-year-old Miles Tibbets was killed by a car while crossing the highway.

    The new DCR lot stands ready, but for what? (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    At the April 23, 2019 town meeting, voters overwhelmingly favored an article asking that town and state officials explore other routes and halt any planning of the bike trail extension until deliberations on alternatives were complete.

    In September 2020, the state agency agreed to the town meeting voters’ request. In a letter to the select board, DCR officials stated the agency had decided to “phase” the project and extend the bike path only as far as the campground.

    Nevertheless, when the first phase began in March, the state also obtained demolition permits to clear the small buildings at the Amsler lot. The Wellfleet Housing Authority had inquired about trying to move or somehow use the cottage there. It was a long-time year-round unit, said Elaine McIlroy, chair of the housing authority. But the DCR responded that the agency planned to use it itself. The cottage is now gone and presumably demolished, McIlroy said. The lot has been used for staging of construction equipment as part of phase one, Dorrance said.

    Phase one is ongoing, but when it is complete the area “will be gated and locked,” Dorrance stated in an email to the Independent.

    In fact, the DCR is no longer referring to it as a parking lot.

    “This parcel is not a parking area or a trailhead and is not expected to accommodate either for the remainder of phase one,” Dorrance stated.

    This has raised questions about what exactly the DCR plans to do with the lot.

    State officials have asserted that the original plan to extend the rail trail from the campground to Route 6 is still the best bike route available.

    “DCR continues to believe that the safest and best approach for users of the Cape Cod Rail Trail and for Wellfleet residents of all ages will be to continue the Cape Cod Rail Trail on the former railroad corridor to a new terminus trailhead at Route 6,” stated a 2020 letter from the DCR to the Wellfleet Select Board. “However, as requested, we have put those plans on hold for the present.”

    Peter Cook, chair of the Wellfleet Bike & Walkways Committee, said the DCR speaks “in riddles,” but it sounds as if they plan to extend the bike trail to the highway “when they get the green light.”

    Select board chair Ryan Curley said he cannot predict DCR’s plans. “But I am sure the DCR won’t give it up easily,” he added.

    In August, the bike & walkways committee completed an 86-page analysis of other possible bike routes from Wellfleet to Truro. The state’s plan directing cyclists to Route 6 “came in dead last” based on the committee’s criteria: safety, environmental preservation, preservation of town character, respect for private property, and improvement of connectivity, Cook said.

    But their first-choice route faces a formidable roadblock, namely the Cape Cod National Seashore. Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom has said the National Park Service has no interest in hosting “new assets we will be forced to maintain.”

    With no viable bike path alternatives on the horizon, DCR may now be in a better position to push for the Route 6 terminus. Or it could defer to local opposition. That would leave Wellfleet with a parking lot with no purpose.

    PUBLIC SAFETY

    Select Board Supports Route 6 Improvements

    Mass. Dept. of Transportation plan goes to a public hearing Sept. 22

    By

    WELLFLEET — It has taken years, but the plan to add turn lanes, bike paths, and sidewalks to the intersection of Route 6 and Main Street cleared the select board’s review on Aug. 27 and will now go to a full public hearing on Sept. 22.

    The improvement plan, first proposed in 2014 in reaction to a spate of accidents, has generated more letters from the public than any other in Helen Miranda Wilson’s 10 years on the select board, she said. The proposal by the state Dept. of Transportation (DOT) was stalled when it became intertwined with the Cape Cod Rail Trail extension proposed by the Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which proved unpopular. The bike path extension now stops at the Wellfleet Hollow Campground, a mile from Route 6.

    The select board members liked the presentation by Jill McLaughlin, senior transportation engineer with Stantec, who the town contracted to do the design.

    The select board chose Option 2, bottom, for the redesign of Route 6. (Courtesy Wellfleet Select Board)

    There are six major elements to the project. The first is eliminating the passing lane at the lights, which creates an unsafe incentive for people to race past each other.

    Second, with that lane gone, there’s room for a left-hand turn lane on the westbound side so drivers can get to the Outer Cape Health Pharmacy.

    Third, the intersection will be flanked by sidewalks, 5 feet wide on the westbound side and 6.5 feet wide on the eastbound side, where PJ’s Family Restaurant and Cumberland Farms sit. The DOT originally proposed a 10-foot-wide mixed-use lane there, but the select board protested that mixing bikes with pedestrians was unsafe. Though they did not vote to approve this particular change, option 2, they said they much preferred it and left it to the next hearing for further discussion.

    Fourth, Stantec proposed new painted bike lanes, 5 feet wide, on each side, separated from the sidewalks by a 3-foot grass berm westbound and a 6.5-foot berm eastbound. The car lanes will be separated from the bike lanes by a two-foot buffer painted on the asphalt.

    The fifth change will occur at Cahoon Hollow Road, where a left-hand turn lane will be added on the westbound side.

    Police Chief Mike Hurley asked if the exit from Cahoon Hollow onto Route 6 should become a no-left-turn area.

    McLaughlin said she could talk with the DOT about it. Select board member Mike DeVasto said he worried people would then just drive into PJ’s parking lot and make the left from there. The select board held off on voting on this portion of the plan pending more information from McLaughlin.

    The last major change would occur on Main Street. Approaching the intersection, the plan originally had 5-foot bike lanes on both sides, without any separation from the road except a painted line. A 5-foot-wide sidewalk would be added by the Wicked Oyster and Piping Plover.

    DeVasto said he would prefer to have a 2-foot separation from the vehicle lanes and reduce the bike lanes to 3-foot paths. McLaughlin said she thought that would be possible.

    But not all the select board members liked that plan.

    John Wolf said he did not think pedestrians should be encouraged, with the addition of sidewalks, to use that intersection at all. Wilson agreed, saying, “There is very little foot and cycling traffic most of the year.”

    But McLaughlin said there are well-worn tracks in the dirt where pedestrians and cyclists edge along Main Street and by the cemetery on Route 6.

    DeVasto supported the sidewalks.

    “I don’t know the last time you were on the side of the road there, but it does not feel safe,” he said. “I don’t see why we should be relegating people who are walking to poison-ivy-covered goat paths.”

    “There are bicyclists there all the time,” added board member Janet Reinhart. “At night, workers drive home on the shoulder. You don’t see them until you are right on them. There is liability for inaction. We really gotta do something and move forward.”

    Chief Hurley lent his support as well.

    “We need a safe place for cyclists and pedestrians, because you are not going to stop them from using the area,” Hurley said.

    Only two members of the public spoke up. Mimi Butts, whose family owns Bay Sails Marine west of the Main Street interaction, said someone should be considering the businesses in the area, though she did not elaborate. And Irene Goldman called the design a big improvement.

    “This goes a long way to making progress for everyone, bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists,” she said.

    Next is the hearing on Sept. 22. The project design is 25-percent complete. The 75-percent plan will be done by January 2022, said McLaughlin. A final design is expected by July or August of next year. The project is being paid for the federal government and the state.

    BICYCLE SAFETY

    Cycling Accidents Plague Outer Cape’s Bike Paths and Trails

    Helmets and better etiquette are both needed to prevent injuries

    By

    A cyclist on an electric bike on the Cape Cod Rail Trail forgot his helmet, but not his smartphone. (Photo Edward Boches)

    PROVINCETOWN — “Most of the townies I know don’t have cars, they just have a bicycle,” says Ptown Bikes mechanic Silas Barrepski in between oiling a chain and pumping a tire. Out here, he says, “biking is essential.”

    But how safe is biking on the Outer Cape?

    VICIOUS CYCLE

    Local Opposition Kills Bike Path Link to Rt. 6

    But plan to make Main St. intersection safer is still alive

    By

    WELLFLEET — The state Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) will not extend the Cape Cod Rail Trail all the way to Route 6, at least not for the next five years.

    Paul Jahnige, director of trails and greenways for the DCR, said at a “round table” discussion on June 14 that the plan to extend the bike path to Route 6 by Oriole Lane in Wellfleet “is not in our five-year capital plan at this point.”

    Jahnige said DCR officials still think the scuttled plan is the “safest asset for the community.” But that plan is now abandoned following years of opposition from Wellfleet residents who argued that it was unsafe to lead cyclists to a new terminus and parking lot at Route 6. The land that the DCR purchased by Oriole Lane for a bike trail parking lot is now being used only to store equipment for the DCR’s ongoing construction of the Rail Trail from Lecount Hollow Road to the Wellfleet Hollow Campground, he said. That section of the Rail Trail extension is expected to be completed next year. The 25.5-mile bike path, which begins in South Yarmouth, will now end at the campground, formerly Paine’s, on Old King’s Highway.

    Existing conditions at the one of most dangerous intersections in the county.

    Wellfleet residents did not express gratitude for the state’s capitulation to their concerns at the June 14 meeting, attended virtually by 43 people. The select board members instead continued their criticism of the next big public project in the area, the reconfiguration of the Route 6 intersection with Main Street. That project, being handled by the state Dept. of Transportation (DOT), aims to make one of the most dangerous intersections in Barnstable County safer.

    The intersection has over a dozen curb cuts, including at PJ’s restaurant, Cumberland Farms, Bay Sails Marine, a real estate agency, and a gas station. A fast-moving two-lane highway becomes three lanes briefly by the traffic light, which creates a speedway for drivers trying to pass others.

    Stantec, the road design company, proposes to get rid of the three-lane highway under the traffic lights and keep just two lanes but add to the southbound side a left-turn lane into the Outer Cape Health Services Pharmacy, said the company’s Jill McLaughlin.

    The lack of a turn lane is one reason this intersection has been designated a “high-crash location,” McLaughlin said.

    No one had any problems with the changes proposed for car traffic. But many did find cause for worry at changes related to cyclists. The plan is now 25-percent complete, and there will be a public hearing on the design in a few weeks, though no date has been set.

    A Dept. of Transportation rendering shows the proposed redesign of the Rt. 6-Main Street intersection, with bike lanes and a shared pathway.

    Stantec proposes to add a 10-foot-wide shared pathway for cyclists and walkers on the east side of the highway, with a five-foot bike lane on both sides. The bike lanes would be marked with paint on the asphalt next to the driving lanes. The shared-use walking and biking pathway on the east side, however, would be separated from the highway by a grass berm and paved with white concrete so it’s visible to motorists as a place for pedestrians and cyclists.

    Select board member Ryan Curley said a bike path with no physical separation from motorists is not safe. He asked if the shared-use path could become a bike path. Select board members Helen Miranda Wilson and Mike DeVasto, the chair, expressed similar concerns.

    Greg Mischel, the DOT project manager, said the shared-use pathway is intended for recreational cyclists who want to get ice cream or access some of the other businesses on the highway. The bike lane on the roadway is intended for serious cyclists, who are speeding through, such as Mischel himself.

    “I’m an avid cyclist,” Mischel said. “I don’t use the rail trails; they aren’t safe for me to ride on. Too many conflicts. As a cyclist, I’d prefer to go on Route 6.”

    Curley said the bike paths would be much less dangerous if physical barriers such as those used to separate the lanes on the two-lane portion of the highway from Dennis to Orleans, known as “suicide alley,” could be used.

    The state officials raised a number of objections to that idea. McLaughlin said barriers could impede visibility for motorists and inconvenience snow plowers.

    DeVasto said he’s not sure if a safe solution exists for bicycles, unless alternative routes through Wellfleet that avoid this intersection can be found. But identifying such routes has been elusive, despite years of trying by the Wellfleet Bike and Walkways Committee. Cape Cod National Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom is not rolling out the welcome mat to create new bike paths through the Seashore.

    “We are not interested in developing new bike paths,” Carlstrom said. “We’re not intending to create new assets we’ll be forced to maintain.”

    Jahnige of the DCR said, “The current condition on Route 6 is the least safe.”

    His view was echoed by Steven Tupper, the transportation program manager for the Cape Cod Commission, who said finalizing design details is a difficult task. But, he added, people will seek out ways to get to their destination, even without safe options. Tupper asked officials to consider if they “want to encourage people to make choices that aren’t safe.”

    currents

    This Week In Wellfleet

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda and find out how to view and take part remotely.

    Thursday, May 13

    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6:30 p.m.

    Tuesday, May 18

    • Emergency Management Team Covid-19 community update, 12 noon
    • Select Board, 6 p.m.

    Wednesday, May 19

    • Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.

    Thursday, May 20

    • Rights of Public Access Committee, 9 a.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Curb Cut Comes to Town Meeting

    Richard Blakeley, whose frustration with construction on the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT) led in March to charges of disturbing the peace and malicious destruction of property, is taking his case to the town meeting floor.

    The select board is still drafting, editing, and compiling the warrant for this year’s town meeting, which has been delayed three weeks — to June 26 — after a storm of departures and mismanagement at town hall. But the objective of Article 40 in the board’s most recently published draft of the warrant is “to see if the Town will support Blakeley’s request to have a curb cut into the state-owned parking lot on Lecount Hollow Rd.”

    Blakeley, 60, lives in his family’s house next to the CCRT parking lot off Lecount Hollow Road in South Wellfleet. Four days after workers with the state Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) began renovating the lot, Blakeley swore and threw an orange traffic cone at one of the men at the site.

    He was upset because the renovation prevented him from using the parking lot to access the shed in which he stores shellfish and gear. His only other option, he said in March, would be to build a driveway through his mother’s garden and his septic system, which would threaten both.

    “The Blakeleys have used the current DCR rail trail parking lot to access the backside of their property dating back to when it was still a railroad bed,” Article 40 reads. “There is no practical way to reach the HACCP [shed] with commercial trucks or trailers except through the parking lot … Restoring their access requires legislative intervention. Representative Peak and Senator Cyr’s office have said that it is far easier to make such a request if it has the clear support of the townspeople.”

    A majority vote will be required to give Blakeley his way. —Josephine de La Bruyère

    This Week In Wellfleet

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to find information about how to view and take part remotely.

    Thursday, April 29

    • 95 Lawrence Road Task Force, 4 p.m.
    • Select Board, 6 p.m.

    Monday, May 3

    • Advisory Board of the Council on Aging, 10 a.m.
    • Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.

    Wednesday, May 5

    • Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Richard Blakeley’s Easement

    The select board, state Sen. Julian Cyr, and Rep. Sarah Peake are all trying to help lifelong Wellfleet resident and shellfisherman Richard Blakeley retain access to the shellfish processing building at his family’s home.

    Blakeley has not been able to drive his truck to his shellfish building, where he processes clams and oysters, since the Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) began renovations in March on the Cape Cod Rail Trail parking lot on LeCount Hollow Road.

    Blakeley had been using the bike trail parking lot for years. He became so upset when construction started that on March 26 he threw a traffic cone at a laborer’s truck and was arrested for malicious destruction of property and disturbing the peace. Blakeley later told the Independent he was ashamed of that.

    Sympathy for Blakeley has been abundant. His neighbors and friends Philippe Rispoli, who owns the PB Boulangerie Bistro across the street, and Rispoli’s wife, the attorney Eliza Cox, hired J.W. Carney to represent Blakeley in court. Carney is best known for representing the gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. Select board member Ryan Curley has proposed a town meeting article that would give Blakeley’s family an easement over the state-owned land.

    Because DCR requires an easement, said Patrick Johnson, Cyr’s chief of staff, Peake and Cyr are crafting a bill that would allow a taking or granting of state land to Blakeley’s family. It must pass by a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate and be signed by the governor. That sounds like a big deal but is rather routine, Johnson said. Because the land will go to a private individual and not the town, a town meeting article may not be necessary, Johnson said. —K.C. Myers

    Slick Could Be an Interim

    Left without a town accountant or administrator after Heather Michaud and Maria Broadbent’s one-two-punch resignations last week, the select board moved at its April 27 meeting to replenish town hall’s ranks. After confirmation by unanimous vote — though with member Janet Reinhart absent — Fire Chief Richard Pauley will don a new hat: acting town administrator, effective immediately.

    The select board offered no hints about whom they were considering for the interim town administrator who must take over from Pauley after 90 days. In interviews, board members declined to comment. But listed on the board’s April 28 agenda was an “interview and discussion with possible Town Administrator candidate” — directly below “Transfer 95 Lawrence Rd RFP from TA Maria Broadbent to ATA Rebecca Slick.”

    Assistant Town Administrator Slick began work in Wellfleet on April 1. A North Adams native and graduate of UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management, she spent two years as a Northwestern Mutual financial representative before beginning her town government career.

    From September 2015 to November 2016, she was the administrative assistant to the building inspector in Lee. She left that job to become town planner in Dalton, where she stayed for five years. Beginning in March 2020, she also served as the administrative assistant to the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission’s health agent.

    And for 11 years — from August 2009 to May 2020 — she held a second job as a server and bartender at the Olde Heritage Tavern in Lenox, where supervisor John McNinch described her as “just a great girl.”

    “She was very excited about the job in Wellfleet,” McNinch said. “She’s dedicated, she’s hardworking. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

    Slick did not respond to requests for comment.

    “I feel that I would be an asset to a small Town like Wellfleet,” she wrote in her application for the assistant town administrator position, obtained by the Independent. “I am a fast learner, and I especially get along well with others, and thoroughly enjoy working as a team. I feel that small Massachusetts Towns need passionate planners and dedicated staff to help stimulate growth and development while keeping the strong, beautiful characteristics that make up the Commonwealth.” —Josephine de La Bruyère

    DISTURBANCE

    Rail Trail Extension Work Starts With an Arrest

    A fence goes up, trees come down, a cone is thrown

    By

    WELLFLEET — Richard Blakeley said he’s ashamed of his behavior, which led to him being arrested for disturbing the peace and malicious destruction of property on Friday, March 26.

    “I was really upset,” said Blakeley, 60, outside the home his family has owned since World War II. The house is next to the Cape Cod Rail Trail parking lot off Lecount Hollow Road in South Wellfleet. The state Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) began renovating the lot on March 22.

    What’s upsetting Blakeley is that the renovation, which involves building a fence and a dedicated bike lane, will stop him from using the parking lot to get to the shed he and his father built in 1997. The shed is where he stores shellfish and gear. He will instead, he said, have to create a driveway through his mother’s garden and over his septic system, which may destroy both.

    Richard Blakeley outside his shellfish shed. (Photos K.C. Myers)

    “I can bring a machine in and dig up my yard, but my leaching field is back there,” he said. “And right now my mom is in her late 80s and she wants to see her lilacs bloom one more time. I’m just asking for the access I’ve always had. I use it 8 to 10 times a day. I’m safe, I’m careful, I’m always on the lookout for bikers.”

    His criminal case was continued until June. Philippe Rispoli, who owns the PB Boulangerie Bistro across the street, and Rispoli’s wife, Eliza Cox, who is a lawyer with Nutter, McClennen & Fish, saw him get arrested, Blakeley said. They have hired the Boston criminal defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr., who was James “Whitey” Bulger’s lawyer, to represent him, Blakeley said. Cox would not confirm this, except to say that Blakeley is a dear friend.

    DCR spokeswoman Olivia Dorrance would not answer questions about the parking lot renovation or the Blakeley case. Her only comment, by email, was, “The goal of the redesign is to create a safe path through the parking lot to the Rail Trail connection.”

    DCR’s plans to extend the bike trail about two miles from Lecount Hollow Road, first to the state-owned Wellfleet Hollow Campground, and then to Route 6, has stirred controversy for years. But critics of the plan targeted the opposite end of the extension, the terminus on Route 6. The objections centered on cyclists being funneled onto the highway in a busy area south of the intersection with Main Street.

    Last year, the DCR announced it would put on hold the plans to end the trail at Route 6 and invited the town to propose alternatives. Meanwhile, the state agency would renovate the parking lot at Lecount Hollow Road and pave the former railroad bed up to the campground, which the state purchased from the Paine family in 2018.

    Work began on March 22 to widen the former railroad bed for the extended bike path. The DCR is also providing access to two properties that previously used the rail bed.

    Blakeley began his protest when the work started on March 22. Daniel Boyer, a laborer working on the parking lot, called the police at 8:18 a.m that day. He described Blakeley “coming out of his house for an entire week and swearing at him and his crew while getting in their way,” stated the report written by Wellfleet Police Sgt. Paul Clark.

    Boyer said he ignored the harassment until Friday morning, when Blakeley “started getting in his face while swearing at him and threatening he would ‘end him,’ ” Clark wrote.

    Boyer told the police he walked away and that’s when Blakely threw a large orange traffic cone at Boyer’s vehicle. Small scratches were found on the vehicle, Clark wrote.

    “I felt desperate, and I threw a cone at one of this guy’s cars,” Blakeley told the Independent.

    Blakeley said DCR indicated a year ago that he would no longer be able to use the parking lot once the renovation was underway. For safety reasons, they told him, he would not be able to drive his truck through the bike lane. He said he plans to fight the agency in court.

    Blakeley is not the only one upset about last week’s work. Martha Hevenor of 70 Cassick Valley Road said she objects to DCR clearing a roadway alongside the bike path near her house. That’s being done, she said, for two property owners who have used the railroad bed for access. It could have been done without widening the trail so much, in Hevenor’s view.

    Hevenor said she favored the bike trail extension to Route 6. In her view, cyclists who don’t want to go on the highway won’t do it. Also, she said, her colleagues at the Cape Cod Commission (CCC), where she is a planner, worked on the Outer Cape Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and found no alternative to Route 6 for getting through that part of Wellfleet toward Provincetown.

    The DCR plans call for a 12-foot-wide driveway and a 10-foot-wide bike path separated by a 5-foot buffer, with shoulders on both sides.

    Hevenor, who said she was not speaking as a CCC planner, said she never joined in the attacks on the project because she didn’t want to be “that NIMBY [not in my back yard] person.” But when the trucks began clearing behind her house, she said she had to speak up. She said the DCR never notified her or other abutters about the construction start date, though the DCR website does give it as March 15, 2021.

    ALTERNATIVES

    A Prickly Bikeway Debate Is About to Resume in Wellfleet

    Hopes for a better process to get the Rail Trail extension back on track

    By

    WELLFLEET — On the same day almost a year ago that Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency, March 10, the select board, state officials, and more than 50 members of the public attended the last in-person meeting about the extension of the Cape Cod Rail Trail bikeway here. Next week, that contentious conversation will resume, but without the state’s involvement — at least for now.

    The Wellfleet Bike and Walkways Committee (BWC) will hold a virtual discussion on Monday, Feb. 15 to gather opinions on potential bikeway routes from Wellfleet to the Truro town line. BWC chair Peter Cook said those ideas will become part of a methodical approach to comparing every possible route — including the route proposed by the state, even though that one has so far proved controversial.

    The bikeway, which currently stretches 25.5 miles from Station Avenue in South Yarmouth to Lecount Hollow Road in South Wellfleet, is managed by the state’s Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Its long-term goal is a bikeway that runs the whole length of the Cape.

    bike
    Part of the extension of the Cape Cod Rail Trail in Wellfleet will go through the woods. The controversy concerns where the trail meets Route 6. (Photo Mass.gov)

    Two new sections are planned for Wellfleet, and the agency is ready to move forward on the first, which will extend the path about one mile north of where it currently ends to the DCR’s Wellfleet Hollow Campground (formerly Paine’s Campground) on Old County Road. This first phase should be completed in 2022, according to Olivia Dorrance, the DCR’s press secretary.

    Meanwhile, progress beyond that point is “on hold,” wrote Jim Montgomery, commissioner of the DCR, in a September 2020 letter to the select board. Trying to fulfill the wishes of the April 2019 town meeting, the select board had asked the state to postpone planning and construction of the bike trail beyond Old County Road due to public safety concerns.

    While the commissioner’s letter acknowledged the town’s desire to find alternatives, it suggested his agency saw little chance that a better route could be found. The limitation, Montgomery wrote, is that “DCR does not own any other rights of way.”

    That is why the second phase of the DCR plan has the path joining the state highway at a new trailhead terminus in a parking lot off Route 6, near Oriole Lane. As presented at the public meeting last spring, the project would involve the state’s Dept. of Transportation (DOT) in repaving and adding bike lanes and a sidewalk along the highway.

    That is where Wellfleet’s worries about safety are focused, in spite of Montgomery’s position that what is proposed is “the safest and best approach” possible.

    This is a town whose worries run deep.

    In August 2013, 16-year-old Miles Tibbetts was riding his bike to work when he was struck and killed by a car. He was crossing Route 6 about 100 feet south of Cumberland Farms, not far from where the new Rail Trail terminus is planned.

    A third of a mile north of that spot, Route 6 meets Main Street.

    “There are so many accidents at that intersection,” said the select board’s Helen Miranda Wilson. “It’s one of the most dangerous in Barnstable County.” At last spring’s meeting with DOT and DCR, Wilson reminded officials that the town had been waiting for that intersection to be redesigned.

    Lack of action on that front has not inspired trust in the state’s plans, but Wilson believes further communication could change things. “The process has not been as good as it might be,” she said. Up to now, she added, “Plans have been made without people being on the same page.”

    Town Administrator Maria Broadbent said she expects a meeting proposed by the select board to bring together all stakeholders, from the BWC, to the National Park Service, to state agencies. It is expected to be scheduled in the next few weeks.

    ‘Two Separate Worlds’

    Cook said the Feb. 15 session is only part of the BWC’s preparation for new negotiations with the state. Members are also reviewing past studies by the Cape Cod Commission, the DCR, and the National Park Service, he said.

    The Cape Cod Commission’s Outer Cape Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan from 2017, he pointed out, recognized that the location where the bikeway would meet the highway is “an area of concern,” and one that would require further study.

    From there, the committee is building what Cook calls an “analysis methodology” that will weight community goals and objectives in order of priority. He knows already, though, that “safety is a primary concern.”

    Some townspeople acknowledge there will be pluses to having the bikeway meet the highway. And the location of the trailhead terminus, select board chair Michael DeVasto said, provides an incentive and a false sense of security for recreational cyclists to visit nearby destinations, such as PJ’s restaurant.

    Even with the addition of sidewalks and the improvements to the bike lanes along Rt. 6, DeVasto argued that it is an unsafe corridor for inexperienced cyclists. Connecting casual cyclists to Route 6, which is appropriate only for the most experienced cyclists, is a “convergence of two separate worlds,” said DeVasto. He remains cautiously optimistic about pushing the conversation with the state forward.

    Some residents are proponents of the DCR-DOT plan. John Cumbler, who served on the BWC for six years before resigning out of frustration, said that, although the plan isn’t perfect, he believes safety concerns could be mitigated by reducing curb cuts.

    Cumbler said that while “it would be wonderful to have an alternative route,” his concern is that the search for a viable one has become “a chimera — a false phantom of an idea that will stall any bike path extension.”

    “An alternative bikeway route is not unrealistic,” Wilson said. But, she added, “what is unrealistic is thinking there is any safety in the plan with curb cuts.”

    “The key is, we’re all neighbors,” Cook said of his role bringing those two worlds together. He hopes the BWC’s efforts will bring results “everyone can be confident in.”

    The bike and walkways committee meeting will be hosted by the Wellfleet Community Forum on Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Email [email protected] to request a link to join.

    This Week In Wellfleet

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda and learn how to view and take part remotely.

    Thursday, Jan. 28

    • Natural Resources Advisory Board, 9 a.m.
    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.
    • Joint Meeting of the Nauset School Committees, 7 p.m.

    Friday, Jan. 29

    • Bike and Walkways Committee, 9 a.m.

    Monday, Feb. 1

    • Dredging Task Force, 7 p.m.

    Wednesday, Feb. 3

    • Conservation Commission and Select Board executive session, 3 p.m.
    • Conservation Commission, 5 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    Wellfleet had seven new cases of Covid-19 in the 14 days preceding the state Dept. of Public Health’s weekly report, which was published Jan. 19. The town has recorded a total of 36 cases and one death from the virus.

    Brush Fire Near Bike Trail

    The Wellfleet Fire Dept. responded to a quickly spreading brush fire reported along the Cape Cod Rail Trail on Jan. 24. The firefighters were on the scene within 10 minutes and extinguished the fire in under a half hour.

    The dept.’s forestry unit, tank unit, and one engine company used 2,000 gallons of water to fight the 6,000-square-foot fire. That’s an area larger than a professional basketball court. Nearby homes were not affected.

    The fire started directly behind 15 Capt. Bellamy Road, a home in the Great Woods Field subdivision. The neighborhood sits between two densely wooded areas with the Cape Cod National Seashore to the east and the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to the west and across Route 6.

    The fire was caused by “improper disposal of wood stove ashes earlier in the day by a home owner,” the fire dept. reported.

    “Coals and ashes may remain hot enough to start a fire for many days after you think the fire is out,” said Fire Chief Rich Pauley.

    Even if ashes have had time to cool, they should be treated as if they are hot, the fire dept. advised. They should be disposed of in covered metal containers outside the home and away from combustible materials.

    —Tessera Knowles-Thompson

    currents

    This Week in Wellfleet

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Tuesday, March 3

    • Board of Water Commissioners, 6 p.m., Town Hall

    Wednesday, March 4

    • Conservation Commission, 4 p.m., Town Hall
    • Board of Health, 5:30 p.m., Council on Aging
    • Planning Board, 7 p.m., Council on Aging

    Conversation Starter

    Rail Trail Meeting on March 10

    The state Dept. of Conservation and Recreation returns to Wellfleet Tuesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Council on Aging for another meeting about the proposed bike trail extension from Lecount Hollow Road to Route 6. It has been controversial.

    The town’s bike and walkways committee opposes the plan, saying it will bring cyclists to a dangerous section of the highway. A “ghost bike” across the street from the proposed trail end is a reminder that 16-year-old Miles Tibbetts was killed there in August 2013.

    Route 6 improvements are also being planned by the Dept. of Transportation (DOT), which is proposing a bike lane all the way to Provincetown along the highway.

    Though DOT’s designs have also been controversial, most residents agree it would be helpful if the two bike paths could be completed at the same time. State Rep. Sarah Peake said the state agencies are in fact working together.

    “So I’m feeling optimistic,” Peake said. “I feel these will be good projects at the end of the day.”

    Peake said the DCR design is not complete, so there is an opportunity for the public to suggest changes. —K.C. Myers

     

     

     

    Rail Trail

    Wellfleet Select Board Unmoved by Bike Path Extension Opponents

    In a close vote, board decides not to appeal to Gov. Baker

    By

    WELLFLEET — Following a heated exchange on Monday with a crowd opposed to the extension of the Cape Cod Rail Trail extension to Route 6, the Wellfleet Select Board voted against sending a letter to Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker about it. The letter would have asked the governor to temporarily stop work on the current bike trail plan.

    In a 3-2 vote select board chair Janet Reinhart and members Justina Carlson and Kathleen Bacon argued that the state Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) staff is planning to return to Wellfleet later this month for another discussion about the controversial bike trail, at which point the questions about safety may be addressed.

    “It’s common sense to look at what they come back with in October,” Carlson said. “I did talk to [state Rep.] Sarah Peake who has to deal with realities as an elected official and she said this money might not come around again. I’d like to see what they come back with and see if our safety concerns are dealt with.”

    But select board members Michael DeVasto and Helen Miranda Wilson, who together drafted a letter to send to the governor, agreed with a group called the Concerned Citizens for a Sensible Wellfleet Bikeway. Rebecca Noble, a group member, played a voicemail from Dan Driscoll, of the DCR, which he had left her on Sept. 24. In the voicemail, he said the DCR’s plans are moving forward with “no big changes.”

    Late Tuesday, a DCR spokeswoman seemed to confirm this by saying that design of the trail is “90 percent complete” and that the DCR plans to hold a third and final meeting in early 2020 with the full plan. Notification of the meeting date will be posted soon, according to the spokeswoman.

    Noble’s group has circulated a petition against the bike path extension plan, asking that the extension stop at Old County Road before arriving at Route 6. It has over 1,000 signatures, DeVasto said.

    “The DCR and the DOT plans needlessly compound dangers in a congested stretch of US Route 6 with multiple curb cuts, already known for traffic accidents and fatalities,” the petition states, in part.

    The DCR’s plan includes paving the state-owned former railroad right-of-way for two miles to extend the existing bike path from Lecount Hollow Road to Route 6, where the state has purchased land to build a parking area about a quarter-mile south of the intersection with Main Street.

     

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