Covid-19
CORONAVIRUS
With Few Positives, Gaps in Reporting Remain
Visitors’ Covid test results are unavailable
WELLFLEET — There were no positive Covid-19 tests among the 987 people tested in Provincetown and Wellfleet during a two-day period in June, the Independent has learned. The tests, administered to 538 people in Provincetown and 449 in Wellfleet on June 17 and 18 at Outer Cape Health Services, followed large gatherings sparked by the Black Lives Matters movement. They were ordered by the state Dept. of Public Health to see if the virus had spread as a result of the rallies.
OCHS also tested 1,255 people in Harwich, according to Gerry Desautels, a communications officer. Seven of those tested positive, according to a source at the state DPH.
At the same time, it has been hard to find and confirm accurate information about test results in a timely and useful fashion.
A week after the June tests, health agents in Truro and Wellfleet told their respective select boards that no positive cases had been reported. Provincetown’s health dept. also received no notice of a positive test, said Morgan Clark, the director of health and environment. And since the number of positive cases listed on Eastham’s website has remained at 10 for several weeks, it appears that no Eastham residents tested positive, either. This means no one who has an Outer Cape zip code tested positive on June 17 and 18.
This does not, however, inform the public about those who may have been visiting here but returned home after being tested. The state DPH sends notice of positive tests to the patient’s town health dept.; the reports go to the town of residence, not the test location.
This gap in the flow of information should be addressed by careful contact tracing, said state Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro, who is on the Cape Cod Reopening Task Force.
Outer Cape Health Services refused to release the full results of the tests. The Independent was able to get them from a DPH spokesperson.
The seven positive tests out of 2,242 at the three OCHS sites combined equals a rate of 0.3 percent, considerably lower than the statewide positive rate during that time. Gov. Baker at first announced that statewide positive rate for those two testing days was 2.5 percent of the 16,526 people tested. This figure was later lowered to 1.3 percent, according to the Boston Globe.
Hillary Greenberg-Lemos, the Wellfleet health and conservation agent, told the select board that 122 Wellfleet residents were among those tested. None of the other town health agents, nor Outer Cape Health, would provide corresponding information.
Contact tracing would notify anyone who had been in contact with a positive person within 14 days, said Cyr. It’s a system that works well in Massachusetts but may not be as well executed in other states.
The biggest problem in testing remains the time it takes to receive results, Cyr said. Results take a week because of the demand. New Cape Cod cases were averaging four to five a day, but recently have increased to 9 or 10 a day, Cyr added.
CIVICS
The Postal Service Is a Lifeline for Local Businesses
In remote places like the Outer Cape, as online sales grow, so does reliance on USPS
As the future of the U.S. Postal Service, which President Trump has called “a joke,” continues to be ominously clouded, a key group of the service’s users on the Outer Cape have been watching the drama with interest: small business owners.
Seventy percent of the small businesses that are listed as currently open in the Provincetown Business Guild’s directory sell their products online. All of these businesses use the U.S.P.S. for shipping; some use it exclusively.
Online sales have soared during the Covid pandemic and the state’s “Safer-at-Home” advisory, said Robert Martin, co-owner of Botanica, a gift shop and art gallery on Commercial Street. The store is “on track to do three to four times as many online sales this year than in 2019,” Martin said.
Although they may be helped by the Small Business Administration’s loan program through the CARES Act, small businesses who rely on the Postal Service to deliver their goods may at the same time be hurt by President Trump’s opposition to supporting it. Despite a plea for a financial lifeline to help it survive the pandemic, the administration has refused to authorize grants to the Service, and has awarded instead a $10-billion loan, adding to the its pre-existing $160-billion debt.
Truro’s Chequessett Chocolate is one local small business that uses the Postal Service exclusively for shipping. Katherine Reed, the company’s co-founder and CEO, understands the U.S.P.S.’s financial troubles but argues for its importance.
“There’s a lot of criticism about the way the finances and structure of the Postal Service have led to its own financial troubles,” said Reed, “but if we can subsidize milk and corn in this country, I don’t understand why we’re not putting more dollars to support it.”
Low U.S.P.S. shipping rates are available to businesses regardless of their size. This helps smaller companies to maintain competitive prices. The tiered pricing structure of private delivery companies such as UPS and FedEx, in contrast, make shipping more expensive for businesses doing smaller volumes.
“Because we are smaller and growing, we can’t get to those tiers,” said Derek Jamieson, head of production and quality control at Snowy Owl Coffee Roasters, which has shops in Brewster and Chatham. “Therefore, we don’t get that discount.” For Snowy Owl, U.S.P.S shipping is often the lowest-cost choice.
Jamieson noted that seasonal businesses also are penalized by the pricing structure of private shipping services. And online sales during the off-season are especially important for the survival of many Cape-based businesses.
In Barnstable County, between 60 and 74 percent of all jobs are in small businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. And in a place where small businesses are such an important part of the local economy, it makes a difference where consumers spend their money. The Postal Service reported last year that 68 percent of the money spent at small businesses stays in the community, whereas only 43 percent of what is spent at chain stores does. Thus the Postal Service, through its support of small businesses with lower prices, helps keep local economies strong.
There is also the issue of convenience. Meghan O’Connor, co-founder of the Captain’s Daughters, a tea shop and boutique in Provincetown, likes the post office for that reason. “Being a small business,” she said, “we don’t necessarily have the capacity for regular pickups for FedEx or UPS. We can’t always escape from the store to meet their dropoff windows.”
Katherine Reed at Chequessett Chocolate said her company’s proximity to the North Truro Post Office was a key factor in choosing to deliver goods through the U.S.P.S. because shipments could be dropped off for delivery as orders came in throughout the day.
Every business interviewed for this article reported reliable delivery experiences with the Postal Service throughout the pandemic. “Obviously, in the time of Covid, everything is a bit more delayed than it was,” said Robert Martin of Botanica, “but typically we have found that delivery times are really only extended by about one day from what they were pre-Covid.”
Jamieson compared the Postal Service’s performance favorably with UPS’s. “UPS has always been the golden child and always been super consistent until this whole Covid thing happened,” he said. “The reliability went from about a 10 to about a 4.”
“The pandemic showed just how vulnerable we are on the Cape,” said Reed, “being so remote and dependent on the mail. In general, our life is only moving more towards digital, using online services to get things brought to our homes and businesses.”
Martin echoed this same message. “For those of us who live in rural communities,” he said, “we are extremely dependent on the Postal Service for an awful lot, both personally, and for our businesses. And I think that is true for much of the country.”
The long-standing reliability of the Postal Service has created its own dividends in the loyalty that its customers feel, even in the face of potential cutbacks. “I know things are changing,” said Jamieson. “The Postal Service might just fall right out from underneath us. But until it does, we will continue on with them.”
Cana Tagawa’s summer fellowship with the Independent is supported by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University.
OCHS Resumes Routine Appointments
PROVINCETOWN — Outer Cape Health Services, which operates urgent and primary care clinics in Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Harwich, is encouraging its primary-care patients to schedule routine health care appointments previously put on hold in the first phases of Gov. Charlie Baker’s Safer-at-Home Advisory.
Despite a dire financial situation in March, which necessitated a reduction in OCHS’s operating hours and an alarmed fund-raising pitch, CEO Patricia Nadle said Covid-19-related budget constraints have not hindered its services, for which she credited state and federal funding. “At this time, we encourage patients not to delay visits,” she said.
Facing dismal vaccination rates on the Outer Cape and Covid-19’s several-month disturbance of regular immunization schedules, OCHS is “urging parents to make appointments for routine and preventative visits,” said Clinical Director of Practice Development Scott Weissman. “The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted vaccination rates across the country, so our outreach is even more important given the current climate,” he said.
At present, wait times for a first appointment for new primary-care patients range from three to six months, depending on the provider. OCHS urgent care clinics can treat visitors for urgent but non-life-threatening ailments “per current state and CDC guidelines,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Andrew Jorgensen.
Given the physical proximity required for eye-care appointments, OCHS’s optometry services remain suspended. They hope to resume these services in the coming month. —Olivia Weeks
CURRENTS
This Week in Truro
Meetings Ahead
Meetings are held remotely. To watch live, go to truro-ma.gov and follow the “helpful link” to Truro Channel 18.
Thursday, July 23
- Climate Change Action, 10 a.m.
Friday, July 24
- Energy Committee, 8:30 a.m.
Monday, July 27
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 28
- Select Board, 5 p.m.
Thursday, July 30
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid 19 Update
As of July 20, Truro had one confirmed active case of coronavirus and 10 additional cases considered recovered.
Eviction Ban Extended to Oct. 17
Gov. Charlie Baker has added time to his current ban on evictions and foreclosures as part of legislation to help home owners and renters during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pause was going to end on Aug. 17 but is now extended until Oct. 17.
This will be good news to the 20 or so remaining tenants of the Truro Motor Inn, a former motel on Route 6, where residents live year-round in rented motel rooms in violation of town bylaws and health codes.
After years of trying to get compliance from the owners of the Truro Motor Inn, the Truro Board of Health on June 30 voted not to renew the owners’ license, thereby rendering the place illegal for occupancy. Any evictions, however, will be stayed until the governor’s ban is lifted.
For assistance with rent and mortgage payments the Baker-Polito administration launched a new $20 million statewide fund called the Emergency Rental and Mortgage Assistance program. More information can be found at the state’s COVID-19 Resource Page. —K.C. Myers
COUNTY SEAT
Assembly Vote on Covid Rules Shows East-West Divide
The Outer Cape’s delegates, and Sen. Cyr, beg to differ
PROVINCETOWN — The Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates adopted a resolution on June 17 questioning the legality of Gov. Charlie Baker’s Covid-19 response. The Outer Cape’s delegates opposed the resolution, but were in the minority. The vote was 66 percent in favor, 15 percent opposed, 18 percent absent.
The debate on the largely meaningless resolution did have a certain significance: it exposed Cape Cod’s longstanding east-west progressive-conservative divide — at least within the assembly.
Proposed by Christopher Kanaga of Orleans and John Ohman of Dennis, the resolution states that “the Citizens of Barnstable County have been deprived of property and liberty” because of the governor’s Covid-19 declarations. It mentions especially “those in the restaurant, hotel, resort, retail, and service businesses,” and decries what it calls the governor’s exercise of “unfettered power.”
In response, Brewster Delegate Mary Chaffee said the governor had acted within the legal authority granted to him by the state legislature 70 years ago. “His actions have reduced the spread of disease, loss of life, and harmful impact on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Chaffee said.
The town by town breakdown on the resolution was seven votes in favor and five opposed. Two delegates were absent, and Falmouth’s seat was vacant at the time. The assembly’s votes are weighted by population, based on the 2010 census. Thus, the Truro delegate’s vote counts for less than one percent of the total, while the delegate from Barnstable, the county’s largest town, gets more than 20 percent of the total.
“The way the vote went was almost cleanly divided by east and west — Upper Cape and Outer and Lower Cape,” said Dr. Brian O’Malley, Provincetown’s delegate. Eastham’s Terry Gallagher and Wellfleet’s Lilli Ann Green also voted against the resolution, while Truro’s Deborah McCutcheon was absent.
This is a typical dividing line for the assembly; voting along a conservative versus progressive divide is something O’Malley said he’s seen again and again.
But this time, the vote especially annoyed state Sen. Julian Cyr. Cyr, a Democrat from Truro who also serves as public information officer for the Cape Cod Reopening Task Force, said the assembly’s resolution was “profoundly disrespectful to county staff. County staff has been invaluable throughout the epidemic. Part of the success we’ve had on Cape Cod is due to the concerted efforts of county government.”
Cyr called the resolution “a bit of a political stunt,” and pointed out the assembly has no authority on the matter. “Right now,” Cyr said, “I think Cape Codders want us focused on keeping people safe and reopening in a way that prevents community spread.”
But at a July 8 meeting of the Barnstable County Commissioners, Speaker of the Assembly E. Suzanne McAuliffe of Yarmouth defended the vote as “a good government resolution.”
The commissioners have no authority over resolutions passed by the Assembly. The July 8 meeting served only as a forum for further discussion.
McAuliffe reported that County Administrator Jack Yunits had criticized the assembly’s resolution, calling it “repugnant and constitutionally inept and vague.”
For that reason, McAuliffe asked the commissioners to take action against Yunits. “The county administrator has an article in his contract that calls for an annual evaluation,” McAuliffe said. “And I would request respectfully on behalf of the assembly that there would be a discussion with the administrator about working with county government.”
“Sometimes, in the heat of the moment,” Yunits replied, “you may answer a question in a way you probably shouldn’t have. But I don’t want to take it back because I do believe in my position on that.” He added, “When it comes to defending the actions and efforts of county employees, Suzanne and I are on the same page.”
The chair of the commissioners, Ronald Bergstrom of Chatham, said that a discussion of renewing Yunits’s contract would go on the board’s agenda.
“But,” Bergstrom said, “what’s in front of us right now is to get through this crisis, both from the standpoint of health and the economy.”
CURRENTS
This Week in Truro
Meetings Ahead
Meetings are held remotely. To watch live, go to truro-ma.gov and follow the “helpful link” to Truro Channel 18.
Thursday, July 16
- Climate Action Committee, 10 a.m.
- Town Manager Screening Committee Remote Call-In, 5:30 p.m.
- ZBA Cloverleaf 40B hearing, 5:30 p.m.
Friday, July 17
- Town Manager Screening Committee Remote Call-In, 8:30 a.m.
- Board of Library Trustees, 11:30 a.m.
Tuesday, July 21
- Truro Cemetery Commission, 10 a.m.
- Board of Health, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 22
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
As of July 12, there were zero active cases of the coronavirus, no deaths, and 10 resolved cases.
Town Manager Screening
The town manager search committee has begun interviewing candidates this week, and they expect to finish Friday, according to select board member Jan Worthington. The committee received 41 applications. Worthington said they hope to have finalists picked by Monday.
New Chair, Vice-Chair, and Clerk
Robert Weinstein is the new chair of the Truro select board. He unseated Jan Worthington in a 3-2 vote at Tuesday’s select board meeting, with Worthington and Sue Areson opposing. Kristen Reed was appointed vice-chair, and Sue Areson was appointed clerk, both unanimously. —Devin Sean Martin
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, July 16, 2020
From Martha Magane, Bill Docker, Deborah Grabler, and Michael Spielman
‘Redeem the Dream’
To the editor:
Dennis Minsky’s column in the July 9 Independent [“A Higher-Stakes July 4th, ” page A3] spoke to me.
This past July Fourth, being like no other in my lifetime, I spent much of the day thinking about what I’d like to be hearing from our president, yet realizing that this was an exercise in fiction, because what needed to be said would never be said by the current occupant of the White House.
I must have composed half a dozen speeches in my head thanking the people of this country for their recent sacrifices, laying out a future that furthers this great idea of a country (as Dennis’s daughter put it), and reminding everyone that we’re still a work in progress. Like Dennis, I thought about what makes us unique and what makes this 250-year-old experiment so difficult.
Sure, I remember lying on a beach blanket with my family and watching a splendid fireworks display, but I also remember the subtle and not-so-subtle racism on display in my own family. The disconnects among pride in country, bombs bursting in air, and the us-and-them mentality of people living side by side in a supposed melting pot continue to be our challenges.
Reading that column, I remembered last year’s Boston Pops celebration, 21-year-old Amanda Gorman, the first U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate, and her amazing poem, “Believer’s Hymn for the Republic.” Her cry “to redeem the dream” is even more moving this year.
Martha Magane
Truro
Her Sun-filled Harbor
To the editor:
Some recent discussion in Provincetown has been about renaming Bradford Street Extension. One idea that has been floated is to rename it Mary Oliver Street.
Another possible way to honor and recognize the “Bard of Provincetown,” as she was referred to by the New York Times, could be to name the new East Park the town acquired from the late Elena Hall for our own Pulitzer Prize-winning Mary Oliver, who lived in the East End for over 50 years before she left us.
This fall and winter the town planning dept., public landscape committee, and recreation commission will begin a formal community input process for the park’s design and use. Maybe renaming the park for Mary Oliver could be considered in the process.
Such a park might include a plaque with her own words: “My sun-filled harbor, no more than a blue comma on the map of the world, but to me, the emblem of everything.”
Bill Docker
Provincetown
Too Many Still Maskless
To the editor:
The Provincetown Select Board has now extended the hours of mandated mask wearing on Commercial Street from Bangs Street to Franklin Street, 24/7. But a mandate is only as effective as its enforcement. A fine would go a long way towards compliance.
The town has installed signs, but more are needed. Visitors most likely don’t know where Bangs and Franklin streets are. And signage should not be confined to just the mandated zone. For instance, signs should be at all pay stations and other heavily trafficked areas.
As I drove down Commercial Street Monday, I noticed too many people still maskless. I stopped and reminded each one that they were in a mask-mandated area. Four apologized and quickly pulled out a mask. People nearby who heard gave me a thumbs up. Unfortunately, most ignored my polite request to put on their mask and protect Provincetown.
Provincetown must protect the health of its residents, visitors, and economy with diligent monitoring and enforcement.
Deborah Grabler
Provincetown
Puzzling Signs
To the editor:
I’ve been vacationing on the Cape for many years, and I have long been puzzled by traffic signs along Route 6, mostly in Eastham. I write in hopes that someone on your staff or a fellow reader can elucidate. These signs say: “High Traffic Enforcement Area.”
For years I have searched in vain to see how this was carried out. How on Earth do they enforce high traffic? Do the local authorities go around knocking on doors and forcing people to go out and drive around?
There’s plenty of traffic but I have always supposed that’s because the Cape is so popular during the summer, not because the crowded street was created by cops or someone making people get out on the road.
Okay. I guess one of you is going to tell me that the signs actually mean something else. That a key word like “Rules” or “Regulations” should have been included. Indeed! This should be the worst that is happening to our language.
Clarity in speech leads to clarity in thought.
Michael Spielman
Bronx, N.Y. and South Wellfleet
CORONAVIRUS
Chief Golden Takes Heat on Plan for the 4th
Former chief Anthony sees no evidence of community policing on the street
PROVINCETOWN — As the crowds of visitors grew larger and tensions mounted last week, the select board held an emergency meeting on July 2 at which Police Chief James Golden and Town Manager Robin Craver were taken to task for failing to assure public safety in the lead-up to the July Fourth weekend.
“I drive down the streets and I don’t see any officers,” said Robert Anthony, the select board member who served as police chief from 1992 to 2002.
Anthony said he developed a community policing program in the 1990s with then Town Manager Keith Bergman. Community policing, with officers politely asking people to wear masks and avoid crowds, was supposed to be part of the strategy to help keep people safe this summer. Craver also instituted an “ambassador” program, in which citizens adorned with red sashes were to begin educating the public on July 2.
But Anthony said he saw no evidence of community policing.
“The police are not doing their part,” agreed board member John Golden. “I’d like to see more officers on the streets.”
Anthony said the town manager, who is the chief’s boss, “has to step up.”
The select board voted to direct the police to be involved in increased on-street education and enforcement.
Chief Golden apologized for not being more clear about July Fourth preparations. His entire staff would be working the weekend, he told the select board Thursday. At the same time, he defended his performance, saying officers had been instructed since early May to talk to the public about safety during the pandemic, and to give out masks and brochures.
Photos Tell a Story
During the week before July Fourth, Provincetown shutterbugs used social media to post pictures of naked smiles and gatherings of large groups.
One picture taken by John Dowd documented a group of unmasked men lounging on the porch of 151 Commercial St. According to AirDNA, which tracks short-term rentals on Airbnb and other platforms, the four-bedroom house sleeps 10 and the owners, Scott Bickford and Kevin Quinn of Boston, earned $117,200 from renting it last year.
Perhaps the most damning photographs came from Herring Cove Beach. Various photos showed dozens of men in bathing suits but no masks. Dan McKeon said his friend took one of the pictures at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 2.
A poster advertising a “Dunes Dance” on Friday, July 3 at 2 p.m. at the Boys Beach, a reference to that same part of Herring Cove, made its way to Cape Cod National Seashore rangers. The rangers showed up at the Boys Beach on Friday and broke up the party, said Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom.
But the National Park Service does not have mask or social distancing regulations, Carlstrom said, so its only enforcement tool is a ban on events taking place without a special permit. Since the organizer, listed on the poster as TBB Presents, did not have a permit, the rangers were able to prevent a repeat party on Saturday, Carlstrom said.
These events led directly to the select board’s reprimand of Golden and Craver. Some local businesspeople also voiced concerns.
“Up to the Fourth of July I didn’t see much proactive enforcement,” said Rob Anderson, co-owner of the Canteen restaurant. “It feels to me, as a business owner, that our status quo policing doesn’t seem like community policing.”
Police Out in Force
The issue is not just unmasked tourists but also house parties. Gatherings of more than 10 people are officially prohibited, but enforcement is not easy, said Steve Katsurinis, chair of the board of health.
Anthony said police should control both crowds and mask-wearing, even if that means issuing $300 fines.
“We have to be more aggressive,” Anthony said. “I hope, Robin, you are hearing me,” he added, referring to the town manager.
On July Fourth, the Nantucket Board of Health imposed a $1,000 fine on the owner of a downtown property where about 20 people gathered, not wearing masks, not staying six feet apart, and within the area of a mandatory mask order, according to the Inquirer & Mirror.
On Monday, Chief Golden said his officers did not issue any citations but had “hundreds of encounters over the long weekend — most were mask reminders.”
Officers gave out a few free masks and issued two warnings regarding crowds over 10, he said. They also responded to 10 noise complaints.
The four ambassadors, meanwhile, gave out masks, educational cards, and hand sanitizer, Craver said. Lots of public education happened, she said.
“We’ve got a great staff and the people I spoke with over the weekend were very pleased,” Craver said.
Anderson said the police were more visible on the weekend.
“I’m happy people were shook up enough to be a little more vigilant and prepared, however late we were to the game,” he said. “At least communication was opened up. I’m happy they got to the point.”
The weekend may have been a turning point, he said.
“On Saturday, I thought there was an appropriate amount of police and an appropriate level of compliance,” Anderson said. “It seems to me that things went pretty well.”
Anderson wondered if public behavior was cautious enough to prevent a new Covid-19 outbreak.
“I’m waiting to see in two weeks,” he said.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, July 9, 2020
From Michael DeVasto, Meri Hartford, Laurie Veninger, Dianna Morton, Jennifer Weiner, and Jeannette Kinzer
Parking and Elitism in Wellfleet
To the editor:
Your letter from the editor in the July 2 issue misrepresents the intention and impact of the policy to restrict parking at Maguire Landing in Wellfleet. The select board voted 4-0 to restrict parking to residents and taxpayers from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the summer of 2020. Lecount Hollow Beach itself remains open to the public at large.
This policy was conceived to increase access to the beach for working people in the community, people who are working doubles, who are interfacing with the public during a pandemic. Access for people who work in stressful, high-risk environments, with no day care for their children. Access for grandparents who are watching those children and exposing themselves to the risk of transmission.
Your narrative likens the policy to a form of racism. The letter states that there aren’t enough African Americans who come here to say the policy is about race, but that there is an elitism that extends beyond race to keep out the “unwashed masses.”
The idea that this policy is meant to keep out the unwashed masses is preposterous. It is precisely for the unwashed masses of shellfishermen, landscapers, and service workers who can find the time to rinse their bodies between tides or jobs. Do others benefit from this policy? Yes, but who cares? Every taxpayer and resident has the same access.
References to racist policies of the past suggest that the parking policy comes from those same dark impulses. Sentiment is important, as is narrative. The narrative that you chose to drive was one that mischaracterized the intent and motive. The sentiment of your piece is the reason that your letter received the response that it has, not just from me but from many in the community.
Michael DeVasto
Wellfleet
The writer is chair of the Wellfleet Select Board.
Editorials and News
To the editor:
The Independent shows its dedication to editorial content by placing its opinion section on pages 2 and 3 every week, not burying it in the back pages of the paper. Editorials clearly separated from the news are an important way for our free press to allow thoughtful opinions to be heard. When they spark controversy, they prove that they have made us think. The process of reading, reacting, re-reading, thinking, discussing, and writing responses is a way for us to hear each other and grow as a community.
The pandemic has made us all a little crazed. We are all grappling with more loss and instability than we can really handle. The awareness of and, for many, awakening of the reality of systemic racism would have made us uncomfortable without a pandemic that has seemed to intensify our reactions. I believe this is a good thing, and I hope with all my heart that our intensity continues the dialogue that is necessary to effect change.
Ed Miller’s letter from the editor last week, whether one agrees with it or not, is a bold attempt to keep that dialogue going.
Meri Hartford
Eastham
Putting Profit Over People
To the editor:
Last week the Provincetown Select Board refused to protect public safety, citing the protestations in 300 letters from people who do not see the need for clear and mandated mask-wearing. This capitulation to a noisy, selfish few is short-sighted.
Select board members who refuse to heed the warnings of experts or the shocking, hard evidence coming out of states like Texas and Florida about the dangers of returning to normal are trading the lives of community members in exchange for profit. Yes, our livelihoods depend on summer business, and this pandemic is a tragedy on many levels, but putting profit over people is unconscionable.
The sacrifices we have made since March have made this a safe haven — for now. We bought ourselves precious time that has been squandered by stupidity and a denial of facts. There is hard science that shows masks prevent Covid-19 spread and that dining in increases it.
Our tiny health centers, indeed, our entire country, are not prepared for what’s to come. We have not secured supply chains; PPE, tests, and testing supplies are running low again, and only now are some states making modest gestures to require masks or roll back re-opening.
How many lives might have been saved if only they had listened to science? Recent reports say that 33,000 lives might be saved between now and October if we just wear masks. The select board can choose to save lives now. Instead, more people will suffer and die.
Although I want to support Provincetown’s many businesses, I, and many people I know, will not be spending time or money in Provincetown as a result of its officials’ blatant disregard for the health and welfare of its year-round inhabitants and those who live in nearby towns.
Laurie Veninger
North Truro
Social Justice Reading Club
To the editor:
The June 25 Inner Voices page of the Independent resonated deeply with me. Lee Wotherspoon’s essay, “Racism in My Body,” reflected a conversation I had just had with my brother. And Andrew Hay’s “Keeping Watch” sang to my teacher heart in addressing the reading of literature as a key element in breaking down barriers of otherness and growing empathy.
This summer of Black Lives Matter, with its immense and continuing uncertainties, offers us a chance to make great changes.
A new Social Justice Reading Club invites middle school students (and their parents and guardians) on the Outer Cape to join in reading and discussing When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele. The books are being donated by Sophie Yingling, who, along with Brett Plugis, designed #BLM shirts that have been printed by Rachel Harrington of Mom’s Print Shop in Provincetown.
All three donated their time and resources so that 100 percent of the proceeds will go to local and global #BLM organizations.
Those interested in joining the middle years Social Justice Reading Club can contact me at 774-840-0286. #BLM shirts are available at Spiritus, 190 Commercial St.
This is a community endeavor in educating and activating.
Dianna Morton
North Eastham
The writer is a middle years resource teacher in the Provincetown Schools.
A Frightful Delight
To the editor:
I was sorry that Marla Perkel spent such a frightening night in the woods, but K.C. Myers’s story about Ms. Perkel’s travails [July 2, page 4] was a delight.
There were many wonderful, vivid details in the piece, from Ms. Perkel’s previous occupation as a mounted policewoman to how she put her shoes on her hands to try to make her way to safety, from the sound of the singing birds to Ms. Perkel’s chattering teeth. Those details made the story come alive, and turned what could have been a dry police-blotter item into a fun and lively read.
My family and I are all enjoying the Independent. Keep up the good work!
Jennifer Weiner
Philadelphia and Truro
Letter From the Yucatán
To the editor:
It’s July 4th weekend and for the first time I am not living in the United States on its Independence Day.
Truro seems far away here in Mexico, as I stroll the Paseo Montejo in my newly adopted city of Mérida, capital of the Yucatán state. This old colonial city is very tranquil in these days of the virus. It’s extremely beautiful, but I will never stop missing Cape Cod. Truro will always be home to me, but my health requires that I live in a place far removed from the chill of the New England winters. How sad.
I miss my family and friends, I miss cranberries and fried clams, I miss the sweet smell of the briny Atlantic, I miss my daily walks to Ballston Beach past the brambles of the bog and the flowers of the beach plum and the deer feeding along the pond and river in the early morning.
What a revelation, then, to have my subscription to the Independent. It brings me home in so many ways. It is hard to conjure up Truro in this land of Maya ruins, cenotes, and rich architecture. But your new newspaper brings home a little closer to me, so for that I thank you. Muchas gracias.
Jeannette Kinzer
Mérida, Mexico
OUTER CAPE PORTRAIT
Ingenuity on the Flats
NANCY CIVETTA / SHELLFISH CONSTABLE / WELLFLEET
In early July, things are different on Wellfleet’s shellfish flats. Even as restaurants begin to open more fully across the commonwealth and country, demand for oysters is only now starting to pick up, and the outlook for local harvesters and growers seems uncertain. In mid-May, Nancy Civetta sat down to reflect on how the pandemic has affected Wellfleet’s shellfish community and on the “positivity” she sees on the flats. Here’s Nancy in her words:
The winter of 2019-2020 never really happened.
For the first time in many years, we got no ice. So, farmers were able to get their animals out of their pits and back onto the flats fairly early. The mild weather definitely put people in a good mood. It’s easier to go to work when it’s not frigid and buried in ice.
The middle of March is when the pandemic really hit our shores. Gov. Baker issued a stay-at-home order. Just from one day to the next, all of the markets dried up, and people had no place to sell. Spring can be a very good time to make some sales, as markets typically start to pick up. And it evaporated.
It really put a crush on local shellfishermen in a way that I don’t think we’ve ever experienced before. People felt it immediately, because if you can’t make a sale, you can’t make a paycheck. From one minute to the next, there was just no harvesting. And it was bleak for a number of weeks.
* * *
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and very quickly this little community of Wellfleet, as always, rolled up its shirtsleeves and got down to the business of being creative. The first thing that happened is that Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting, Wellfleet SPAT, the nonprofit that produces the annual oyster festival, began an initiative to purchase, at a very good price, oysters and clams from growers and wild harvesters. And then they donated it to local food banks, food pantries, elder care facilities. The shellfish that comes right from Wellfleet Harbor ended up on the dinner plates of people in need throughout Cape Cod.
Even though they are independent minded, shellfishermen love to brainstorm together and come up with ideas. You see this raw ingenuity as you drive around on the flats and watch people at work. No two people do things the same. You can look out and see a bunch of racks and bags with oysters in them, but it doesn’t mean that it’s happening in the exact same manner. And in fact, it doesn’t. There’s such a wide diversity of people — fathers and daughters, couples, friends — that run these farms. There’s some people who run bigger farms, but there’s just the beauty of the family farm and the small business.
* * * *
Wellfleet and shellfishing have been synonymous since 400 years ago, when the bay was discovered (by Europeans), and it was just oysters, oysters everywhere. In addition to having the most farms of any other town in the commonwealth by almost double, we also are number one for the wild oyster fishery.
And the one thing about Wellfleet Harbor that makes it very, very different from other places is that we have natural reproduction of oysters. We have spawning, we have perfect habitat.
Shellfishing is the number one industry for the town year-round. It employs 15 percent of the population, and it’s the lifeblood. It’s what makes this community tick. It’s what makes us successful and who we are. I just really pray that when markets come back, that the Wellfleet name — the world-renowned recognition that the Wellfleet oyster brand name has — will be the first thing people think of, because competition will be quite tough.
* * * *
I’ve been on the job now (as constable) for two and a half years. I think I’ll probably be a student until the day I retire, and I still won’t have learned it all. I love going out and having conversations with people, whether on a farm or in the wild. Everybody has something to share. And I certainly have something to learn from everyone, from people who have decades of experience out there and from people who are just starting out, because they see things with fresh eyes.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, July 2, 2020
From Barbara Klipper, Robert S Johnson, and Brendan Noonan
For a 24-Hour Mask Rule
To the editor:
The best defenses we have against the coronavirus are mask wearing, social distancing, and hand washing. Yet as businesses open and more tourists come to Provincetown, our policies and enforcement are inadequate if we want to remain a Covid-free community.
The town only requires masks on a short stretch of Commercial Street between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., despite the fact that people are on the streets before and after that window. Signage is insufficient and easy to miss or ignore: 8½-by-11 pink sheets tacked to poles, with small print. The other day I drove through that stretch of town and observed a compliance rate of about 50 percent. Many people had masks around their necks or only covering their mouths.
I live on Commercial Street in the East End. The mask ordinance doesn’t extend that far, so leaving my home is a potentially dangerous exercise, as I try to steer clear of people who are not wearing masks or maintaining social distance.
What is needed, at the least, is a 24-hour outdoor mask requirement in town and prominent signage. To that end, I sent a proposal to Town Manager Robin Craver outlining a public information campaign that reflects Provincetown culture, using banners hung across Commercial Street. She reacted favorably to the idea; now I hope to see something done to address this issue. Many town residents supporting better signage and more comprehensive policies could help make those changes a reality.
Some may say that reminding people of the pandemic is a downer, that mentioning it might scare tourists away. But turning a Covid-free community into a hotspot, or our visitors finding themselves in the ICU after their idyllic P’town vacation is a bigger downer.
Barbara Klipper
Provincetown
What New York Learned
To the editor:
Back in March, the country pitied New York City (and laughed at us) because of our rate of coronavirus infection. By May we, along with most of the Northeast, including Massachusetts, had flattened the curve.
It seems the rest of the country enjoyed laughing but did not understand that it could happen there. Now it is.
What we learned in New York was physical distancing and masks stifled the virus.
I spent four weeks on the Outer Cape in May and June and then had to go back to New York City for work.
What I saw and am now seeing in both places terrified me. Contractors coming into homes not wearing masks. People in stores not wearing masks. People in beach parking lots not wearing masks.
Masks work. I am afraid that we somehow think we beat this.
Until and unless there is a vaccine, masks and physical distancing are what will keep most of us healthy.
Robert S Johnson
New York City and Wellfleet
Keep Cumby’s Dry
To the editor:
While I’m all for more booze in more places, the bid by large corporate entities like Cumberland Farms to sell alcohol [June 18, page A1] is an unfortunate development.
Not only are these monstrosities major eyesores and death knells for independently owned gas stations and small convenient stores (like the Village Green in Eastham), they may very well put the little liquor stores out of business, too.
Many people will claim to support the small stores, but when laziness gets the best of them, they’ll get their alcohol in the same place they pump their gas or buy the Provincetown Independent (Wellfleet and Eastham Cumberland Farms), and that will eventually become a habit.
Brendan Noonan
Cambridge and Eastham
CORONAVIRUS
No Cases but Lots of Questions
Is it not here, or are we not finding it?
PROVINCETOWN — For four weeks now, Provincetown has detected zero new cases of coronavirus.
Memorial Day weekend came and went. Phase two of the statewide reopening was announced; lodgings, retail shops, and restaurants cautiously opened. Owners and renters returned for the season, and every weekend there were more visitors. All of this arriving and circulating humanity — and Provincetown has not detected one new case.
No new confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Truro, Wellfleet, or Eastham for at least the last two weeks, either.
All good news, probably, but it raises lots of questions.
Dr. Randall Sell, a professor of public health at Drexel University and a part-time resident of Provincetown, offered the town’s health dept. some pro-bono assistance with developing models of potential case importation back in early May. With no new cases, Sell said, “To me, that’s the interesting discussion. We looked at the case rate for the rest of the state, and we projected that as more people arrived, we would become more like that statewide number.
“One of the first possible answers is that the people coming here aren’t the same, in terms of the virus, as the statewide population,” Dr. Sell continued.
This could be more complex than just pointing out that Provincetown is expensive.
“It could be anecdote, but I hear a lot of visitors say they’ve been totally isolated in their cities,” said Dr. Sell. “It could be that the people who spend money now are the people who worked from home, who could afford masks and health care, who could afford to stay home, and were cooped up enough to decide to travel.” People could be motivated to come here specifically because they have been so alone, and those people could have a correspondingly low incidence of virus.
“Alternately, people could be coming here and they don’t know where to get tested,” he said. “They don’t get tested. Or if they’re here for a short time, their physician is back home and they say they’ll get tested when they go home.” In that scenario, Sell explained, “They’re here, they’re walking around, but we don’t find them.”
Even looking only at local residents, our testing could be slanted towards the “worried well.”
“There are always health-care access issues,” said Dr. Sell. “People don’t have a physician, or they don’t have insurance, or they don’t have the time or the money. Or they don’t know how to get a test. I don’t know what the test costs out-of-pocket. Most people don’t know.”
The answer to the cost question is complicated. At present, Outer Cape Health Services offers free tests to people who are symptomatic or have been exposed to someone who is. The related office visit costs $200, but could be covered, depending on a patient’s insurance.
People whose work puts them at higher risk could be the least likely to get a test. Also, a test could be scary if the consequences are scary.
“One of the public health concerns is, how do you protect the most vulnerable without further traumatizing them,” said Dr. Sell. “Closing down workplaces when people need to work. Traumatizing the traumatized.
“I don’t need to be told that poor people are more likely to get sick,” he added. “I need to be told ways to help them.”
Where’s the Limit?
Provincetown’s models are meant to predict how many cases will exist among those who are living here. People who are here for a short time will go back home. The active management of resident cases, on the other hand, puts a variety of burdens on the health dept., including contact tracing and quarantine support.
“With the social behavior we have in the Northeast, it’s not about 50 cases exploding into 250,” said Steve Katsurinis, chair of the Provincetown Board of Health. “That kind of exponential growth isn’t happening here. It’s more about what it means to care for 50 cases.
“We already fell to zero,” Katsurinis continued. “If there’s a slow angle of ascent, because of all these restrictions, then it’s about our capacity to care for people. We have to keep the DPW staff healthy, the ambulance crews, the health dept. staff. And if the number of people sick starts to outstrip our ability to care for them, that’s when you’ll start to hear that we need to go backwards.”
CORONAVIRUS
Early Test Results Look Good
But a negative test shouldn’t change behavior
WELLFLEET — The 449 free Covid-19 tests conducted at Outer Cape Health Services here on June 17 and 18 have so far showed zero positive results.
Wellfleet’s clinic was one of 50 in the state to offer free tests to anyone, with or without symptoms, in reaction to potential viral spread at crowded Black Lives Matter rallies.
On Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker reported that, statewide, 2.5 percent of 17,617 tests came back positive — good news, he said, since it’s close to the 1.9-percent rate of recent tests in the state. It appears that demonstrations did not spread the virus, he added, noting that most protestors wore masks and stayed outdoors.
Only partial results from the Wellfleet clinic were available by the Independent’s deadline. No results from the 538 tests given in Provincetown were available as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Morgan Clark, Provincetown’s health director.
Another 1,255 people were tested at the OCHS clinic in Harwich.
The local testing pool included 122 Wellfleet residents, and some results were still pending, Wellfleet Health Director Hillary Greenberg-Lemos said on Tuesday.
The tests themselves are about 96 percent accurate, said Stephen Katsurinis, chair of the Provincetown Board of Health.
But a negative test reflects your status only on the day of the test, and doesn’t mean you didn’t pick up the virus the day after, he said.
“We’re living in a place where there is contagion,” so a negative test should not change your behavior much, said Katsurinis.
With a positive test, even if you’re asymptomatic, you should isolate yourself for 14 days. It also triggers the contact tracing system to find others who may also have the virus.
Baker said the state’s positive-test rate is down 93 percent since April 15.
Still, he cautioned, other states that have opened up restrictions on social distancing have seen surges. So people must continue to wear masks, stay home if not well, and wash hands frequently.
The Wellfleet clinic is still offering tests daily from 1:30 to 3 p.m. for those who have symptoms or have been exposed to people with symptoms.
ON THE WATERFRONT
Attorney for Fishermen Goes After Pier Corp.
Meeting on June 11 could be a showdown
PROVINCETOWN — An attorney for two fishermen whose dockage fees were raised this year is charging the Public Pier Corp. with Open Meeting Law violations and with changing the rules in the middle of a pandemic.
In a virtual meeting set for Thursday, June 11 at 1 p.m., Bill Henchy, who is representing Jeff Souza and David Flattery, will argue that his clients and other commercial fishermen were unfairly reclassified as “limited commercial” by the Pier Corp., thereby doubling their dockage fees. Last week, the Pier Corp. denied the reclassification appeals of two other fishermen, John Browne and Leo Rose.
All four men are among seven who have been reclassified this year by the Pier Corp., which is making an effort to “professionalize” the business of running a town-owned pier after years of “lax management,” according to Leslie Sandberg, who was recently hired for $100 an hour to be a public relations strategist for the Pier Corp.
Henchy is claiming that deliberations about new policies and classification criteria were made during meetings that cannot be reviewed by the public, because there have been no published minutes of Pier Corp. meetings for nine months.
“Neither the board nor its subcommittee have approved any minutes since September 2019,” Henchy stated in his formal complaint to state Attorney General Maura Healey. “The subcommittee met, deliberated, and rendered decisions without providing notice of its meetings, without keeping minutes, and without providing minutes.”
Pier Corp. members are preparing a response to Henchy’s complaints. Sandberg said Henchy is wrong on both counts. There have been no changes to the definition of commercial fishing in the harbor regulations, she said.
“The harbor regulations specify that on the application for renewal of a dockage slip, a person must provide ‘sufficient information’ to help the [Pier Corp.] determine commercial fisherman status ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ and that they spend ‘a major portion of their annual working time fishing/working said license,’ ” Sandberg said.
What did change in 2020, she added, was actual enforcement of the rules.
“Due to the lax management of MacMillan Pier by the former harbormaster [Rex McKinsey] for close to 15 years, many tenants did not properly follow harbor regulations because they were not made aware of the proper criteria for their application,” she said.
To help all tenants follow the harbor regulations, a new “checklist listing the information needed was sent out with the 2020 dockage applications,” she said. “We are trying to professionalize the process.”
But Henchy said this effectively has changed the rules. In Pier Manager Doug Boulanger’s March 28 email sent to dock tenants with the 2020 applications, his language makes clear that something new will be expected of the slip holders.
“We have new documentation requirements that this memo will describe what is necessary to supply with your renewal application,” Boulanger wrote in the email.
Sandberg said Henchy is incorrect about the minutes, too. They were actually posted on the town’s website through Jan. 14, she said. The others had not been approved or posted because of delays related to Covid-19. But the Pier Corp. took care of that on June 8 by approving all the minutes from February going forward, and they will be posted by town staff as soon as possible, she said.
She added that all Pier Corp. meetings have been recorded and are available for viewing on PTV, like most other town meetings.
