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TRURO TREASURE

DPW Price Tag Will Be $26M to $30M, Says Project Manager

Updated cost estimates reignite concerns as design process lags

By Aden Choate Jan 8, 2025

TRURO — The projected cost of an upgraded Dept. of Public Works (DPW) facility, which has been on the town’s agenda for at least 13 years, has climbed back up into the range of the $28 million that was rejected by voters at town meeting last May.

Paul Millett of Environmental Partners, the owner’s project manager (OPM), estimated the cost of a new building at $29.2 million at the select board’s Dec. 10 meeting. Using data from project architect Weston & Sampson, Millett reported a projected price of approximately $800 per square foot.

“No matter how you slice it and dice it here, you’re between $26 and $30 million,” Millett said.

In 2023, a self-appointed four-member “DPW Study Group” proposed an alternative plan for upgrading the facility that would cost only $15.5 million, including refurbishing two existing buildings. Its petitioned article, which never reached the town meeting floor, was not recommended by the select board by unanimous vote.

Millett addressed the study group proposal at the Dec. 10 meeting. “It’s not a $15-million job,” he said, arguing that there were serious omissions in the group’s calculations, including the higher cost of all construction on the Outer Cape, predictable inflation, and so-called soft costs, estimated by Weston & Sampson at $5.8 to $7 million.

“Soft costs are real costs,” said Millett, listing design fees, fixtures, furnishings, equipment, and contingencies tied to inflation and Truro’s rural location.

Town Manager Darrin Tangeman and DPW Director Jarrod Cabral told the select board that Anthony Garrett, a member of the study group and of the ad hoc building committee charged with overseeing design of the new facility, was revising the study group’s original plan.

Millett’s estimate did not account for potential environmental remediation costs, which remain unknown pending completion of a phase II environmental analysis at the Town Hall Hill site that was favored by many town meeting voters. Comparable assessments for other proposed sites, including 340 Route 6, have not been funded, but Millett said that environmental data from those other sites would be essential for an “apples to apples” cost comparison.

Cutting costs for the project, Millett said, would require prioritizing needs for vehicle storage, maintenance, and administration. “If you want to get this number down,” he said, “you’ve got to cut something.”

He added that “we’re ultimately at the mercy of whoever bids on this job,” citing Provincetown’s police station and Yarmouth’s DPW facility as examples of municipal construction projects that attracted few bidders.

The select board emphasized the need to get the ad hoc building committee’s design recommendations more quickly. Tangeman suggested adding that discussion to the committee’s agenda in January. Cabral said the committee could also help refine the concepts of both the study group and Weston & Sampson.

Seven Months, No Dice

At the Nov. 21 meeting of the ad hoc building committee, member Chris Lucy urged it to focus on the design work. “You guys are seven months into this, and no one has a design,” he said. “The charge of this committee is designing a building. Please put a stake in the ground and start designing.”

At the committee’s Dec. 12 meeting, Garrett reported working on a scaled-down 21,000-square-foot design incorporating “newer information,” but he did not say when it would be ready.

Garrett also led the committee through a design charrette, using a project checklist with nearly 50 items. They included location and transportation, sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation, and regional priority.

Although the committee made some progress, it did not reach anything close to a final design consensus. Committee member Leif Hamnquist suggested distilling the feedback into clear priorities, which the committee would then make public in January.

The ad hoc committee is tasked with the design of the upgraded facility and identifying possible “cost-saving improvements.” Comments at the last two committee meetings have focused less on the facility’s location, which has been a source of ongoing controversy, and more on its cost.

“A 15-to-20-million price tag would certainly pass town meeting,” predicted Michael Forgione. “Twenty to 25 — I think you stand a 50-50 chance of this thing passing. Twenty-five to 30 — you’re dead.”

Dennis O’Brien agreed. “We’ve got to work on getting this number to a salable point for voters,” he said. “They are absolutely going to puke on $30 million. There is no way that is ever going to pass.”

In response, Lucy reiterated his point about the need to focus. “Again, it’s the OPM’s decision, it’s the select board’s decision on the money,” he said. “The numbers keep going up because the town keeps putting it off, thinking the numbers are outrageous.”

“There comes a point where the price is the price and as much as we want it to be different, that’s just the reality,” said committee co-chair Bob Higgins-Steele. “My charge is a good working DPW at the best price we can get.”

Higgins-Steele said his top three priorities were, first, the best facility; second, energy efficiency and cost-effective carbon-neutrality; and third, the overall cost of the project.

THE HIGH ROAD

Bound Brook Island Road Unbounded by Temporary Fix

DPW’s just-in-time job will do until the Herring River Project’s road-raising begins

By William von Herff Jun 12, 2024

WELLFLEET — For most of the winter and spring, repeated flooding has left Bound Brook Island periodically cut off from the rest of town. For months, the island’s 11 property owners worried that they (or their summer tenants) might get trapped there if they tried to use their houses this summer.

The section of Old County Road near Bound Brook Island Road raised by the Wellfleet Dept. of Public Works is approximately two and a half feet higher than it was before. (Photo by William von Herff)

Now, it seems those scenarios have been avoided, thanks to the Wellfleet Dept. of Public Works, which raised Old County Road with two and a half feet of gravel.

“All praise due to Jay Norton and DPW,” said Nathaniel Hall Tayloron Bound Brook Island. He thinks the raised road is an effective short-term solution.

As the Independent has reported, erosion at Duck Harbor has created a gap in the coastal bank, allowing seawater to be pushed up into the Herring River floodplain during storms. The water has flooded Old County and Bound Brook Island roads at least four times this year, preventing access to Bound Brook Island.

Although the flooding is unrelated to the Herring River Restoration Project — the overwash that flattened the bank at Duck Harbor was due to natural erosion and sand migration — ultimately, the project will likely be a key part of the long-term solution. The restoration project includes in its early stages a plan to raise low-lying roads including Bound Brook and Old County to allow for increased saltwater flow when the new dike at Chequessett Neck Road is slowly opened.

The first of the recent floods trapped property owner Penelope Jencks on the island overnight on Jan. 13 before she was rescued by the Wellfleet Fire Dept. The incident sparked neighbors’ worries that were similar flooding to happen in the summer more people could end up trapped on the island.

The DPW announced on April 5 that it would do the work rather than seek bids from contractors to avoid a lengthy bidding process and to get the job done. After drawing up plans with the engineering firm WSP, the department began work on the project on May 20. It took five or six employees five days to complete the work, said DPW Director Jay Norton. They used gravel to raise approximately 1,000 feet of road by two and a half feet, he said. The work was completed on May 24, ahead of the town’s stated Memorial Day weekend deadline.

Peter McMahon, the founding director of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, which manages the Hatch house on Bound Brook Island, said he was relieved to see the work completed. The trust relies on summer rental income to support its restoration and preservation work on the historic modernist houses in its care. McMahon had to cancel the first two weeks of rentals at the Hatch house due to fears of a flood trapping tenants but said that the property is now open, and the trust’s first round of visitors has arrived.

Taylor said that the gravel road has already weathered its first high tides, which occurred in the first week of June.

In the short term, regular maintenance will be required to keep the road elevated. The gravel road is likely to erode due to use and rain, according to a May 24 construction update on the Wellfleet town website, so repairs will be needed throughout its lifespan. The DPW is also planning on adding loam and seed to the sides of the slopes to further support the road, work that Norton said is underway.

Norton said that the bidding process for the larger project to raise the low-lying roads will likely begin in late 2024 or early 2025. He anticipates the work will be completed in two to two and a half years. Until then, the gravel road will be the solution.

TRURO SIGN CODE

Officials Say Sign Complaints Are Based on a Misconception

Tangeman and Cabral maintain that many front yards are on public property

By Sophie Mann-Shafir Jun 5, 2024

TRURO — Complaints that campaign signs were removed from private property are based on misconceptions about where property lines are, Town Manager Darrin Tangeman and DPW Director Jarrod Cabral both said this week. The town’s right-of-way sometimes includes sections of roadside where residents have fences and stone walls, they said.

Candidate Tim Hickey continues to maintain that some of his signs were removed from private land. “It’s a fact,” he said this week. At least two residents complained to the police, who say they are investigating.

The town stopped enforcing its temporary sign bylaw because of the controversy.

Cabral said this week that approximately 20 signs had been removed by DPW staff. All were signs for Hickey, who lost his bid for select board in the May 29 election, or for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Cabral said, adding that he had been directed to take down signs in the public right-of-way by Tangeman.

DPW staff took photos of each sign before removing it, Cabral said. Those photos, he said, showed that signs had been removed from Shore Road, South Highland Road, Truro Center Road, Town Hall Road, Fisher Road, and Route 6, and one from the Great Hollow Beach parking lot.

Tangeman said he ordered the removal because the signs blocked drivers’ view when making turns. “If it obstructs the sight triangle, that’s usually considered a safety issue,” he said.

Cabral maintained that town- and state-owned rights-of-way often encompass walls and fences.

“No one realizes that,” he said. “When we mow the roadsides, we usually do about three or four feet in. If folks have their lawn ornaments out, we try not to mow them over.”

Cabral said South Highland Road is an example of a street with more public land than residents realize. The town’s right-of-way is about 60 feet wide, he said, but the pavement is only about 30 feet wide.

In an email to the Independent, Hickey wrote, “Town employees trespassed and removed Hickey signs from private property” and “the DPW Director indicated to at least three people that this was ordered by a Select Board Member to the Town Manager.”

Hickey declined to name the three accusers or the select board member who allegedly directed the sign removal.

“I do not recall any select board member calling me,” Tangeman said this week. “I was driving home, and I saw signage in the public right of way.”

Cabral said he was not aware of any select board member being involved in the directive to remove signs. He said he had printed out GIS maps to direct DPW staff in sign removal.

“The staff is aware of where the boundaries are,” said Tangeman. “They mow the lawns regularly.”

Tangeman said last week that 12 people had yelled at him about the signs at his coffee hour. This week he corrected himself, saying that 12 people had attended the session but only two of them had yelled.

Police Reports

Residents filed complaints with the police about the removal of signs on four separate occasions between April 9 and May 1. One was Marie Tanguay of Fisher Road, who reported that Hickey signs were taken from her lawn on April 9.

“She states that when she went out to her porch, she saw that the signage was missing and a town DPW truck was driving away,” Officer Anthony Camilo wrote. Tanguay is married to Jack Riemer, clerk of the Truro Planning Board.

In an April 22 report, Officer Patrick Belliveau described an encounter with Connie Mather of Fisher Road. “I explained to Ms. Mather that the town DPW had been removing signs if they were on the town easement,” Belliveau wrote. “Ms. Mather was adamant on charges being pressed, and I informed her that we would not be able to take out charges as this is a civil matter between her and the town.”

An April 23 report by Officer John Carr, also regarding sign removal from Tanguay’s and Riemer’s property, contains eight redactions. “Ms. Tanguay provided me with photos of an individual carrying multiple signs off their property in an orange sweatshirt,” Carr wrote. The name of the person with the signs is redacted. Police Chief Jamie Calise said the name was being withheld because the case is under investigation.

As of June 1, Hickey said he was “not sure” whether he planned to retain counsel and press charges related to the town’s removal of his signs. “If the town comes clean with the truth, I will have no reason to do so,” he wrote.

A public records request by Keith H. Bensten of Day Pitney LLP was submitted on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. It asks for 12 categories of documents, including permits, internal practices, and communications regarding the town’s sign code. It also requests sign code-related messages sent to or from select board and planning board members as well as any political or election sign-related communications.

Bensten asked that any fees related to the request be waived. Tangeman told the Independent that the town does not waive records access fees. “We don’t waive the fee because we have such a small staff,” he said. “The town is under immense pressure with public records; we lose a lot of money and time over them.”

As of June 4, Bensten’s firm had agreed to pay the town’s $175 estimate of the cost, town officials said.

“We would also like to start a dialogue with the Town as soon as possible to discuss our concerns and find a solution without the need for litigation,” Bensten wrote. Tangeman said on June 4, “Town counsel is speaking to their attorneys, so there’s a conversation.”

CIVICS

Provincetown Adopts a ‘Phased Approach’ to DPW Renovation

Instead of a $31-million building, the town will start with a $5-million garage

By Paul Benson Feb 7, 2024

PROVINCETOWN — Almost two years ago, departing Dept. of Public Works Director Rich Waldo made a pitch to the select board for a new DPW facility slated to cost $31 million.

The DPW facility in Provincetown includes a 4,000-square-foot maintenance barn (center), a salt-and-sand shed (center left), and outdoor storage of vehicles. The town’s new “phased approach” to the property will replace the two small sheds at the right with a garage for 12 trucks. (Photos by Paul Benson)

“We really want to start the progressive steps, and maybe it won’t be built in three years, but it will be built in 10 years,” Waldo said of the pair of buildings totaling 45,000 square feet that municipal contracting firm Weston & Sampson had designed to replace the existing DPW building at 24 Race Point Road.

According to current DPW Director Jim Vincent, who took over the job when Waldo became Wellfleet’s town administrator, town staff took home a message that day: such an ambitious project was not feasible.

“We had just presented the $75-million sewer plan, and the fire chief had been talking about a new fire station, and Louise Venden said, ‘Look, we can’t support all these projects right now,’ ” Vincent said. (Select board member Louise Venden retired in 2023.)

“We got a directive that if we wanted to get something built, we had to try a different strategy,” Vincent said.

On Jan. 23, Vincent and Town Manager Alex Morse came back to the select board with a “phased approach” to the 5.6-acre DPW property.

The Weston & Sampson proposal presented to the select board in June 2022 was for two buildings that totaled 45,000 square feet. The garage was at the rear of the property, while an 18,000-square-foot office-and-maintenance building was in the center. (Image courtesy Town of Provincetown)

About $400,000 in design work has been added to the town’s capital improvement plan, which will be in an article at spring town meeting, to be followed by a $5-million garage three years from now that could store 12 large trucks.

Two years after that, the 4000-square-foot maintenance barn, a cinderblock structure built in 1950, could be replaced in a second phase of the project.

The plan presented to the select board showed Phase Two costing only $3 million — but Vincent said that the town would need to do more design work after the first phase was finished. “We’re still figuring out what the costs would be and how the numbers would work” for the second half of the project, Vincent said.

Regardless, the total will be much less than $31 million, Vincent said.

DPW Director Jim Vincent next to a sandbag-filling machine on loan from Barnstable County that helped the town prepare for the Jan. 13, 2024 storm.

“We’re taking a realistic and practical approach — we’re being frugal with money, and our top priority is getting those vehicles inside and that’s it,” Vincent said. “We want to be good stewards of these resources, and these vehicles are encrusted in salt, sometimes for the whole winter.”

“We need somewhere inside where we can hose the vehicles off in the winter,” said DPW head mechanic Olin Sparks. “Right now, we’re waiting for the weather to be above 40 degrees to wash the sand and salt off outdoors.” In the depths of winter, the town’s garbage trucks and sand-and-salt trucks sometimes go weeks without a wash because temperatures never rise high enough, Sparks said.

Expensive trucks are being totaled after 10 years when they should be lasting at least 15, he said.

“You’re talking about a $300,000 piece of machinery sitting outside, and it’s rusting from the salt, and it winds up having to be ‘surplused,’ or salvaged for parts, because it can’t even be sold to another department,” Sparks said.

DPW head mechanic Olin Sparks points to rust on the underside of a truck that will soon be sold for parts. Cold temperatures that last for weeks at a time make it impossible to wash trucks often enough to prevent salt damage, Sparks said.

Both Sparks and Vincent said it was frustrating to watch machinery decay because of poor storage conditions. Asking for a new garage is fundamentally about conserving a resource, Vincent said.

“We don’t want to say, ‘Oh, it’s cheaper to just get a new vehicle,’ ” Vincent said. “We want to take care of them.”

The DPW property at 24 Race Point Road is large, and there is room to add a 12-vehicle garage without significantly disrupting other operations, Vincent said. Two small storage buildings on the eastern edge of the property would be taken down to make room for the garage.

The maintenance barn would be replaced in Phase Two, but the department is no longer trying to move its main offices from the Veterans Memorial Community Center to the Race Point Road property, Vincent said.

Weston & Sampson’s proposal had attached 9,000 square feet of “office and employee space” to a 7,000-square-foot maintenance bay, creating a structure that would be four times the size of the current cinder-block building. That is no longer the vision, Vincent said.

“In the long run, this will take care of our urgent needs. I just don’t see us going to town meeting and getting the money” for the original design, Vincent said.

Truro’s DPW Battle

Vincent lives and votes in Truro but said he has not studied in detail the $34.4-million DPW proposal that dominated Truro’s fall town meeting warrant and has now been continued to a May town meeting.

Olin Sparks, center, repairs trucks in the DPW’s maintenance barn, which was built by town staff in 1950. DPW Director Jim Vincent is at left.

“I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at it,” Vincent said, “because the last thing I want to do when I get home is study another project.”

But Vincent said the intense opposition to the DPW proposal in Truro was a red flag to him.

“When I go to a town meeting and see that much opposition, my first thought is, ‘Did they do the work behind the scenes to resolve all this and listen to all the different opinions?’ ” Vincent said.

“In Provincetown, when we had a lot of opposition to our sewer proposal, we listened, we adjusted, and we moved toward the fire,” he said. “If people are angry, we move toward them — we want to hear what they have to say.”

The DPW’s many trucks are stored outside, which causes them to be scrapped years ahead of schedule, Sparks said.

Vincent said that town staff held more than a dozen meetings with individual neighborhoods that resulted in significant changes to the sewer plan.

“We had to find alternatives for people,” Vincent said, “and ultimately we did give people a choice — if they really don’t want to connect to the sewer, they have an option not to.

“To see a town meeting like that one in Truro, where people are screaming and yelling — if you don’t do your homework, you end up with that,” Vincent said. “It’s a waste of time, and it divides people.”

DEEP DIVE

Provincetown Gets to Nitty-Gritty on Sewer Money

Connection costs and private roads are hot topics at town forum

By Paul Benson Sep 21, 2022

PROVINCETOWN — Voters were treated to a detailed presentation on the town’s $75-million sewer expansion project at a forum last week and had a chance to ask equally detailed questions of the designers. Their questions focused on money.

DPW Director Jim Vincent and John Goodrich, the town’s longtime sewer consultant, were asked about the projected costs to property owners. There were also questions about the financial assistance program that the town hopes to create with American Rescue Plan Act money.

Provincetown’s map of properties with cesspools (in purple) and substandard systems (in red). (Courtesy Town of Provincetown)

Half the properties in Provincetown are already connected to the sewer system. Their owners would not see any new costs from the expansion, which needs a two-thirds vote at a Nov. 9 special town meeting. But the existing operations contract for the wastewater treatment plant will have to be renegotiated in 2026, Goodrich said, and costs are expected to go up. Expanding the system to bring in new users would help keep the future per-user costs down, Goodrich said.

For those who are not currently connected, there are three different kinds of costs, each of which is explained in fact sheets now posted to the sewer dept.’s website.

Sewer user fees are calculated differently from the town’s billing system for water. Both services are billed every six months. In most of the examples at the forum, the sewer user fee would be 25 to 50 percent higher than that home’s current water bill. Most fees would run between $400 and $800 per year; a four-bedroom house occupied year-round might pay $1,120 per year.

Betterments are the fees that property owners pay to support the expansion of the sewer system — so-called because the system is seen as “bettering” the property, or increasing its value, Goodrich said. Betterments will be assessed at $7,150 per bedroom, payable in equal increments over 20 years with no interest. That means an annual payment of $357.50 per bedroom.

Low-income property owners can delay their betterment payments until the property is sold, and no one will be assessed a betterment until the sewer is actually available in their neighborhood, Goodrich said.

It was connection costs that drew the most questions, however — partly because they are harder to estimate and vary so widely between properties, and partly because they may be high. Those costs are not paid to the town but to the contractor who physically installs the pipe that connects a home to the sewer line that runs under the street. They depend on the orientation of the home’s existing plumbing, the distance to the road, the landscaping or hardscaping that needs to be removed and replaced, and the decommissioning of whatever on-site septic system already exists.

A “typical” connection cost would be $9,500 to $12,000, according to the town — but a “more complex” installation could be $15,000, and a multi-building property might trigger an additional $40,000 to $75,000 fee, according to the town’s survey of seven licensed sewer connectors.

The town is arranging to have the county’s septic loan program expanded to finance sewer connection costs. That program offers a 5-percent interest rate over 20 years.

About 10 percent of town properties that are not currently sewered lie at a significantly lower elevation than the nearby street and will need a grinder pump to send sewage uphill to the new sewer lines, Vincent said. The list of such properties will not be nailed down until later in the design, but a preliminary map presented to the select board on June 30 showed clusters of properties that might need grinder pumps along Bayberry Street, Cottage Street, Willow Drive, Heather’s Way, Sandy Hill Road, and Atkins Mayo Road.

Grinder pumps cost $7,000 to $15,000 to purchase and install, according to the town’s survey of contractors, and an optional generator to run the grinder pump (and the rest of the home) during a power outage would add another $5,000.

Most of the properties that were identified as needing a grinder pump are along a proposed low-pressure line, however, and the town is planning to reduce betterment assessments to those homes to make up for the added cost of the grinder pump, Goodrich said.

Homeowners on private roads, including Atkins Mayo Road and Duncan Lane, wanted to know if they would have to pay for the sewer lines underneath their roadbeds. The town would pay to install those lines, Goodrich assured them, leaving them responsible only for the cost to connect to the new sewer line.

The town has also applied to create a connection assistance program for low-income property owners, funded with $208,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds that were earmarked for Provincetown. That money would be used for “income-eligible grants and possibly no interest loans to cover connection costs,” according to the sewer fact sheets.

Some of the town’s larger rental properties are on cesspools, are near existing sewer lines, and will have to connect to the system early, possibly in 2024. Seven buildings of rental housing with 16 bedrooms at 25-27 Bradford St., for instance, are owned by the family of the late Napi Van Dereck. There are 23 bedrooms in 13 buildings at 15 Howland St., owned by the Tasha family. Nearly all are seasonal or year-round rentals — and the connection costs for a property with this many buildings could approach six figures.

Sewer connection contractor Ryan Schmidt told the Independent that it’s difficult to estimate connection costs in advance because of factors that lie underground. The location of gas lines and other utilities matters, as does the exact route of the new sewer pipes and the landscaping that must be removed and replaced.

“We’re doing a water service in Eastham right now that runs parallel to existing gas lines,” Schmidt said. “It’s a lot of hand digging — guys with shovels.” Mechanical excavators are faster and cheaper, but they can’t be used when other utilities are in the way. Schmidt said costs for freshwater installation can vary by a factor of 10 based on site-specific conditions.

The town is working on grants for low-income property owners — but is also thinking about landlords, Goodrich said at the forum.

“We’re looking at where there might be funding sources that could be used to ensure that additional costs that landlords incur won’t be passed on to those who live in rental housing,” he said. “It’s a concern.”

For multi-building properties, the numbers can add up quickly. The betterment fee on a 23-bedroom property such as 15 Howland would be $8,222 per year, and a connection fee of $90,000 would cost $7,128 per year if financed with a 5-percent county loan. User fees of $250 per one-bedroom unit would add up to another $5,750 per year. Altogether, that could be about $21,100 per year, or around $917 per bedroom when divided among 23 bedrooms.

Fact sheets posted online say that the town’s application for a connection assistance program is now being reviewed by the county, and the town will post updated information as it becomes available.

SELECT CANDIDATES

Incumbent Wants a Larger Vision for the Town

Louise Venden’s priorities are meeting housing needs and future costs

By Paul Benson Jun 11, 2020

PROVINCETOWN — After three years on the finance committee and three years on the select board, Louise Venden is running for a second term. Venden owned a nine-room guest house in Boston before moving to Provincetown full-time, and she worked in real estate financing as well. She describes herself as focused on housing issues, municipal finance, and long-term planning.

“I think I’ve gained the confidence of other board members in my observations about financial matters,” said Venden. “We need to make sure the budget and other policies we pass conform to a larger vision of where the town is going, what the needs are.”

Venden cited the town-owned market-rate housing at Harbor Hill as an example of this focus. She joined the board of the Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust last year because she was concerned about the project’s long-term financing. Making sure Harbor Hill is sustainable is a prerequisite for other housing efforts, said Venden.

“We have very dramatic housing needs that are not going to be met by the marketplace here,” she explained. “I am concerned with where we are going on housing in the next three years, and making sure we have the resources to expand housing. Maushope is looking at an expansion — that’s low-income senior housing. We need to move forward with affordable housing at the V.F.W. As a community, we owe it to ourselves to make Harbor Hill work.

“But we need to make sure this project is healthy, that the numbers are reliable, and that townspeople have confidence in the way we’re going about this,” she added. Venden pushed for a capital needs assessment for the property, to make sure future costs were better understood. She is also interested in finding out if there can be an infusion of private capital while maintaining the existing rental rules.

Louise Venden. (Photo courtesy Louise Venden)

A chain of other expenses also concern Venden, including the ill-fated police station plan. “We need to reform a committee of architects, engineers, Chief Golden, and people who have recently built police stations on the Cape, and see what we can come up with,” she said. “I thought the location was a good one,” she said of the site between Jerome Smith Road and Route 6. “The cost was not out of line, if you look at other stations that have been built on the Cape,” she argued. That proposal was sidetracked by a discussion of the V.F.W. site, she said. “I was really disappointed by that — it obscured the issue.”

Venden wants to see a new police station proposed soon, because a new DPW facility is in line behind it.

“Truro has a $20 million proposal for a DPW garage, and we have a $14 million DPW proposal,” she said. “I realize it flies in the face of some longstanding traditions, but I would like to see us collaborate on some of these things. I would hope that we could figure out a way to make that work.”

Long-term planning is Venden’s recurring theme. “We need to make sure we focus the staff on not just this year or next year. We need to think about where to spend our money for the future of this town. We need to support a more diverse and resilient economy. A larger vision of where the town is going — that’s the select board’s role.”

TRANSFERENCE

Wellfleet Inches Closer to Recycling Solution

Each town’s transfer station setup affects ability to distance properly

By Saskia Maxwell Keller Apr 30, 2020

WELLFLEET — When it comes to recycling, each Outer Cape town does it a bit differently. This has made the need to adapt systems in response to the coronavirus vary from town to town.

While recycling has not been affected in a major way in Provincetown, Truro, or Eastham, Wellfleet residents have had to hold onto — or just throw away — their recycling since March 27.

One reason Wellfleet is not accepting recycling is that the town has separate compactors for cardboard and mixed paper, plastic and tin, and rigid plastic, while glass and compost have separate bins. Sticking with this sort-separated approach has proved a good thing for the town — financially and environmentally — as the market for single-stream materials has shrunk in recent years. But the physical setup makes it difficult for people to move quickly in and out of the transfer station without congregating in high-traffic areas.

A second issue in Wellfleet, according to foreman Mike Cicale, is that the town has four ground-level compactors that are relatively small. They have to run frequently, increasing wait times and congestion.

“We’re looking at plans on how to delineate that space better with barricades and sawhorses,” Cicale said earlier this month.

With its bigger hoppers and well-delineated setup, Eastham’s transfer station enables people to sort their recycling while maintaining proper physical distance. (Photo Silvio Genao)

One reason Provincetown decided to continue curbside recycling pickup during the pandemic, said DPW Director Richard Waldo, is precisely because “we didn’t want people huddling around the hopper.” He said that, in determining recycling capacity, the size of the compactor is less important than the size of the hopper (which holds recycling before emptying it into the compactor) and trailer (which holds the compacted recycling). Waldo said that Provincetown has an 8-to-10-yard hopper and 100-yard trailer.

While Eastham has similar sort-separated recycling facilities to Wellfleet, it has not had any problems with social distancing, according to DPW Director Silvio Genao, although he continues to monitor the situation.

Cicale, who worked at the Eastham Transfer Station years ago, confirmed Waldo’s point, explaining why Eastham may have been able to maintain its recycling services: “They have essentially the same type of compactors we have,” he said, “but they have a large hopper on top so that they can handle a lot of material at once.”

At the Truro Transfer Station, said DPW Director Jarrod Cabral, there are two single-stream recycling compactors accessible to both businesses and the public, one small (three-yard capacity) and one large (seven-yard capacity). Cabral said that he has not had any trouble with people congregating around the recycling station.

Wellfleet may be close to a solution. Cicale said last week that the town was planning to switch temporarily to single-stream recycling, using all four compactors as well as two dumpsters. That way residents will be able to drop off their recycling quickly while maintaining social distance.

Before the recycling area can reopen, however, Cicale said a few things need to happen, including signage and procuring more dumpsters.

“Eventually, the rest of the station is going to open, so I don’t want to modify the structure so much that I back myself into a corner,” Cicale said. “We also have very little money to spend.” As of April 27, Cicale was unsure of the exact reopening date, but said he believed it would be within two weeks.

Lydia Vivante, co-chair of the Wellfleet Recycling Committee, said that she understood the need to do single-stream under the circumstances, even though it is more wasteful. She nevertheless implored that Cicale consider reinstituting composting (a service that is also currently suspended), glass, and cardboard first, as they can be processed locally.

In the meantime, she recommended that people compost at home, avoid plastic packaging, use cardboard for gardening, and reuse containers as much as possible.