Some meetings in Provincetown are in person, some are online, and some are both. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details.
Thursday, May 5
- Council on Aging, 10 a.m., Veterans Memorial Community Center
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Monday, May 9
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, May 10
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m., Town Hall
- Annual Town Election, polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Town Hall
Wednesday, May 11
- Cemetery Commission, 3 p.m.
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 5 p.m.
Thursday, May 12
- Bicycle Committee, 10 a.m., virtual
- Planning Board, 6 p.m., Town Hall
Conversation Starters
New Regs Block Sal’s Seating
A ruling by the select board will end the table service on the beach behind the home of Sal’s Place neighbor Greg Connors.
Since the summer of 2020, restaurant owner Siobhan Carew has been serving patrons on the beach behind her restaurant at 99 Commercial St. and behind Connors’s house at 101 Commercial St. Connors, who has been in a battle since 2016 with Carew in Land Court over an easement, has added what he contends is the illegal use of the beach to his suit.
Land Court Judge Michael Vhay had sided with Connors and issued fines and injunctions against Carew. But in November the judge recognized that the beach at mean high water, where Carew put her tables, is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is not Connors’s private property. Vhay vacated nearly $100,000 in fines and legal fees imposed on Carew and ordered all the parties to renegotiate.
Those negotiations, however, are fitting the pattern established when Connors and Carew first became unhappy neighbors. Connors is still suing and demanding that Carew pay his attorney fees of $77,253, according to court documents.
Up until this point, the select board has backed Carew by granting a permit to allow the seating behind Connors’s home. But on April 25, the select board extended the pandemic-era outdoor seating allowances town-wide to anyone “who has site control,” Assistant Town Manager David Gardner told the Independent. The board has “no ability to approve the use of the beach,” said Gardner. “That approval would need to be obtained by the Commonwealth.”
$750,000 for East End Park
The state has awarded the town a $750,000 grant to help defray the cost of landscaping Cannery Wharf Park, also known as the East End Waterfront Park, at 387 Commercial St.
Town meeting voters just appropriated $1.8 million to add bathrooms, grass, shrubs, bike racks, and A.D.A.-compliant pathways to the former parking lot.
The grant, from the state’s Land and Water Conservation Fund, must still receive final approval from the U.S. Park Service, which could take a few months, said Town Manager Alex Morse.
Voters at the May 10 town election must still approve the full $1.8 million as a debt exclusion for the town to be awarded this grant. The town must show the park service that the project is fully funded, Morse said.
Supt. Scallion Retires
Provincetown Schools Supt. Suzanne Scallion will retire in June after three years at her part-time job.
The Provincetown School Committee will be meeting throughout the spring to write a job description and figure out next steps, said chair Eva Enos.
Scallion told the Independent she plans to retire from administration but will continue “consulting and coaching principals on a part-time basis and do some volunteering. It’s been a very busy three years.” —K.C. Myers