PROVINCETOWN — The annual town meeting warrant was finalized on March 1, but the select board is still not sure about two measures: Article 19, to abolish the board of fire engineers and allow the town manager to directly appoint the fire chief, and Article 20, which would change the requirement that the fire chief and police chief live “within 45 driving miles” of town, roughly the distance from the town line to Barnstable or Hyannis.

The select board voted to “reserve recommendation” on both articles on March 11. It could take them up again at its March 25 meeting or on April 1, just before town meeting begins.

At least three board members and Town Manager Alex Morse said they would be attending a meeting on Sunday, March 24 to hear concerns from the town’s volunteer firefighters.

According to Morse, that meeting, at the fire station at 25 Shank Painter Road at 9 a.m., will be public so that more than two select board members can attend without running afoul of the state’s Open Meeting Law.

The board also voted to reserve recommendation on Article 8, an $11.7-million debt exclusion to finance the redevelopment of Motta Field, until it sees a $9.2-million version that Morse said he was preparing as a possible amendment.

The board also reserved its recommendation on two citizens’ petitions: Article 23, which would make the intersection of Bradford and Standish streets an all-way stop, and Article 24, which would limit to three the number of hotel or guesthouse licenses any one person or corporation may hold.

Board of Fire Engineers

Under the current town charter, the town manager appoints the board of fire engineers, who in turn appoint the fire chief. Article 19 would abolish the board and add the fire chief to a list of employees that the town manager can hire and fire, with the select board having 15 days to approve or object.

Last week, Fire Chief Mike Trovato told the Independent that he does not support Article 19 or the changed residency requirement in Article 20.

“People don’t understand this department, and they don’t understand how critical it is for the fire chief to be on the scene quickly,” Trovato said. When asked where he thought the chief should live, he said, “Provincetown — but if I have to give a different answer, they shouldn’t be able to live past the Wellfleet-Eastham line.

“The first five minutes of a fire dictate the next five hours,” Trovato said. “My average response time is two minutes, and I make the decisions while I’m putting on my gear.”

Trovato outlined a scenario in which 20 or 30 volunteer firefighters, several full-time firefighters, and “mutual support” contingents from Wellfleet and Eastham all arrive to a call while Provincetown’s own chief is still driving in from the mid-Cape. “It could be a disaster,” he said.

Trovato also said that his two deputy chiefs, Jimmy Roderick and Gerard Menangas, and his district chief, Russell Zawaduk, had not been reappointed to the board of fire engineers when their terms ended on Dec. 31.

“We’re supposed to be reappointed every Jan. 1,” Trovato said, “but when Gerard went to town hall they told him there was no paperwork for him because the town is doing away with the board of fire engineers.

“That still has to pass town meeting,” Trovato said. “I don’t know why they didn’t get reappointed.”

Morse told the Independent that there is a “difficult transition period” approaching with Trovato’s mandatory retirement next year. (Trovato will be 70 in June 2025; a state requirement that fire chiefs retire at 65 has been extended twice for him.)

“It’s important to move toward a future where we have a full-time fire chief who reports to the town manager and the select board, not a volunteer board of fire engineers,” Morse said. The department is now budgeted for 20 full-time employees, Morse said, and Article 19 would replicate the structure used to hire the police chief, finance director, and assistant town manager.

The volunteer firefighters are still part of the town’s long-term vision for a “combination department,” Morse said. “We are extremely grateful to our call volunteers who respond within minutes to put out fires,” he added, “and we know that we cannot adequately protect the town and its residents without this dedicated group.”

As for the current board of fire engineers, Morse said its members are now serving as “holdovers” since they were appointed in January 2023 and no one was appointed to replace them this year.

“Members remain holdovers until I remove them or appoint a replacement,” Morse said. They can continue to serve, hold meetings, and vote, he said.

Limits on Hotel Consolidation

Article 24, put on the warrant by voters Elias Duncan and Brent Daly, was intended to limit corporate and out-of-town ownership of Provincetown’s hotels, Duncan told the Independent last week.

He said the special town meeting vote last October to limit short-term rental certificates to two per owner had made him wonder if the town could similarly limit hotel licenses.

“Linchris Corp. has six hotels, and there are other companies that aren’t based here that are buying up properties,” Duncan said. “What makes Provincetown special is that we live and work together in this community, and business owners who don’t live here don’t have the same stake in this place.”

Linchris Hotel Corp., based in Plymouth, now owns 31 percent of the town’s 1,380 licensed hotel rooms, including the Provincetown Inn and the Harbor Hotel.

Sawyer Realty Partners, based in Newton, bought three hotels and a restaurant in 2022.

Duncan said he had asked a lawyer friend to write the amendment, but town counsel wound up writing it instead.

The select board was intrigued by the measure but worried about whether it had been sufficiently vetted.

“I do think this is a really important topic,” said select board member Austin Miller. “There’s a process we need to go through to fully vet these things, but this helps start the conversation.”

“Conceptually, I think this is great, and if it passes, I think it could spread all the way up the Cape,” said board member Leslie Sandberg.

Board member John Golden worried that limiting buyers might lead to more guesthouses being sold as single-family homes rather than hotels. Daly said the measure would not prevent corporations from buying property but would keep any one corporation from owning more than three. (The measure would “grandfather in” the licenses of existing owners.)

Duncan said he was willing to revise or withdraw the measure on town meeting floor if the select board could chart a different path to getting the policy enacted.

The board unanimously voted to “reserve recommendation” on the measure.

The Rest of the Warrant

The board unanimously endorsed Article 15, which would abolish the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. and place the pier under the town’s direct management, and Article 16, which would move the pier’s revenues and expenses into a new MacMillan Pier Enterprise Fund.

Board members considered voting against the stop signs in Article 23, arguing it was more appropriate for the town’s annual traffic hearing, but ultimately decided to reserve their recommendation instead.

The board endorsed Articles 25, 26, and 27, which were placed on the warrant by the open space committee to transfer various parcels to the town’s conservation commission for “park, conservation, and passive recreation purposes in perpetuity.”

On Article 28, however, which would transfer the 24.6-acre parcel containing the Old Colony Nature Trail for the same purposes, the board reserved its recommendation.

The trail, which runs from Howland Street almost to the Truro line in the former roadbed of the Old Colony Railroad, is mentioned in a current town-sponsored transportation survey as a potential site for a mixed-use pedestrian and bicycle trail. Miller said that was an “ongoing issue” and the board should not yet express an opinion.

Finally, the select board withheld its endorsement of a $40,000 contribution to an affordable housing project at Millstone Road in Brewster, which is in Article 12, part 3.