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Fire Station

    PROVINCETOWN TOWN MEETING

    Select Board Pushes Compromise on Fire Engineers Panel

    Board also endorses $11.7-million Motta Field project

    By

    This article was updated on March 28, 2024.

    PROVINCETOWN — At an unusual Sunday morning meeting held at the town’s fire station on March 24 and again at their regular meeting the next evening, select board members pushed for a “compromise amendment” on Article 19, a measure on the April 1 town meeting warrant that would abolish the town’s board of fire engineers and allow the town manager to directly appoint the fire chief.

    Town Manager Alex Morse met with four members of Provincetown’s select board and about 45 members of the Provincetown Fire and EMS Dept. on Sunday, March 24. (Photo by Paul Benson)

    That measure, along with Article 20, which would change the town’s residency requirement for the police and fire chiefs to live “within 45 driving miles” of town, had sparked opposition from the town’s volunteer firefighters and from Fire Chief Mike Trovato, who is set to retire in May 2025.

    The two articles were sponsored by Town Manager Alex Morse, and select board members said they supported his effort to restructure the hiring and oversight of the fire chief position now that the department includes 18 full-time employees rather than being composed almost entirely of “call,” or volunteer, firefighters.

    Under the town charter, the town manager appoints the board of fire engineers, who hire one of their members as fire chief. Article 19 would abolish the board and add the fire chief to a short list of town employees who are hired and fired by the town manager, with the select board having 15 days to consent or object.

    Select board members said they were happy to update the hiring rules but were not willing to abolish the board of fire engineers outright.

    “We need to make sure that, going forward, people in the fire dept. feel listened to and that they have input,” said select board member Leslie Sandberg.

    “As it’s written, there’s no replacement committee that corrals the call department’s expertise in an advisory way,” said board member Erik Borg. “Based on that, it’s a ‘not-recommend’ vote for me.”

    Morse told the board on March 25 that he wanted to present Article 19 to town meeting voters without any amendments and offer a compromise amendment only if voters defeated the measure — but that plan did not appeal to the board.

    “I think it would be helpful for the town manager to present something to town meeting with an amendment that is well thought out,” said chair Dave Abramson. “I think you should be prepared to lead with that. Then after he presents, the select board can give a report” explaining its position on the amended Article 19, Abramson said.

    Morse agreed to amend Article 19 to retain the board of fire engineers as an advisory panel and to amend Article 20 to allow the fire chief to live only as far away as “the Wellfleet-Eastham town line.”

    “I think that will be a great step forward,” said Sandberg.

    Borg volunteered to explain the select board’s position at town meeting, and the board voted to “not recommend” Article 19 and “reserve recommendation” on Article 20.

    Motta Field Project

    At the March 25 meeting the select board also voted to endorse Article 8, an $11.7-million debt exclusion that would fund the redevelopment of Motta Field.

    A rendering of the Motta Field redevelopment project by consultants Weston & Sampson focused on the “multi-generational programming” in the center of the project: a plaza, picnic area, playground, shuffleboard court, and outdoor exercise area. (Image courtesy Town of Provincetown)

    The board had held off on endorsing the measure two weeks earlier after Morse said he was investigating a slimmed-down version of the project.

    After a presentation from the project’s design consultants and several public comments in support of the measure, however, board members said they did not believe that scrapping a retaining wall and public spaces in the center of the field was worthwhile.

    “When we were doing public outreach, we heard an aspiration that this could be a place that has something for everybody — regardless of age, ability, whether you have kids or not — that everyone could feel like it’s for them,” said Cheri Ruane, a landscape architect at Weston & Sampson.

    In addition to the soccer field, baseball field, 400-meter track, skate park, tennis courts, and pickleball courts, Ruane said, the project focused on “multi-generational programming” such as outdoor exercise equipment, playground pieces, a shuffleboard and bocce court, a picnic area, and a community plaza.

    “What we heard from the community was that they were looking for a place they could all go together,” said Ruane. “If you install this plan without the retaining wall and without that programming in the middle that it allows, there is a very small chance you would ever go back and put in the wall and rebuild it all.”

    A slimmed-down project would still cost $9.2 million, Morse said.

    Borg questioned the shuffleboard court — “a lot of shuffleboard players are now pickleball players,” he said — to which Sandberg replied, “until they get hurt, and then they’re shuffleboard players again.”

    “Space is at a premium in this town, and it’s a lot of extra space that that retaining wall creates,” said board member Austin Miller.

    The board voted unanimously to endorse Article 8 as written.

    Fire Station Meeting

    Volunteer firefighter Paul Roderick addressing the firehouse meeting on March 24. (Photo by Paul Benson)

    In addition to retaining the board of fire engineers, the volunteer firefighters at the Sunday morning meeting had a few other ideas they wanted the town’s leaders to consider.

    “Our response time is better than a full-time fire dept.,” said volunteer firefighter Paul Roderick, “and Mike Trovato gets there before anybody. You’ve got to have a chief on the scene right away.”

    “If you get a new chief in here who tries to make all these guys go take Firefighter 1 again, and it’s a three-hour drive four days a week for 10 weeks, you’re going to lose them all,” said volunteer firefighter Jon Sinaiko.

    “In every other department on Cape Cod, when they’ve done away with the board of fire engineers and hired a full-time chief, they’ve started to dismantle the call department,” said Chief Trovato. “Look at Truro. They won’t even send us an ambulance because they just don’t have the people anymore.”

    “These guys are like brothers, and that’s the reason I show up,” said volunteer firefighter Noah Santos, “but I feel like you should own my health care for all the crap I’ve breathed in. We get paid $50 to save the town. I feel like the guys in this room need to be compensated better.”

    Editor’s note: Provincetown posted its town meeting booklet online, including motions to amend Articles 19 and 20, after the March 28 edition of the Independent went to press.

    SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

    Move to Alter VFW Plan Fails in Close Vote

    Voters lament ‘Sophie’s choice,’ want both housing and public safety

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — By a margin of just 19 votes, 157 in favor, 176 against, Monday’s special town meeting rejected Fire Chief Mike Trovato’s plan for the former VFW site on Jerome Smith Road.

    The sole article on Monday’s warrant — initiated by Trovato’s petition, signed by 203 citizens — would have designated the town-owned 1.3-acre parcel for a new police station, a fire substation, and an outdoor training facility for firefighters. The site is currently earmarked for about 50 units of affordable housing. Had it been approved, the article would have put an end to that housing initiative.

    Fire Chief Michael Trovato waits his turn to speak a second time at a crowded Dec. 2 special town meeting. Because so many people queued up at other microphones, he never got the chance. (Photo K.C. Myers)

    CIVICS

    Select Board Comes Down Hard on Fire Chief’s VFW Plan

    A unanimous vote not to recommend petitioned article at special town meeting

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The most consequential vote at Tuesday’s select board meeting came after most of the audience had left: a unanimous decision not to recommend Fire Chief Mike Trovato’s petitioned article at the Dec. 2 special town meeting.

    The board members’ statements against the proposal were wide-ranging and emphatic. They came at the end of a long session that included a dialogue with the Pier Corp. about finances and harbormasters and another long conversation with Provincetown resident Patrick Patrick about his plan to build a dormitory for seasonal workers on his family’s land on Route 6.

    Trovato’s petition, signed by 203 residents, would designate the 1.3-acre VFW parcel at 3 Jerome Smith Road for a police station, a fire and EMS substation, and an outdoor training facility for firefighters. Town meeting had voted in April 2018 to begin the process of developing affordable housing on that parcel, and to site a police station across the street at 16 Jerome Smith Road. When the cost of that station went up almost 50 percent, it had to go back to town meeting, however, and in April 2019 and again in June 2019 the extra allocation was rejected. Where and how the police station should be built has been unclear ever since.

    Provincetown Fire Truck
    Provincetown Select Board unanimously votes not to recommend petitioned article at special town meeting. (Photo Mike Potenza)

    Trovato’s proposal revives an earlier plan to build the police station on the VFW site, adding a fire substation, an EMS facility, and an outdoor training center. The fire and EMS facilities have never been assessed, budgeted, or even studied, however, and that is what drew the most heated objections from the select board.

    Board member Bobby Anthony spoke first, and at length.

    “There isn’t anybody in Provincetown who doesn’t respect and support public safety,” he said. “I was an auxiliary fireman when I was 14, a regular fireman, a rescue squad member, plus 32 years as a policeman, and 10 years as chief of police.

    “Going forward without a need assessment, without any numbers, without an engineering plan, we are missing the mark as to what we are here for. It would be just like if another department head came in and asked for a building and said we will get 200 names and we’ll have a special election.

    “If the fire chief is thinking about doing his own EMS, five ambulances is $1.75 million. That’s not counting personnel, not counting benefits,” Anthony added. “Public safety has been my life, and I support public safety, but I also support the people who elected me to sit here and make hard decisions, decisions for the whole community. Housing has always been number one in terms of the goal for the selectmen for as long as I’ve been sitting here.”

    Board member Lise King said, “Without housing, there is no community. If we are having the number of year-round residents continue to dwindle, then we are talking about building infrastructure for people who are here only for summer. Last winter, the postal service tells me, the number of active postal addresses was under 700.”

    “We do have a site for a new police facility, if we ever get there,” Anthony added. “The address is 16 Jerome Smith Road. That’s been voted at town meeting.”

    Board member Louise Venden said, “My understanding is that the fire engineers did not collaborate with the police department or the building department, who have spent many years working on this.

    “There is a process that departments go through,” she continued. “This is an attempt to go straight around this process, and in my opinion it is not appropriate.”

    Board members John Golden and Dave Abramson agreed with their colleagues.

    “Probably the smallest part of this is the new police station,” said Golden. “I don’t think this would get us there. I think this process would just hold things up for longer.”

    Harbormasters and Dormitories

    The earlier part of the meeting also featured two unanimous votes. After an intensive discussion of the budget that supports the harbormaster’s department, which is currently paid from the town to the Pier Corp., and which has been the subject of much recent contention, the board voted on a motion by Venden that had not been on the agenda: to direct the Pier Corp. and the harbor committee to sit town, attempt to work together, and see if they can devise a common framework for how the three new maritime staff positions — pier manager, harbormaster, and marine coordinator — could work together.

    Venden’s motion passed unanimously, but Acting Town Manager David Gardner had a word of warning: “What has been missing from this presentation [by the Pier Corp.] is the marine coordinator. I am looking for more of a discussion with the two boards for a collaboration of all three positions — not just the two that they like.”

    The proposal from Provincetown resident Patrick Patrick to build 28 rooms of seasonal dormitory-style housing and 15 year-round apartments on land he owns along Route 6 was met with applause from board member John Golden, and commendations and thanks from the other board members.

    The project involves no town funding, but does require approvals for 9,150 gallons of sewer allocation — nearly all of the allocation for housing that is currently available. This provoked some conversation about how long it would take until more gallons became available — a sewer expansion program is already in the works — and whether that timeline for more gallons would pose a problem for a potential housing development at the VFW.

    A colloquy between King and Gardner established that both housing at VFW and sewer expansion projects would likely take three years at a minimum, and that allocating gallons to Patrick now would not undermine plans to develop housing at the VFW along the slower, taxpayer-funded timeline of affordable housing projects. With that established, and after more accolades for Patrick, the gallons were allocated on a 5-0 vote.

    OP-ED

    An Alternative to the Police and Fire Substation Proposal

    Providing for safety needs while preserving VFW for new housing

    By

    I do not doubt Fire Chief Michael Trovato’s list of needs required to keep the community safe. Those needs include a new fire substation, new trucks, more bunks, and more space to train.
    Unfortunately, the town will now be voting at the Dec. 2 special town meeting to eliminate housing at the VFW property in order to accommodate the proposed police and fire dept. programs. I am not aware of another piece of land in Provincetown that could provide for the local housing needs that have been discussed at a series of public forums sponsored by the community housing office. It is my understanding that JM Goldson, the town’s housing consultant for the VFW parcel, will be preparing a request for proposals based on the results of these forums.
    I would hope that Chief Trovato would consider an alternate development option: the existing police station parcel across Shank Painter Road from the existing main fire station. That 13,242-square-foot parcel has access from both Shank Painter Road and Brown Street. A new one-and-one-half- or two-story building could be as large as 52 feet by 120 feet (see accompanying site plans) and could accommodate new trucks, ambulances, and second-story dormitory facilities.
    Site Plan A shows the existing police station lot on Shank Painter Road with the existing 52-by-44-foot building in red.
    Site Plan B shows one example of how the same site could be used for a new substation with access from both Shank Painter Road and Brown Street. The sketch shows the footprint of a 52-by-120-foot building in green. The dashed heavier line shows the present location of the police station on the lot.

    Paul Kelly, who is vice chair of the Provincetown Building Committee, submitted this as his personal opinion.

    Site Plan A
    Site Plan B

    CIVICS

    Fire Chief Triggers Dec. 2 Town Meeting

    Lone article would reserve VFW site for police and fire stations

    By

    Sunset Fishing
    The sunset was reel pretty for the folks fishing off a small dock behind Days Cottages on Route 6A in NorthTruro earlier this month. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    PROVINCETOWN — Longtime Fire Chief Mike Trovato has turned in a petition with 203 signatures on the future of the VFW site, enough to trigger a special town meeting now set for Monday Dec. 2.

    The meeting will consider a single article, Trovato’s plan to dedicate the former VFW property at 3 Jerome Smith Road to use as a police station, a fire substation with garage bays and bunk space, and an outdoor training facility for the fire department. This threatens to undo plans to use the property for affordable housing. The decision facing voters will wrap several long-running issues into one vote.

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