PROVINCETOWN — At a four-hour town meeting on April 1, voters approved almost every article on the warrant, rejecting only two: Article 19, which would have shifted authority for hiring the fire chief from the board of fire engineers to the town manager, and Article 33, which would have allowed seasonal occupancy of recreational vehicles on driveways in the town’s single-family zone.
Provincetown town meeting
VIEW FROM THE BALCONY
Fast Talking and Fast Voting at Town Meeting
The pace was quick, and then it wasn’t, but the meeting wrapped in one day
PROVINCETOWN — At the midway break for refreshments, longtime voters and first-time observers all seemed to agree: Provincetown’s annual town meeting was going remarkably smoothly.
Right from the beginning, town officials seated at tables with tastefully flamboyant silver skirts kept a brisk pace.
Town Manager Alex Morse started the night with an April Fool’s Day joke — “I do hope folks cleared their schedule for the entire week, as we expect this to go a few nights” — which got a good laugh from the voters. “That’s the only April Fool’s joke allowed tonight,” Morse added.
It was time for business, and Morse appeared comfortable at the podium sporting a bold green tie, ready for any inquiry.
Town Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar kept an eagle eye on matters of decorum and procedure, shutting down out-of-order comments and silencing any mention of a previous speaker’s proper name before the transgressive syllables could even be fully voiced.
The first seven articles were introduced, voted on, and approved quickly and unanimously.
When Article 8, a nearly $12-million proposal to revamp town-owned Motta Field, was introduced, the audience began to rustle and whisper in anticipation.
A pair of heartfelt speeches from Provincetown Schools Supt. Gerry Goyette and Athletic Director Chelsea Roderick softened the audience, however, and resistance from the budget hawks in the room started to melt.
Voter Dennis Minsky told the meeting that, according to his back-of-the-envelope calculations, he would pay about $3,000 in taxes as his contribution to the project over the next few years.
For that reason, “I am resolved to use the damn thing,” Minsky said, to laughs. “I just hope there are enough benches.”
Voter Laura Ludwig came to the microphone, collected her thoughts, and said everyone might be better served by spending time in Provincetown’s natural wonders rather than at an engineered park.
Artcle 8 passed, however, as did the next 10 measures, after which the moderator called for the refreshments break.
While in line downstairs — where the options included sandwiches from Far Land Provisions, homemade cookies and pastries, sodas, and the all-important coffee — voter Ron Plant told the Independent that he was happy to see the Motta Field project pass and was pleased with the “tight ship” the town moderator was running.
Voters Chris Spaulding and Chris Hartley agreed that the meeting was moving along nicely — and wondered how many people in town might have wagered on the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team, which was playing for a spot in the NCAA Final Four with a 9:20 p.m. tipoff.
After the break, it was evident that some sports betters and fair-weather voters had indeed made an exit, leaving a room of hardened veterans more willing to slow the meeting’s brisk pace.
Voter Peter Cook rose twice to denounce the “fast talking and fast voting” that had taken place earlier in the meeting. “Let’s slow this down,” he said, as the town took up two articles on the fire dept.
Sure enough, the meeting slowed down — although, confusingly, the pace of votes didn’t. Motions to amend, to call the question, and to reconsider the previous question all required votes of their own, and eventually voters near the back of the room said they no longer understood exactly what they had voted for.
An amendment to Article 20 had failed, the article itself had passed, but confusion among voters persisted. After 10 voters submitted a motion to reconsider Article 20, a loud groan reverberated through the meeting.
In the balcony where nonvoters were sitting — along with some voters who appeared not to mind that their votes weren’t being counted — eyes began to glaze over. The “yawns per minute” rate on the floor was reaching a peak. An observer in the balcony quietly declared a new contest — bald men versus hat-wearers — and tallied 25 of the former, 26 of the latter.
Around 9:30 p.m., voter Ngina Lythcott offered a motion to adjourn the meeting so that everyone could take time to properly study the remaining articles. Avellar called a vote, but only one other citizen besides Lythcott wanted to go home and start again the next evening.
The following articles went quickly, however — “open space” was popular, and only a few spoke on zoning — and finally salvation arrived in the form of the consent agenda, which bundled Articles 35 to 43 into one vote.
The vote to approve the consent agenda and the vote to adjourn were performed in rapid succession, and the meeting had suddenly ended, at just under four hours. A cheer rang out, and voters chattered their way toward the exits.
PROVINCETOWN TOWN MEETING
Select Board Pushes Compromise on Fire Engineers Panel
Board also endorses $11.7-million Motta Field project
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.
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.
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
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.
TOWN MEETING
Provincetown May Ditch Fire Engineers Panel
$11.7M for Motta Field and a plan to limit hotel consolidation also on warrant
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.
TOWN MEETING
Police Station and 9 Housing Articles OKed
Buildings, land, and money fill two nights of debate in Provincetown
PROVINCETOWN — Over the course of two nights, town meeting voters passed nearly every article on Provincetown’s 48-item warrant, including a long-sought funding authorization for a new police station and a slate of nine articles to address the housing crisis.
Monday night was mostly about the police station vote and two articles involving short-term rental taxes and attracted a large turnout of 448 town voters. On Tuesday, a smaller crowd authorized several studies of town-owned land for future housing and debated the composition of the finance committee and residency requirements for town officials.
Police Station and a Park
The police station has been controversial for years, with town meeting voters authorizing an $8.6 million bond for construction in 2017, but then defeating $3.9 million in supplemental funding in 2019.
This year, supply chain issues and construction premiums drove the supplemental bond measure up to $8.5 million, but after a detailed presentation and 20 minutes of comments, the meeting voted almost unanimously to spend the money.
Building committee chair Sheila McGuinness told the history of the project, including her own opposition to a prior proposal for a station on Race Point Road.
“The article before you tonight is a combination of efforts that began in 2001, when the then-police chief sent a letter to the town manager and board of selectmen, listing the operational deficiencies and hazards of the current police station,” McGuinness said.
Questions about the plan included whether a larger police station would result in a larger police force.
“This building is not a palace, it’s not the Taj Mahal, and it does not mean a direct correlation to increasing our police force,” said Town Manager Alex Morse. “It’s to support our existing police department for the year-round population we have, and the peak summer population we have as well.”
When the vote was called, the show of hands was so lopsided that there was no official count taken. About 10 people appeared to vote no.
Another debt authorization of $1.8 million for Cannery Wharf Park in the East End also passed with about 10 votes against. Recreation committee member Cathy Nagorski and Open Space committee member Dennis Minsky estimated that up to $750,000 in grants could help defray the cost of the project.
“As far as I know, this is the only waterfront park to be created on Cape Cod in over 50 years,” said Minsky. “We have this jewel, and we need to support it.”
Housing Measures
Article 15, for a 3-percent community impact fee on investor-owned short-term rentals, passed with about 15 no votes. The fee will be added to the cost of bookings of short-term rentals whose owners have two or more residential properties in town listed for short-term rental. Rentals located at a person’s primary residence are exempted, if that residence is a one-, two-, or three-unit dwelling.
“The focus on short-term rentals is that any home, any property in town can turn into a short-term rental, and it seems there’s no ceiling lately in terms of what people are willing to pay,” said Morse. “We can’t regulate that. So, the point is to capture revenue, and discourage folks from warehousing multiple properties, because that has severe consequences on year-round residents.”
Peter Okun said the measure unfairly singled out short-term rental owners. Brian Orter said he thought 3 percent was too low to dissuade people who are renting properties for $5,000 a week. Morse explained that 3 percent is the highest the state law allows.
Debate on Article 16, was the most contentious of the evening, taking up nearly an hour. It reallocates the town’s rooms tax revenue, which for 10 years has been split among four different town funds: the tourism fund, the general fund, the capital stabilization fund, and the sewer fund. The reallocation reduces the percentages directed to these four and directs 30 percent to the town’s housing funds.
In July 2019 the rooms tax was extended to include short-term rentals. That expansion raised revenue from $2.2 million in 2018 to a current forecast of $4.7 million. Dividing that money up proved to be a divisive subject.
Several speakers argued that less of the revenue should go to the tourism fund and a higher percentage go to housing. An amendment that would change the percentages was offered by Jennifer Cabral but was ruled outside the scope of the original article and therefore impermissible by Town Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar.
Her ruling was challenged by several speakers, including former Town Manager David Panagore. Town Counsel John Giorgio came to the microphone six different times to reiterate that the ruling on scope was the moderator’s alone to make.
“The determination of the moderator on questions of scope is final,” said Giorgio. “You can ask her to change her mind, but she’s the one that makes that determination.”
“There is no such thing as an appeal,” said Avellar. “You can appeal the ruling from now until the end of the world. You can continue to discuss whether or not you like my ruling. But that doesn’t get to the point of voting.”
A measure to indefinitely postpone the article was defeated when voters pointed out that without any article no rooms tax money would be dedicated to housing. With no other option available, the article came to a vote and passed almost unanimously.
The other housing articles went more smoothly. The town purchased a long, narrow 1.7-acre parcel at 288A Bradford St. with the understanding that the rear area could be conservation land and the front could support up to 15 units of new housing. That purchase was made with $1,575,000 of free cash.
“There’s a direct correlation between higher-than-expected short-term rental tax revenue and hotel revenue that resulted in higher than ever free cash,” said Morse, “and we’re directing it to housing.”
Voters also debated four different development consultant contracts for town-owned land, with extensive conversations about the Route 6 corridor. Some warned that any assessment of the land’s potential would inevitably lead to development. Others argued that knowing the land’s wetland and endangered-species status was greatly preferable to not knowing, and the $60,000 to assess the land was worthwhile. About 15 people voted against the Route 6 assessment.
Assessments of potential uses for the Veterans Memorial Community Center site and of land at 30 Creek Road and 189 Commercial St. all passed easily.
The housing package was rounded out by two measures involving the inclusionary zoning bylaw: one to increase the in-lieu fee charged to developers who fail to include affordable units in their projects, and the other to allow a fourth story as a development bonus to inclusionary projects in the General Commercial zone. The precise extent of the GC zone had to be discussed, because, somewhat counterintuitively, it is not on Commercial Street but along Shank Painter Road and some adjacent parcels on Route 6. Both measures passed by large margins.
Closing Matters
With the police and housing agenda complete, only a few significant measures remained on Tuesday night. The town voted not to change the appointing authority for the finance committee, which had been proposed in a petitioned article from Laura Rood. Separation of powers arguments carried the day, with the select board arguing that it should not have the authority to appoint finance committee members.
A proposed change in the way Visitor Services Board members are appointed was effectively withdrawn when the select board requested an indefinite postponement. Board member Louise Venden offered a fiery dissent, arguing that reserving seats on the VSB for town organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and the Women Innkeepers of Provincetown had the effect of excluding younger people who might not be part of those organizations.
The only other outright defeat of the night was of a measure to allow the police to fine business owners who fail to sweep their sidewalks every morning. While voters voiced their support for clean sidewalks, some objected to the enforcement program of Article 31, and the select board voted not to recommend the measure, which had originated at the recycling committee. In the end, it received fewer than five votes.
Near the end of the meeting, a measure from the select board was defeated and then partly resurrected with some quick parliamentary work by Morse. Article 36 proposed to amend the town’s charter, which currently requires the police chief and DPW director to live in either Provincetown or Truro, to instead allow those two department heads to live within a 45-mile drive of Provincetown. That rule would permit residency as far away as Yarmouth, which was a rotary too far for many voters, especially when it came to the police chief. The measure failed when put to a vote.
Provincetown’s DPW Director Rich Waldo is leaving next month to become town administrator in Wellfleet, and Morse immediately moved to reconsider and amend. His amendment applied the 45-mile rule only to the DPW director and left the Provincetown-or-Truro rule in place for the police chief. That version passed almost unanimously.
“Thank you, town meeting, that was fun,” said Morse. The few remaining articles passed easily and another town meeting passed into the history books.
CIVICS
Celebrating Democracy at Provincetown’s Annual Meeting
A crowd of 400 is glad to gather, agree on a police station, and groan over amendments
PROVINCETOWN — On foot and by bike, scooter, and car, some 400 people made their way along Commercial Street to town hall on Monday evening, headed to what turned out to be just the first night of this year’s annual town meeting.
The event was held indoors for the first time since 2019. With the occasional masked resident and a Covid safety table filled with rapid tests and hand sanitizers at the entrance to the auditorium, the mood was social as residents hugged and waved from across the room.
Shira Kavon, a Provincetown resident for eight years, said this year’s meeting felt busier than in years past.
“I’m encouraged by how many people are here,” Kavon said. “I’m glad we can all gather tonight and deal with town issues.”
Pink slips in hand, registered voters congregated on the main floor and stood at the back after the chairs filled, while a dozen yellow-carded nonvoters were relegated to the balcony.
Town Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar began the meeting with a reference to the Ukrainian conflict and highlighted the importance of democracy in action.
“How fortunate we are to exercise our right to vote,” she said. “To be free.”
Behind Avellar, a large screen displayed a statement of Thomas Jefferson’s: “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, or in philosophy as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
Avellar added her own advice. “Be civil to your fellow town members,” she said, “even if you hate everything they’re saying.”
During a 15-minute adjournment, Jeremy Flanigan said he’s come to Provincetown for the past 25 years and has always heard of the annual town meeting as an “infamous event.”
“Thus far,” he said, waiting in the refreshments line, “it’s been rather orderly and congenial.”
Flanigan was most interested in what he called “the sexiest articles,” those addressing police station funding and housing.
Residents did turn testy while debating several housing articles and Article 6 on the police station. “I probably shouldn’t do this,” said Avellar before mentioning her support for the police station article.
The mood remained upbeat, however, and speakers got laughs when they clarified whether their visits to the current police station cells had been voluntary or involuntary.
Qya Crystal probably got the biggest laugh of the night during the Article 6 discussion when she introduced herself as Michelle Obama.
The crowd cheered when the station funding passed. Fewer than 10 voters dissented.
There were at least two babies in attendance. During the adjournment, an Independent reporter tried speaking with one, but he had no comment.
Speaking for eight-month-old Atkins Mayo, his mother, Chelsea Crowe, said sharing democracy with her baby was important. She added that her son is interested in conservation, but that a pacifier will usually suffice to keep him from loudly expressing his opinion.
As the night wore on, a few other residents might have needed pacification, too.
During an especially long comment about income restrictions for affordable rental housing, a woman in the front of the crowd shouted, “Get on the internet and look it up!”
“The more you have demonstrations, the longer we’re going to be here,” Avellar said as the clock passed 9 p.m.
Three hours in, the three-minute comment timer seemed to have broken.
An attempt to amend Article 16 — a home rule petition about allocating rooms tax revenues — set off a battle between amendment proponents and the moderator. Avellar, having ultimate authority, was the winner.
“You can appeal the ruling until the end of the world,” Avellar said before calling on Town Counsel John Giorgio to explain the amendment procedure to the audience for the fifth time.
Thirty minutes of discourse preceded an almost unanimous vote on Article 17, a zoning bylaw amendment to increase the in-lieu fee on developers who do not include affordable units in new construction.
Kavon said she did not mind the detailed explanation: “That’s why people are here.”
“But I was here first!” cried one resident at the microphone when Avellar recognized another speaker.
“Oh, and the entertainment value,” Kavon added.
Audible groans filled the room when yet another amendment was proposed, this time on Article 18 at 10 p.m.
“You chose to stay here,” Avellar said. “We need to get this done.”
Soon thereafter, residents chose to return Tuesday night to finish up the town’s business.
PROVINCETOWN TOWN MEETING
Lane Removal Could Create Large Parcels Along Route 6
Two articles for studying the roadbed plus adjacent town-owned land
PROVINCETOWN — Two measures on the warrant for Provincetown’s April 4 town meeting consider the removal of the two southern lanes of Route 6 from Herring Cove to Conwell Street. Those inbound lanes sit on town-owned land and, for a half mile from Conwell Street to just west of the dog park, they are adjacent to large town-owned parcels.
Article 19 is a nonbinding resolution that asks if townspeople want to see a detailed proposal to remove the lanes “for the development of housing and other municipal uses (parking, sewer leaching areas, bikepaths, etc).”
“It’s a big decision to move forward with development along that corridor,” Town Manager Alex Morse told the select board last fall. “The suggestion has been to do a nonbinding referendum at town meeting, to get a sense from voters before we move full steam ahead on that.”
Article 20 asks to spend $60,000 on a consultant who could assess the land and its suitability for development, taking into account wetlands, endangered species, and flood potential, according to Assistant Town Manager David Gardner. The result would be recommendations to the select board regarding which areas could and could not be developed.
The two lanes from Herring Cove inbound to Shank Painter Road are already scheduled to be removed as part of the town’s Shank Painter Road Reconstruction Project, which was approved for $12 million in federal grant money in 2018. That project includes bike lanes and visual and safety improvements to Shank Painter Road, turns the intersection with Route 6 into a roundabout, and replaces the southern lanes out to Herring Cove with a bike path.
The select board approved that design in October 2019, DPW Director Rich Waldo told the Independent. Construction is set to begin in late 2023 or early 2024.
The lanes already being removed are 1.2 miles long, but they are fronted for almost their entire length by state-owned conservation land. Only the portion relatively close to Shank Painter abuts a wider stretch of town-owned land. That section, which runs from the dog park toward Patrick Patrick’s warehouse at 207 Route 6, could probably be developed for housing, said Gardner.
The lanes from Shank Painter to Conwell Street have never been formally studied for removal. The town received a planning grant last year to assess the area’s potential to replace parking spaces being lost to the Stellwagen Bank Visitor Center, but that’s not yet underway.
A strip of land just south of these lanes is owned by the town, including a four-acre parcel at 16 Jerome Smith Road. Some of it is occupied by the skate park and an RV parking lot. A soccer field sits atop a leaching field for the town’s wastewater system. The proposed new police station is sited at the edge of 16 Jerome Smith, near the intersection of Route 6 and Shank Painter.
Closer to Conwell Street is a large patch of wetlands. Alongside the cemetery are two smaller ones.
Gardner said the assessment proposed in Article 20 “is not to determine what gets built as housing and what gets built as municipal buildings, or bike paths. It’s what areas have constraints on development.” With that information in hand, he said, the select board gets to decide how the land gets used.
There are some major municipal projects on the table that could involve the land. The DPW recently presented a significant sewer expansion program to the select board that includes a new wastewater substation at either the soccer field or the area between the dog park and Patrick’s property. The leaching field beneath the soccer field could be moved south to Motta Field, Gardner said, but that would be more easily done for a wastewater project than for a housing initiative.
Neither of the substation sites would depend on the removal of highway lanes, said Waldo. The select board has not yet expressed a preference between the two sites.
Multiple town committees have endorsed articles 19 and 20 unanimously, including the select board, finance committee, community housing council, year-round market-rate rental housing trust, and conservation commission. The open space committee voted unanimously against article 19 and split 3 to 2 in favor of article 20.
Some open space and conservation committee members who had reservations about development on Route 6 nonetheless endorsed article 20, Gardner said. “It’s science-based, whereas 19 is more of a political vote,” he said.
ANNUAL TOWN MEETING
Police Station, Housing Efforts Top Provincetown Agenda
It’s a full warrant for April 4; bring snacks and patience
PROVINCETOWN — Voters at annual town meeting on April 4 may feel like they’re at the civic version of a double feature. The main attractions will be the police station proposal in Article 6 followed by 10 different measures to address the housing crisis in articles 15 through 24.
Article 6 asks for authorization to borrow $8.5 million — to be added to the $8.6 million approved in 2017 — to build the station at Shank Painter Road and Route 6. A similar measure asking for $3.9 million failed in 2019 in two very close votes.
The 10 housing articles mostly fall into two categories: studying town-owned parcels for future housing and allocating new revenue streams. There is also a proposal to allow four-story residential construction along Shank Painter Road and a measure to purchase a 1.7-acre parcel at 288A Bradford St. for development.
A Difficult History
Provincetown’s recent history with police station planning has been difficult. The police dept. has been operating from a former funeral home at 26 Shank Painter Road since 1986. Town Manager Alex Morse and Police Chief Jim Golden have made a video about its conditions, online at provincetown-ma.gov/1111/Police-Station. Features include overworked electrical panels, outdated dispatch equipment, and a basement that becomes soaked with sludge on rainy days.
A 2017 town meeting vote approved $8.6 million for construction of a new station at 16 Jerome Smith Road, a town-owned parcel at Shank Painter and Route 6. That article passed easily, 206 to 35.
The cost estimate turned out to be invalid, however. A 13-page question-and-answer sheet prepared by the building committee and currently posted on the town website lists several reasons. “The estimate was inaccurate and misleading, was based on depressed 2016 estimates, and did not include a premium for working on the Outer Cape,” it says. “The architects who prepared the estimate themselves declined to bid.”
When town officials asked the 2019 annual town meeting for an additional $3.9 million, opinion splintered. Objections were raised to the design, the location, the cost, and the method of financing, which was split between a debt exclusion (raising the money from taxes beyond the 2.5-percent limit on increases) and free cash. The vote was 202 yes and 123 no — 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for a debt exclusion.
According to this year’s Article 6, “This is the same project that was brought to town meeting in April 2019. The only difference is that … this funding will be paid entirely through a 2½ debt exclusion,” rather than using free cash for part of the cost.
After the 2019 vote, the building committee commissioned a more traditional “Cape Cod vernacular” alternative design. The original, more contemporary design got more than 80 percent of the nearly 1800 votes in an online poll. Both designs and interior floor plans are on the police station website.
The building committee estimates a “hard construction” cost of $13.5 million and $3.1 million in “soft costs,” which include architectural and engineering work, computers, equipment, and furnishings. Article 6, in combination with the earlier allocation, would authorize $17.1 million total debt for the project.
Housing Initiatives
Provincetown’s select board, community housing council, and Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust have been working on articles for town meeting since October.
Two articles focus on town-owned land under and near the southern lanes of Route 6 between Conwell Street and Shank Painter Road. Article 19 is a nonbinding resolution on the potential removal of the two southern lanes in that stretch; Article 20 asks for $60,000 to pay a planning consultant.
Article 21 asks for $150,000 to study potential reuse of the Veterans Memorial Community Center, now home to the DPW, Council on Aging, and other town departments. Select board members Leslie Sandberg and Louise Venden favor turning the one-story structure into a two- or three-story building, with town offices on the ground floor and housing above.
Articles 22 and 23 ask for funds to study two smaller properties: 30 Creek Road and 189 Commercial St. Article 24 would allow inclusionary projects — that is, market-rate developments where at least one of every six units are deed-restricted to be affordable — to get a potential fourth story if they are in the town’s General Commercial zone.
Articles 15, 16, and 17 would each dedicate other funds for housing. Article 15 would impose a community impact fee of 3 percent of bookings on short-term rentals that are “professionally managed.” Article 16 would direct 30 percent of the town’s rooms tax revenues from hotels and short-term rentals to the town’s two housing funds. Article 17 would raise the “in-lieu” fees that developers pay to the affordable housing trust fund when they build multiple units of market-rate housing and don’t include affordable units.
Article 18 was apparently added just before the warrant closed. It would authorize a $1,575,000 debt exclusion to purchase a 1.7-acre parcel at 288A Bradford St. for “open space land and affordable/community housing.” The parcel belongs to Shaun Pfeiffer, and has been in his family since at least 1943, according to town records. A separate petitioned article from Jonathan Sinaiko of 292 Bradford St. asks the town to buy the parcel for the same purposes.
Appointments, Etc.
The only other petitioned article would change the way the finance committee is appointed. At present, the committee is a “standing committee of town meeting,” appointed by the town moderator. Article 25, submitted by Laura Rood, would have the moderator appoint three members and the select board and school committee each appoint two members and an alternate.
Current finance committee members would remain until their appointments expire.
Article 34, from the select board, would change the appointment of visitor services board members to eliminate nominations from various town organizations. The select board would instead simply appoint all the members.
Article 8, a $1.8-million debt exclusion, would fund the development of Cannery Wharf Park, previously known as East End Waterfront Park. The land was purchased from Elena Hall in 2019.
Article 12 asks for $115,000 to resurface the tennis courts at Motta Field and stripe two of the three courts for pickleball.
Article 14B seeks $450,000 to design and construct a barrier dune at Ryder Street beach. The Jan. 4, 2018 nor’easter sent seawater across this beach and down Gosnold Street into a giant pool at the Bas Relief Park. Dozens of homes and businesses were flooded. The dune would run from Ryder Street to the edge of the Crown and Anchor property to close the flood pathway.
CONSENSUS
Smooth Sailing for Another Provincetown Town Meeting
Broad agreement on diversity, Pier Corp., Court Street articles
PROVINCETOWN — Provincetown’s second outdoor, Covid-safe town meeting was held on Saturday, May 1 and it was relatively uncontentious, with nearly every article passing by large margins.
Articles that added members to the Pier Corp. board, funded a new pump house at Court Street, and created a new diversity, equity, and inclusion office in town hall drew the most discussion, but all three passed easily. A fourth article that would have disbanded the Pier Corp., the autonomous body that manages town-owned MacMillan Pier, was discussed at length before the voters decided to indefinitely postpone — effectively killing it.
Town Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar could not make the meeting because of a health emergency, and Steve Katsurinis was elected temporary moderator at the outset.
Avellar had a fall in March, her sister Susan Avellar told the Independent. A scan conducted to investigate continuing headaches revealed a subdural hematoma, and emergency surgery was needed. “She’s going to be fine,” her sister said. “We’re all pretty hard-headed.”
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
More than a dozen people spoke on Article 13, a citizens’ petition to appropriate $136,000 for a new office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Lead petitioner Donna Walker said the allocation could fund salary and benefits for one full-time professional, as well as an assessment that would provide data on access to town resources as well as equity issues in the broader community.
“In order to make our town work, we ask people to move here temporarily, to be the power behind our business economy,” said Ngina Lythcott. “These are people who are very vulnerable to abuses. We need to have something here for people who are vulnerable and being discriminated against.”
“In the two-plus years that I’ve lived here, I have experienced acts of racial bias and unfairness because of my ethnic appearance,” said Isaac Lopez. He added that he knows other BIPOC — Black, Indigenous, and People of Color — people who have been threatened or discriminated against. “Most of those people no longer call Provincetown home,” he said.
“In the early 1900s, crosses were burned on this very lot,” said Rachel White. “The Portuguese were not welcomed here. They were Azoreans, they were hardworking people, but they were considered riffraff. That’s why the people who have been here a long time have welcomed everyone.
“I was surprised to learn there was maybe some discrimination here,” White continued, “but if you believe we still have problems here, then the money would probably be well spent.”
Because it was funded as a Proposition 2½ override, Article 13 needs both a two-thirds majority at town meeting and a majority vote on the May 11 town election ballot to take effect. The measure passed overwhelmingly at the meeting. From the back of the gathering, there were not any visible “no” votes, although acting town moderator Steve Katsurinis reported that a smattering were visible from the front of the assembly.
Court Street Pump Station
The largest number of “no” votes came on a proposal to borrow $3.5 million to mitigate recurring flooding on Court Street. The measure would pay for a pump station to move rainwater to a retention pond in the rotary planned for the intersection of Shank Painter Road and Route 6. Any overflow would go into the Duck Pond watershed.
About 30 people voted against the measure — although, with more than 200 voters present, it still had more than the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
The finance committee had voted not to recommend the article, and initially didn’t report their reasoning. After two voters asked their concerns, two committee members agreed to speak.
“The committee was split,” said Tony Valentino. “Five members voted not to recommend, the other three abstained. It is a big price tag. The benefits may outweigh the price tag. There may be other options. We weren’t completely satisfied.”
“It’s just that, for the price, we didn’t have adequate alternatives presented to us,” said Gloria McPherson.
“This is part of an overall $14-million project funded by the state,” said Town Manager Alex Morse. “We realize this is quite an expensive project. Rich Waldo wanted town meeting voters to know, our goal is to secure state and federal grants to get this project down to a more realistic number of $2 million.”
Morse had previously explained that DPW Director Rich Waldo was not at the meeting because his son had just been born that morning.
Provincetown environmental planner Tim Famulare said that final designs would still need to undergo review by the town’s conservation commission and by the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection.
Ian Leahy said he has rented a commercial space on Court Street for 18 years, and that flooding has gotten worse every year. “I can tell you from experience, every small solution has not worked,” Leahy said, predicting the town stands to lose both residential and commercial properties there in future floods.
Pier Corp. Advisers
The third major discussion was about the Pier Corp.
The select board sponsored a measure to add one alternate and two nonvoting advisory members to the Pier Corp. board. One of the nonvoting members would represent the commercial fishing fleet, and the other would represent the excursion and ferry fleet. That article passed almost unanimously.
A competing article had been introduced by citizens’ petition — although Laura Ludwig, a harbor committee member who had signed that petition, said the petitioners were unaware of the select board’s measure when they circulated their own. The citizens’ petition called for the dissolution of the Pier Corp., which presumably would return MacMillan Pier to the direct purview of the select board and town manager.
Town Manager Alex Morse said this petitioned article was not consistent with state law, and therefore would functionally be an advisory measure if it did pass. Multiple speakers suggested it should be indefinitely postponed, but several people took the opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the Pier Corp. anyway.
“I think we need a town-wide forum about what we want our pier to be, and how it runs,” said Jennifer Cabral. “I think the mission is muddled. I understand the pier has to be self-managing to an extent. But, like with Harbor Hill, or anything in town that serves the entire community, I think it has to be subsidized. It could turn into the pier next door, and bring in lots of money, and never need to come to the town for money — but it wouldn’t be serving the community functions we want it to serve.”
And in this town meeting, where nearly every article ended in widespread agreement, the motion to indefinitely postpone the abolition of the Pier Corp. also passed almost unanimously.
TOWN MEETING
Provincetown Considers an Office of Diversity
A group’s petition seeks funds for outreach and a salary
PROVINCETOWN — Voters at Provincetown’s annual town meeting on Saturday will be deciding a question with little precedent on the Outer Cape. Article 13, brought forward by a group of petitioners, would allocate $136,000 to create a town office of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to close gaps in “social, racial, and cultural equity.”
The measure is funded through a Proposition 2½ override, which means it would need to pass at both town meeting and the May 11 town election ballot.
The funding is for a $30,000 initial equity assessment and one full-time staff person for one year, according to two of its local proponents, Donna Walker and Jaime de Sousa, who spoke to the Independent.
Walker, 63, an admissions counselor at Cape Cod Community College, said the source of funds was not an essential element of the proposal. “It’s simply a way to move the football forward,” Walker said. “We were told by town staff that a Proposition 2½ override was the best way to move this forward now.”
“That doesn’t mean a different funding source can’t happen in year two or three,” said de Sousa, 32, a community health counselor who recently worked at the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. “We’ve seen inequities come from the war on drugs — why not have the marijuana tax help fund this?”
Marijuana tax revenue cannot be allocated at town meeting until it’s certified as free cash by the state, usually around September, Finance Director Josee Young said.
At recent meetings of the select board and finance committee, there was wide support for a DEI office, but doubts about whether the current proposal had clear enough goals and language.
“I could not be more supportive,” said select board member Louise Venden of Article 13 at the board’s April 12 meeting, “but it has not been groomed to the point where we know what the scope of it is.” Venden said she would ask Town Manager Alex Morse to “develop it further.”
“To me, creating the position with no concrete goals before the study is done is putting the cart before the horse,” said finance committee chair Mark Hatch at the committee’s April 15 meeting.
“Given where we are in this moment in history, I wouldn’t want to see Provincetown step back from this,” said finance committee member David Panagore. “The town manager will have control of the sequencing, and he can have the study done first, before the hiring.”
Town Manager Morse told the committee that, if the measure is passed, he and the select board will have some leeway. “We can use up to the amount funded to begin a needs assessment, community outreach, and data collection, and then move to the next step,” he said. “It is a little bit different than how positions have been created in the past, but given the substance of the proposal, I think it’s worth moving forward.”
The select board voted unanimously to “reserve recommendation” until town meeting, but the finance committee voted 6-1 to recommend the article, with Hatch, the chair, dissenting.
Walker said a key part of the $30,000 equity assessment would be figuring out who in town is too wary of government to benefit from its programs. “Think of those blue matted pathways to the beach, for people with wheelchairs or walkers,” she said. “Those are wonderful. You want to learn how to say, ‘Who is accessing the services that we offer?’ and then also learn to say, ‘Who is missing here?’ ”
“I think there’s a necessity for someone to be thinking of all these shifts we go through,” said de Sousa. “Some people see P’town as Disneyland. Others see it as a place where you have to share a room with five other people. Or a place you work year after year after year after year, and you’ll still never be able to own property in the town you gave your blood, sweat, and tears to. We have a huge flux of people coming in and out.”
Several towns in the state, all of them considerably larger than Provincetown, have a DEI office, including Brookline, Arlington, and Lexington. Nantucket hired a DEI officer in January. Falmouth is hiring one now.
“I guess you could say size doesn’t matter — we’re not immune from the hate,” said Walker, who is African-American. “I’m from Milwaukee and then suburban New Jersey, but I still see it. I still feel it. Just because it’s a small town, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
This Week In Provincetown
Meetings Ahead
Due to the pandemic, most meetings are held remotely. Go to provincetown-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch. This week, however, there is one exception. The Provincetown Town Meeting will be in person.
Thursday, April 29
- Select Board and Board of Health joint meeting, 4 p.m.
- Personnel Board, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 1
- Town Meeting, St. Peter the Apostle Church parking lot, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, May 4
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, May 5
- Historic District Commission. 4 p.m.
Thursday, May 6
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Town Meeting Saturday
Provincetown’s annual town meeting will be begin on Saturday, May 1 at 10 a.m. in the parking lot of St. Peter the Apostle Church at 11 Prince St. The rain date is Saturday, May 8 at 10 a.m. There are 39 articles on the warrant, which can be found at the town website: provincetown-ma.gov.
Relaxing Rules for Summer
Members of the board of health and the select board will meet Thursday, April 29 at 4 p.m. to discuss what everyone is waiting to hear: will local restrictions on business operations, masks, and gatherings be altered or even lifted this summer?
The meeting is a follow-up to the last discussion by both boards on March 4, at which time everyone agreed that it was too soon to relax rules designed to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. That included changes to the town’s order against allowing indoor live entertainment, although Gov. Charlie Baker gave the green light for indoor entertainment to resume on March 22 at 50 percent capacity. But Provincetown officials vowed to wait until April 29 to make any changes. They wanted to see how the vaccination rate is going both statewide and nationally.
On March 4, Dr. Susan Troyan, vice chair of the board of health, said vaccine-induced herd immunity is expected to be achieved when 60 to 90 percent of the U.S. population had been vaccinated.
As of Monday, April 26, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Data Tracker reported that 42 percent of Americans had had one vaccination and 29 percent were fully vaccinated.
According to the CDC, where the preferred term is “community immunity,” so-called herd immunity happens when a large enough portion of the community becomes immune (through vaccines or prior infection) to a disease to make its spread from person to person unlikely. At that point, even unvaccinated individuals gain some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community. —K.C. Myers
This Week In Provincetown
Meetings Ahead
Meetings are held remotely. Go to provincetown-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch.
Thursday, April 22
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 2 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Monday, April 26
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, April 27
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, April 28
- Local Comprehensive Planning Committee, 1 p.m.
- School Committee, 4:30 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Orleans Housing Asks for $
Town meeting will begin on Saturday, May 1, at 10 a.m. at the St. Peter the Apostle Church parking lot at 11 Prince St., with a rain date of Saturday, May 8 at 10 a.m.
Among the 39 articles that may generate interest is Article 9, which asks to use $20,000 in community preservation funds to help the town of Orleans fund a $27.7-million affordable housing project in that town.
The development by Pennrose, which also built the Village at Nauset Green in Eastham, would have 62 affordable units including 10 that are “workforce apartments,” designated for people earning up to 120 percent of area median income.
The Orleans Zoning Board of Appeals granted the comprehensive permit for the project last month, said George Meservey, Orleans town planner. “It’s a good project,” he said. “It takes an empty commercial building that was kind of a white elephant and puts it to good use.”
Pennrose is asking Orleans for $2 million in community preservation funds and $100,000 from Eastham. Five other towns — Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Truro, and Wellfleet — will be asked to contribute next year, Charlie Adams, regional vice president of Pennrose told the Independent.
The rental units would be on 3.5 acres at 19 West Road and 10 Skaket Corners, where the Cape Cod Five Cents Saving Bank had its headquarters. It would include a renovation of the former bank headquarters as well as the addition of two separate townhouse buildings.
Also on the Provincetown warrant are four debt exclusions for capital improvements, the largest of which is $3.5 million to fix chronic flooding of Court Street. This will raise taxes by $55.85 a year for a property valued at $620,500 — the median house price in town. There is also one override for consideration: $136,000 to create a town diversity, equity, and inclusion office. —K.C. Myers
Not on the Agenda: Harbor Hill
Last year, there was a warrant article at town meeting to transfer $594,500 from the general fund to the Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust. It was billed as annual payment on the bonds that the town issued in order to purchase and renovate Harbor Hill, the bankrupt time-share development that the town turned into market-rate rentals.
This year, there won’t be such an article, because the bond payments have been reassigned to the town itself, rather than the trust. Instead of transferring money to the trust, the payments will be made directly from the general fund.
This change was initiated by Robin Craver, who served as town manager for the first half of 2020. At the time, she said the rents at Harbor Hill ought to cover operating costs, but the town ought to cover bond payments.
“When people talk about the debt service like it’s a subsidy, or an addition, they’re counting it twice,” Craver said. “That $595,000 is your mortgage, basically. You’re actually investing in a property.”
Craver argued that special tax revenue, such as the short-term rental tax or the marijuana tax, should not be used for bond payments, as that would suggest a subsidy. Instead, the payments should be made in the same way as for other capital projects, Craver said.
“The debt service to pay the bond for Harbor Hill has been included in the general fund budget, alongside all these other bond payments that we are always making,” confirmed Provincetown’s finance director, Josee Young. “The debt exclusion was voted in February 2017, and you can’t pay something as a debt exclusion unless it’s in the general fund.”
If new borrowing were to become necessary, such as for renovations, roof replacements, or new construction, then it would require a warrant article. Under the current arrangements, however, the existing debt service won’t be coming up for an annual vote anymore. —Paul Benson
TOWN MEETING PREVIEW
Voters to Be Asked for $3.5M to Fix Court Street Flooding
The town budget is up 8.2 percent; schools ask 18 percent more
PROVINCETOWN — Dept. of Public Works Director Rich Waldo said it is possible to fix the flooding that has for decades impeded pedestrians, harmed businesses, and damaged cars at the corner of Court Street and Shank Painter Road.
But it’s going to cost $3.5 million, an expense on the warrant for the May 1 annual town meeting. That is the largest of five budget override requests on the 39-article warrant. It must pass by a two-thirds majority at the meeting and by a majority vote at the May 11 town election.
The $3.5-million debt exclusion would increase taxes on a home valued at $620,500 by $55.85 in the first year, according to Finance Director Josee Young.
Court Street floods because of wetlands being filled decades ago, though exactly what happened remains the subject of rumors, Waldo said. The area is a perfect storm of poor drainage. The flat topography is low-lying, with groundwater just below the surface, near a wetland, and in a 30-acre watershed, Waldo said.
The giant puddles that last for days in front of Cape Cod Excavating, Cape Tip Seafoods, and BWell Holdings (formerly Fay’s Automotive) will require large pumps and pipes to move that water far enough away.
The proposed pumping station will take water from Court Street to the north end of Shank Painter Road, where it will go into a retention area at a proposed roundabout at the intersection with Route 6. The good news, Waldo said, is that the roundabout and water retention area will be paid for by the state as part of the $14-million reconstruction of Shank Painter Road.
The Shank Painter project is now fully funded and expected to go out to bid in 2023, Waldo said.
The retention area on Route 6 would direct overflow into Duck Pond following huge rainstorms, Waldo said. Duck Pond, north of Route 6, “is a very large wetland, so there would be no impact,” he said. “You will not notice the added water.”
The flooding has “plagued the town for a long time,” Waldo added, “and if the town is serious about getting rid of that problem, this is the way to do it.”
This fix would be game-changing for residents and business owners on Court Street. In 2017, Rita Silva, of 40 Court St., told the Provincetown Banner, “My husband is handicapped. He only has one leg and sometimes the water is so bad I can’t get him down our ramp. I have to push him through the water.”
Since then, the town’s DPW has started to pump as soon as there is a big rain, and “that has saved us,” Silva told the Independent this week.
Other Big Tickets
The town’s operating budget for fiscal 2022 is up 8.2 percent overall, though the size of the increase is deceiving because town staff kept the 2021 budget low, due to concerns about revenue shortfalls from the pandemic, Young said. The town’s $30.7-million budget is up by $2.3 million from the current year. But it’s only a $1.09-million or 3.7-percent increase over 2020, due mostly to fixed costs, she said.
The school budget of $5,126,441, however, is up 18.4 percent. Several factors are in play. First, the early learning center, which offers free child care and preschool for infants up to kindergarten is extremely popular and growing annually, said School Supt. Suzanne Scallion. Its costs are up by 17.5 percent to $581,657.
“We need to have our eyes wide open on how the early learning center has affected the school budget,” Scallion told the finance committee and select board in January.
Scallion and Mark Hatch, chair of the finance committee, have each said it’s time to talk about charging fees on a sliding scale so parents who can afford to pay help support the program.
The school budget increase is also due to the rehiring of a business manager, a job that had been done by the superintendent’s assistant for one year. But that proved unmanageable, said the superintendent. Scallion, who is not paid insurance benefits and works part-time, also saw a salary increase from $64,000 in 2021 to $82,000 in 2022.
Noting that the average full-time superintendent earned $140,000, school committee chair Eva Enos said, “I have no doubt she deserves every single penny. … The school committee is united in having trust in Suzanne.”
Lastly, the school committee is trying to protect money earned from school choice, that is, the tuition paid for out-of-district students. The former superintendent, Beth Singer, used school choice funds to offset expenses generally, Hatch told the Independent.
Scallion is preserving school choice for direct education enrichment costs, such as paying for music and theater staff, she said.
Last year, when all department heads had to tighten budgets, the school dept. used school choice funds to cover basic operating expenses. But that’s not their purpose, Enos said. This year, even though the school choice fund now has $566,000 in it, the department plans to use only $288,481 towards its budget and save the rest for unforeseen future costs.
Other Debt Exclusions
Other debt exclusion requests on the town meeting warrant include Article 10R, $410,000 for storm water improvements, with a first-year tax impact on a $620,500 home of $8.03; Article 10S, $530,000 for town building repairs, with a tax impact of $10.35; and Article 10U, $625,000 for a storm water or outfall program at Ryder Street, with a tax impact of $13.44.
This Week In Provincetown
Meetings Ahead
Meetings are held remotely. Go to provincetown-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch.
Thursday, March 18
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Monday, March 22
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, March 23
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, March 24
- Local Comprehensive Planning Committee, 1 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
As of March 15, Provincetown had five active Covid-19 cases, and 95 total cases including one death related to Covid-19, according to the town.
Pier Corp. Popularity
A total of eight people have applied for two spots on the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. board. The select board will interview the last five on Monday, March 22, and they could make appointments that night.
The management of MacMillan Pier, handled by the Pier Corp., is a hot topic after two recent developments. The current Pier Corp. dramatically raised dock fees and two members, Ginny Binder and Carlos Verde, were forced to resign because of term limits.
New applicants include Beau Gribbin, a long-time commercial fishing captain and boat owner, who operates out of Provincetown. He lives in North Truro, but Pier Corp. members don’t have to be Provincetown residents. Gribbin is a member of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, according to his application.
Max Cliggott-Perlt of Provincetown has been a member of the Local Comprehensive Planning Committee since its inception, he wrote on his application.
Robert Davis of Provincetown is a long-time investor, mostly in hotels and resorts. He wrote that he sees an economic opportunity to expand recreational sailing in the harbor, which is “underutilized in terms of moorings and slips.”
Clinton Kershaw of Truro says in his application he is well-versed in budget and financial management but will have a learning curve to get up to speed on municipal financing.
David Colton of Provincetown is a general municipal management consultant with the Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management and a former town administrator in Easton and Milton, as well as former commissioner and director of public works in Quincy and Milton.
The select board interviewed four other candidates on March 8: Eastham lobsterman David Young, Mass. Maritime Academy student Caitlin Townsend of Truro, and Barbara Dyett, who lives in New Jersey and Provincetown. The fourth, Laura Ludwig, who serves on the harbor committee, withdrew her application. She said it conflicted with her work for the Center for Coastal Studies, a marine biology nonprofit. —K.C. Myers
Petitioned Article Workshops
Provincetown residents who want to submit a petitioned article for town meeting on May 1 can set up an appointment with town staff to review and formalize their legal language. Thirty-minute appointments are available on March 24 between 3 and 5 p.m. Call the town clerk’s office at 508-487-7013 to reserve a time.
Petitions require the signatures of 10 registered Provincetown voters and must be submitted by 4 p.m. on April 1. —Paul Benson
CIVICS
Cold Hands, Warm Hearts at Town Meeting
Provincetown voters gets things done with unusual speed and harmony
PROVINCETOWN — The long-delayed annual town meeting moved at a brisk pace on Monday, Sept. 21, with the chilly weather perhaps encouraging voters gathered in the parking lot at St. Peter the Apostle Church to reach a consensus.
The meeting was completed in just under two hours — an achievement for any Cape town, and especially one as prone to contentious debate as Provincetown, where meetings have commonly stretched to two and even three consecutive evenings. The meeting was also remarkable for the level of agreement, with no more than a scattering of “no” votes for any of the articles.
Article 8, concerning the Gosnold Street dune project, was approved with little discussion, and Article 9, a series of Community Preservation Act grants, including a land acquisition for senior housing at Maushope, was approved quickly as well. The grant of $425,000 will allow the Provincetown Housing Authority to expand its affordable senior housing efforts, according to PHA Director Kristin Hatch, who is seeking to add 10 to 15 units of supportive senior housing on the site.
Article 11, a $595,000 bond payment for the debt used to acquire Harbor Hill, provoked the longest discussion, beginning with presentations from Nathan Butera of the Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust and select board member Louise Venden. Butera’s report included information on the current tenancy of the project — 50 people, including eight children, with the 28th and final unit scheduled to be occupied on Oct. 1 — and on the trust’s efforts to pursue a broad range of financing, ownership, and management arrangements.
The project is currently in the third year of a three-year management contract with the Community Development Partnership in Eastham. A capital needs assessment identified $800,000 worth of maintenance that ought to be done in the next five years, and the trust is studying whether outside capital can be involved in the project.
Eight people rose to speak on Article 11, raising questions about the cost structure, and arguing for and against town involvement in middle-class housing.
A tenant in the building, Jaime de Sousa, was last to speak. “As a resident of Harbor Hill, I encourage folks to support this article and also future articles that have to do with affordable and market-rate housing,” he said. “Studies have shown that as housing availability declines, my entire age bracket is projected to decline. To secure the longevity of Provincetown as we know it, it’s important to have housing for all.”
A series of church bells rang out in heavy tones while de Sousa spoke. The somber tones seemed to have a settling effect — the vote was called immediately after, and the article passed with fewer than 10 votes against it.
Article 13 appropriated $12,600 to hire an indigenous peoples consultant, who will help develop at least one public art project and study other forms of representation. Article 14 banned plastic water bottles under one gallon, and Article 15 set the town’s zero-emissions goal into town bylaws. Fewer than 10 people voted against Article 14, and no one voted against 13 or 15.
Another interesting development at this town meeting was the debut of a group called Four Hundred Plus. On at least three articles, speakers began their public statements with “I stand in solidarity with Four Hundred Plus, an intersectional and intergenerational, queer and allied collective of seasonal, transient, and permanent residents.” Carolyn Clough advocated for Harbor Hill with this identifier, and other speakers rose for the indigenous memorial project and for the zero-emissions bylaw.
“We started meeting in June, and we’re meeting every Tuesday night at the Provincetown Brewing Co.,” Clough told the Independent. “We’re a collective that’s sick of racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia. Instead of celebrating the Pilgrims taking this land, we want to see a new era. We did the Black Lives Matter chalking all over town on Labor Day, and we met on the Sunday before town meeting to go over the articles and see where we wanted to speak.”
Organized public comments may not be entirely new for Provincetown, but they’re not typical. Town meetings are always a disparate collection of subjects, initiatives, and budgetary housekeeping — and for one to be this short and generally sweet was quite the September surprise.
