WELLFLEET — A large number of children who visit the Outer Cape Health Services clinic here are “under-vaccinated” — having not received a full series of standard immunizations against infectious diseases, which are required under state law for school admission. Only 77 percent of the kindergartners at the Wellfleet Elementary School in the past three […]
Wellfleet
ECONOMY
Fishing Is Still the Most Dangerous Job
Fishing Partnership’s insurance plan, the model for ‘Romneycare,’ has helped
Close brushes with death are common for Outer Cape fishermen. Rick Marvin of Eastham, who fishes for lobster, bluefish, and crab, knows from experience that a routine move can quickly become dangerous on a fishing boat. One day in early December 2017, Marvin was tossing lobster traps off the side of a boat when his […]
ECONOMY
Surf Shops Suffer Effects of Shark Tales
Local business owners bemoan the media frenzy over great white danger
Some people, like Shawn Vecchione, are tired of talking about sharks. The constant chatter about great whites caused Vecchione, who owns Vec Surfboards in Orleans, to close the retail side of his business this summer after 10 years. “It got to a point where everyone wanted to talk about sharks,” Vecchione said. “Mentally I wasn’t […]
ELECTIONS
Wellfleet Scraps Wooden Ballot Box
Questions about election security are dismissed by select board
WELLFLEET — The select board voted 3-2 on Oct. 22 to “retire the horse and buggy,” as board member Kathleen Bacon put it, and replace the town’s 95-year-old hand-crank ballot box made of wood with a $5,200 optical scanning machine to count votes. Interim Town Clerk Jennifer Congel requested the change in an Oct. 18 […]
THEATER
Despite Real-Estate Challenges, Harbor Stage Sticks to Its Mission
But the founders of Wellfleet’s artist-run theater are still searching for a place to live
For their first seven years, the four actor-founders of the Harbor Stage Company — Robert Kropf and Stacy Fischer, Brenda Withers and Jonathan Fielding — who run the small Wellfleet theater at 15 Kendrick Ave. on their own without a board, had an affordable place in Wellfleet to live in year-round. “It’s really important in […]
ENVIRONMENT
A Mountain of ‘Sacrificial Sand’ Is Dumped at Blasch House
Coastal bank is replenished as property owners challenge town in court
WELLFLEET — The Blasch property is receiving another massive amount of “sacrificial sand” in an effort to stall the mansion’s collapse over the edge of a coastal bank. The 5,817-square-foot house perched on “the Gut,” a narrow spit of sand between Cape Cod Bay and the Herring River, was only 25 feet from the edge […]
CANNABIS
Town Officials Subpoenaed on Marijuana Agreements
Federal grand jury has questions for Gardner, Hoort, and Beebe
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling has questions for towns that have issued host community agreements to marijuana businesses. Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Eastham town administrators all received subpoenas last month ordering them to produce documents, emails, and any other correspondence associated with the agreements. They must appear at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse to testify before […]
Halloween 2019
An Outermost Halloween, 2019
Outer Cape kids celebrate the holiday despite the weather
POLITICS
Sen. Cyr Says Cutler Bill ‘Ain’t Gonna Happen’
Shellfishermen are reassured by local legislators on fears of change
WELLFLEET — State Rep. Sarah Peake and Sen. Julian Cyr appeared before a friendly crowd of shellfishermen at Preservation Hall on Nov. 1 and told them what they wanted to hear: that the so-called Cutler bill, H. 746 before the state legislature, has virtually no chance of becoming law. The legislation was originally promoted by […]
them apples
Appraisal Cleared Way for Purchase of Flats, Town Announces
But appraisal document is withheld as officials contradict each other
WELLFLEET — “We got the money, baby!” crowed Edward Englander, the Boston attorney who represents the HDYLTA Trust, on Tuesday following the closing of the sale of the trust’s shellfish flats to the town for $2 million. “We like them apples!” Englander was referring to the trust’s name, which stands for “How Do You Like […]
letter from the editor
Action, Cameras, Light
Wellfleet is the only town on Cape Cod whose planning board meetings are not recorded
Some people love performing and being on camera. Others cringe at the thought, especially in this age of surveillance capitalism, when we can’t even go to the supermarket without getting the feeling that we’re being watched and recorded. (Yes, we mean you, “Marty.”) So we understand the resistance exhibited by some local town officials to […]
environment
The DEP Says the Blasches May Build Their Wall
The town still hopes to prevail against the revetment in court
WELLFLEET — The owners of a mansion teetering on the edge of a dune near Great Island won approval from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to construct a 241-foot-long rock revetment to shore up the structure, despite opposition from the town and the Cape Cod National Seashore. The DEP approval does not, however, […]
oysterfest 2019
Changes Coming to This Year’s Wellfleet OysterFest
Revamped SPAT board hires new oyster handlers
WELLFLEET — Ever wonder how all those oysters get to OysterFest? This year, Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting (SPAT), the nonprofit that organizes the OysterFest, is expecting to serve 130,000 oysters to around 20,000 people over the course of the two-day festival on the weekend of Oct. 19-20, according to Michele Insley, SPAT’s executive director. […]
