Meetings Ahead
All meetings will be held using video conferencing. For details: provincetown-ma.gov/27/Town-Boards and from there click on Upcoming Meetings.
Thursday, April 9
- Planning Board, 6:30 p.m.
Monday, April 13
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, April 14
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, April 15
- Historic District Commission, 4 p.m.
Thursday, April 16
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6:30 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Coronavirus Update
As of April 6, there were five confirmed cases of coronavirus in town, with one death and 16 additional cases considered recovered and cleared from quarantine, according to the town’s website.
Pier Corp. Meeting Delayed
The Provincetown Public Pier Corp. delayed a controversial meeting that had been scheduled for April 2, said Leslie Sandberg, a consultant hired to conduct public relations for the Pier Corp.
Members of the Pier Corp. had planned the meeting to review the current criteria by which boats are selected to rent slips on MacMillan Pier. Several commercial fishermen were not happy with the changes that members of the Pier Corp. had suggested. Fishermen worried about a dockage fee increase and a new parking fee. They also worried that the new rules would push out some of the current tenants.
On April 3, Dan McKiernan, acting director of the state Dept. of Marine Fisheries, sent a letter to the Pier Corp. arguing for further delay of regulation changes until after this summer. “The DMF is working to assist the commercial fleets through this crisis by assisting them in opening new markets for seafood and encouraging direct sales of lobster and finfish to local residents,” McKiernan wrote to Pier Corp. Chair Regina Binder. “Other agencies are looking to relax rules where possible to avoid unnecessary burdens at this critical time. I hope you will take a similar approach and suspend the deliberations on altering fees and eligibility for longstanding commercial fishermen who depend on your port.”
Shellfishing Extended
The recreational shellfishing season will be extended until April 26 in three areas: east of the West End Breakwater; from Captain Jack’s Wharf to the Provincetown Inn, and in the East End by Johnson Street, for bay scallops only. No new licenses will be available for purchase until the town clerk’s office reopens. —K.C. Myers
