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Photo Kevin Mullaney
Truro Selectman Gary Palmer says enough’s enough. It’s time for Provincetown Selectmen to live up to their water agreements now. |
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Selectmen issue ultimatum to Provincetown
By Kevin Mullaney
Banner Correspondent
TRURO — In a unanimous vote at Tuesday night’s meeting, the Truro Board of Selectmen agreed to send a terse letter to the town of Provincetown, demanding that Provincetown meet its obligations under their agreement to look for water in Truro. The selectmen voted to give Provincetown two weeks to have its representatives meet with Truro’s to map out how Provincetown intends to meet its obligations, and they included a statement that the two boards will not meet until “there is some evidence” that Provincetown is stepping up.
The agreement being referred to is the Intermunicipal Agreement (IMA) that the two towns negotiated in 2004 concerning Provincetown’s need to find back-up wells for their water system, which is located in Truro. “It’s the basis for proceeding with wellfield investigation,” said Truro Selectman Gary Palmer, who made a report to his board as a member of the Pamet Lens Oversight Committee. “Truro committed to support the search and development of wellfields for Provincetown,” Palmer said. “In return, Provincetown agreed to set up the Pamet Lens Oversight Committee — two representatives from each town — to oversee all the requirements in the IMA.”
According to Palmer, the agreement included the development of three plans — a conservation plan, a watershed management plan and a long-term plan of the water system. There were other provisions, such as mutual oversight of the Water Enterprise Fund and keeping Truro informed of how the system is being run.
“Provincetown rejected regionalization so we went to the IMA,” Palmer told his fellow selectmen. He said the oversight committee has met only four times, all of them in 2004. “All other requests have been rejected,” Palmer reported. He read a draft letter, detailing Provincetown’s failure to live up to the agreement and their “failure to show good faith” in meeting the agreement. “In 32 months there has been no action by Provincetown to live up to the IMA,” Palmer said.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was not the recent problem with the broken test well; it was Provincetown’s new board of selectmen’s decision at their meeting two weeks ago to do nothing to revitalize the oversight committee. Provincetown, Palmer said, decided to continue going ahead with the development of their back-up water supply and not keep any of their commitments in the IMA.
The Truro Selectmen are giving Provincetown until Friday, June 22, to meet with Truro’s members of the oversight committee — Palmer and Water Resources Committee chairman Kevin Kuechler. Provincetown’s last representatives were Austin Knight and Cheryl Andrews. “If they are not prepared to live up to the conditions in the IMA, we are not prepared to continue searching for redundancy in their water system,” Palmer said.
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Jun 14th, 2007