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Photo Pru Sowers
Seashore Supt. George Price and John Thomas. |
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Tempers flare at Seashore meeting
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN – The superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore was raked over the coals by selectmen Monday, as representatives of the Truro Board of Selectmen looked on.
The three groups held a joint meeting Monday night ostensibly to hear an update on projects within the park proposed by Seashore Supt. George Price. However, the meeting provided a too-tempting opportunity for selectmen from both towns to grill Price on a variety of contentious topics, including dune shacks, management of the parklands and granting water rights to Truro and Provincetown.
Despite the emotional Q&A, by the end of the meeting the three groups had agreed to work more closely together on three projects, including building a bike trail through the Truro portion of the Seashore, connecting to the bike paths in Provincetown; installing a cell tower around the Provincetown Municipal Airport, which is located within the national park; and reconstruction of the bathhouse at Herring Cove.
In addition, Fred Gaechter, chair of the Truro Board of Selectmen, said he was interested in joining forces with Provincetown to negotiate a renewable energy joint fueling center with the Seashore that would be used by all three entities, a project proposed by former Provincetown Town Manager Keith Bergman but which has stalled since his departure.
Despite the working agreement, there were several issues where Provincetown selectmen and Price differed, leading to charges of insensitivity and mismanagement on the part of Seashore officials made by Mary-Jo Avellar, chair of the Provincetown Board of Selectmen. Avellar referred to the recent campaign by the Seashore to take over management of the 17 dune shacks that have been owned for generations by Provincetown residents.
“It seemed suspicious to us and almost malevolent to some of us. It’s upsetting and we can’t understand why this is happening,” Avellar said.
Price held his ground, saying the dune shacks are designated as a protected historic district and will be preserved. What is in question is how the shacks will be managed and used, he said.
Gaechter pointedly asked Price why Truro should appoint representatives to the dune shack subcommittee of the National Seashore Advisory Commission, currently being formed to embark on a two-year study of dune shack management, when the Seashore could just ignore the subcommittee’s recommendations like it did with two studies done recently that said the shacks were traditional cultural property and their use by residents should be protected.
Price responded that whatever recommendations come out of the subcommittee “would be deemed acceptable to the park manager.”
Provincetown Selectman Pam Parmakian asked Price for information on maintaining bike trials, which she said hasn’t been done; the feasibility of installing a cell tower near the airport; and creating a clothing-optional beach within the Seashore. Price said trail maintenance hadn’t been occurring as it should but that a phased renovation program was expected to begin next year. He said he was open to the idea of a cell tower but would continue to enforce the ban against nude sunbathers.
Selectman Austin Knight then asked Price to give the town more input into the proposed replacement of the bathhouse at Herring Cove.
“I don’t want to see a two-story structure with offices above. I would not be happy seeing a large structure in the middle of a dune,” he said.
Price said the design of the bathhouse would be a public process but he was unsure how often Provincetown would be consulted on the design, saying “intermittent” consultants would work best.
As for the shared renewable energy fuel center – which might free up some land in Provincetown for affordable housing if the department of public works could be moved into the facility – Price said the proposal had hit a financial snag, although grant funding might eventually be available. He also worried about moving employees to a new location, which he termed “very difficult.”
“How we would do this would require additional dialogue,” he said.
“I would encourage that dialogue to continue to move forward,” Knight responded.
At the end of the almost two-hour meeting, Kerry Adams, a member of the Cape Cod National Seashore General Management Plan Implementation Advisory Committee, the Provincetown committee tasked with monitoring the Seashore’s management policies, asked for regular meetings with Price. Price was noncommittal.
“The relationship with Provincetown has been an interesting one. Keith Bergman used to tell me it as a love-hate relationship. I’m focused on the love part,” Price told selectmen.
However, Provincetown selectman Lynne Davies said that while there had “a lot of talk,” no concrete results came out of the meeting.
“This has been very interesting. But I don’t feel we have any takeaways. Let’s pick two or three [projects from Price’s list], roll up our sleeves and work on them,” she said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Aug 16th, 2007