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Christina's Jewelry store robbery. |
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It was a year of big celebrations and fiscal surprises
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Looking back on the year 2007, one might say it had some of the same elements as a traditional wedding; the old, the new, the borrowed and the blue.
The old was Provincetown’s longest-serving town manager, Keith Bergman, who left in April. The new was incoming town manager Sharon Lynn, along with an election in May that replaced four out of five selectmen.
The borrowed was a page from the taxpayer revolt manual, which residents seem to have read extensively in 2007, leading them to reject budget overrides and other spending proposals made by town officials. And the blue was the state of the town’s finances at the end of this year, which promises to make budget planning for fiscal 2009 extremely difficult.
Like a wedding, there were joyous celebrations in 2007, including the town’s all-out party for the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Pilgrim Monument, and the pride residents felt when the refurbished belfry was returned to its rightful place on top of the Provincetown Library. And there were tender moments of sadness, as we lost some beloved members of our extended Provincetown family, like Howie Schneider, Norman Mailer, Sonny Roderick and others.
Affordable housing took center stage early in the year and continued into April at both the Special and Annual Town Meetings. Impassioned voters at Special Town Meeting rejected by only 10 votes a 1.5 percent real estate transfer tax that would have funded affordable housing projects. At Annual Town Meeting, a proposal to give $732,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to private developers to build 12 community housing apartments passed by only 13 votes after a lengthy floor debate. And a measure authorizing the town to borrow $500,000 to turn the dilapidated Firehouse No. 2 into public restrooms passed overwhelmingly.
Town Meeting had barely passed when Keith Bergman, Provincetown’s town manager for 17 years, closed his office door for the last time, leaving incoming Sharon Lynn to face what quickly became contentious issues.
First Lynn confronted a maelstrom of criticism when Phase 2 of the sewer construction project began in May, closing main thoroughfares just as the summer busy season was beginning. Then there were a series of alleged hate crimes against gay men in Provincetown over the summer. And a police arrest of a Boston disc jockey in July at a private party, where deejay Barry Scott was injured, led Lynn to send the case to the district attorney’s office to investigate whether police had properly handled the situation. The DA’s office in September ruled that police had acted lawfully in making the arrest.
There were moments, however, when it was fun to be the new town manager. Lynn was front and center during the Aug. 20 celebration of the 100th anniversary of the laying of the Pilgrim Monument’s cornerstone. Thousands of residents and visitors, including hundreds of Masons dressed in black tuxedos and top hats, attended the event, which included speeches from dignitaries such as Sen. John Kerry, state Sen. Robert O’Leary and state Rep. Sarah Peake. A group of 15 Masons from various state chapters then reenacted the traditional ceremony for dedicating public buildings, following the same steps as their brothers 100 years earlier.
“I’m very proud to be a Mason today,” said John Barros, a Provincetown resident and Mason for 45 years, at the centennial celebration. “We’ve been planning this for a long time.”
A much smaller yet no less heartfelt celebration took place a few weeks earlier for the 100th anniversary of the fishing vessel Rose Dorothea’s winning of the Lipton Cup in the Fisherman’s Cup on Aug. 1, 1907. The sailboat race victory allowed the then-largely Portuguese fishing village to stand tall against the ethnic slurs often flung against it.
“The Rose Dorothea was a symbol of everything: the Portuguese subculture, the fishing industry rise and fall, Provincetown’s rise and survival. The age of sail. The age of fishing. A time when the upper and working classes came together,” said Karen McDonald, assistant director of the Provincetown Public Library, who produced a short film on the race. “The nexus was at the Rose Dorothea.”
Provincetown’s current-day waterfront is just as important to residents as it was 100 years ago, even though the commercial fishing fleet continued to shrink in 2007. Earlier this summer, the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. installed six 10x10 retail booths on the pier in the hopes of stimulating visitor traffic and, ultimately, producing more revenue for the town, which owns the pier. The project had mixed success in its first year, with all of the booths ultimately filled but with most of the tenants receiving free or reduced rents.
The Chico-Jess, the town’s oldest wooden dragger, sank at her berth on MacMillan Pier in November. And Fisherman’s Wharf, the privately owned pier next to MacMillan that went on the market in 2006, attracted a potential new buyer, a team led by Newburyport waterfront developer Chuck Lagasse, who is currently doing due diligence on the proposed purchase.
On dry land, an ongoing call to repave Commercial Street was taken up by the new board of selectmen, only to have the town collectively gasp at the estimated $4 to 7 million budget. An article on the fall Special Town Meeting warrant to spend $566,380 to hire an engineering firm to develop a repaving plan was shot down, taking with it the project for the moment.
Several other shots were fired in the fall that promise to reverberate well into 2008. Despite approving $165,000 in raises for the police department and $340,700 in other budget supplements at Special Town Meeting Nov. 5, voters turned around a week later and rejected those proposals in a special election Nov. 13. Five ballot questions went down to defeat, including a Proposition 2 1/2 override, as voters voiced their dissent over town spending and rising taxes.
Although town officials were able to close the budget gap in the current fiscal year, they are now faced with either finding new sources of revenue and/or cutting services and possibly employees as they try to balance the FY 2009 budget. And they have to do it in time for the April Annual Town Meeting, when residents vote to approve or reject the budget.
“The taxpayers are tired of paying more and more,” Joan Drysdale, a 14th generation Provincetown resident, said recently. “A poor working community like Provincetown cannot afford these overrides.”
For more stories about this falls string of arsons; comings and goings; law & order and more, see this week’s Provincetown Banner.
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A year marked by many losses
From Truro to Eastham
Provincetown Sewer Construction Update
Worship
School lunch menus
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Dec 27th, 2007