Provincetown Holds Forum on $75 Million Sewer Expansion Before Special Town Meeting Vote

PROVINCETOWN -- November 2, 2022, Provincetown held a virtual public forum ahead of a November 9 Special Town Meeting on a $75 million sewer modernization and expansion plan. Town Manager Alex Morse walked roughly 80 online participants through five sewer-related warrant articles that would authorize borrowing up to $75 million to extend municipal sewer access to every property in town by 2030, funded through $25 million in anticipated grants and subsidies, $5 million in other revenues, and $45 million in betterments assessed on new users. Sewer team liaison John Goodrich said waiting until April's Annual Town Meeting would likely cost the town its place in the current U.S. Department of Agriculture funding cycle, delaying the project by at least two years and threatening the June 2026 expiration of the town's AECOM design-build-operate contract. Betterments are calculated at roughly $7,100 per bedroom, and a $491,000 ARPA-funded assistance program targeting households at or below 80 percent of area median income, $60,900 for a single person, is planned for connection-cost relief. Morse tied the expansion directly to the proposed 65-unit affordable housing project at the former VFW site on Jerome Smith Road, which he said cannot move forward without new sewer capacity.