Provincetown – “I guarantee you that we will be out of this marathon tonight,” says Roslyn Garfield dryly. Clad in blazer and slacks, Garfield is the no-nonsense moderator of town meeting in Provincetown, and her words come in the opening minutes of Night Six, on Tuesday, April 13. In this isolated community of 4,000 residents at the far end of Cape Cod, town meeting is the season that precedes summer, celebrated with fliers, newsletters, and petitions. For many citizens, says Town Clerk Stephan Nofield, “it’s a passion.”

Meetings are held in the second-story auditorium at Town Hall, a white, 1876 edifice that looms over the funky shops and closed-for-the-season restaurants of narrow Commercial Street. With its lofty ceiling, dark carved woods, and rustic folding seats, it is a remarkable room – a cross between a Yankee church and a summer theater. Over-sized windows afford views of Provincetown Harbor. As the evening’s crowd of 211 (down from a high of 508 the previous week) amiably files in, the sun dips beyond calm waters, and the gavel resounds.

The first article of the evening, Article 53, is a citizens’ petition. Nearly a quarter of the 95 articles on the combined annual and special town meeting warrants this year were submitted by a private individual with support from “others.” One, a home-rule petition, endorses the medical use of marijuana; another, a 21-page zoning amendment, targets telecommunication towers. (Both articles were approved.)

Article 53, however, meets strong resistance. It would limit funding for the visitor services board, whose mission is to “enhance tourism,” to $100,000 per year. That figure is half of what the board’s resources from the town are to be in fiscal year 2000. (By law, the board administers 45 percent of the take from Provincetown’s room excise tax.) The chief proponent of cutting the funds, Barbara Rushmore, a 1998 candidate for selectman, maintains that “private business should only rarely be subsidized by taxpayers.” The finance committee’s recommendation, however, is 6-0 against the cutback. One member sums up: “Tourism is the economic engine of the community.” When Steve Lyon, the town’s coordinator of tourism, rises to speak, the evening takes on the tone of a stockholders’ meeting. “We are competing in a global market for tourists,” he says. “We’re not competing with Hyannis and Truro. We’re competing with London and L.A.” He points out that an ad page in Conde Nast’s Traveler goes for more than $50,000. The article plummets to defeat.

Though almost no article goes up or down without debate, the crowd remains upbeat. A tense moment occurs when a woman in the audience demands to know what one of the selectmen has against gay communities. She retreats red-faced when informed that the selectman has been talking about gated communities.

The item that consumes the most time this night is the final one, Article 71. Proposed by Celine Gandolfo, a representative of the nonprofit Provincetown Conservation Trust, it asks the town to spend up to $1.6 million under the auspices of the new Cape Cod Land Bank for 7.52 upland acres near Shankpainter Pond. The town has had a bumpy association with the land bank issue. Although Provincetown voted strongly to participate in the Land Bank last November, at least one selectman has questioned its utility in a community where 83 percent of the land is already protected (chiefly, by the Cape Cod National Seashore) and only 2 percent remains free for development. A majority of the selectmen asked town meeting to consider withdrawing from the Land Bank this year, but were rebuffed. A proposal by the housing authority, however, to seek permission from the Legislature allowing Provincetown to use Land Bank funds for affordable housing passed on Monday night.

The Shankpainter land is owned by the Patrick family and is part of a larger holding that includes some 20 acres of rare quaking bog, a dense, floating “mat” of vegetation stabilized from below by sunken leaves and stems. The area is home to 11 endangered species. The parcel on the table includes five buildable residential lots for sale around proposed Sanctuary Road, plus several acres of protected buffer land. Sanctuary Road is at present a bulldozed gash through the sand, but the Patricks have declared their intention to start paving this month. The family has offered to donate the bog to the Conservation Trust. For a time, the debate centers on whether the price is right for the remainder. Ann McCord, a silver-haired grandmother, steps to the rear microphone and reminds the assembly that they are talking about protecting the largest quaking bog on a barrier beach in the world. “What does this have to do with real estate appraisal?” she asks. “Who’s going to assess this – the National Geographic Society?”

With Provincetown expecting to take in $4.7 million in Land Bank taxes over the next 20 years, the debate turns to priorities. The town has no water supply of its own, and must draw from wells in the National Seashore and neighboring Truro. The terms for using one such well are now being reconsidered. Though there is no article on the warrant that addresses this, some residents have voiced interest in using Land Bank money to buy into water resource areas in Truro. “What do we want?” asks a stocky man up front. “A pond that’s already protected? Fresh water? Affordable housing?”

Alix Ritchie, publisher of the Provincetown Banner newspaper, reminds the crowd that funding from other sources will likely keep the town from having to dig too deeply into its Land Bank fund. As Ms. Gandolfo had indicated in her presenting remarks, grants from the Federal Transportation Enhancement Program and the state’s Division of Conservation Services, combined with a 50-percent state match of the town’s contribution, could cover as much as two-thirds of the sale price, bringing the total cost to the town down to roughly $537,000. “Not only is this the appropriate time,” says Ms. Ritchie, “but this is the last chance we’re going to get before the road goes in.” When Roslyn Garfield takes the vote at quarter past ten, the motion carries to a roar and applause.

The next morning, at Shankpainter Pond scores of ducks bob and ply the water among reedy islands. Across the pond are dunes, and beyond them the back of Provincetown. Nearby, at the side of the road a large white sign advertises, “Pond Front & Ocean View Lots. Now Showing.” It can now come down.

Anna Marie Murphy is a free-lance writer and editor in Medfield.