Only Hire Registered Contractors Editor: Consumers spend millions each year on home improvements. As manager of the state’s Home Improvement Contractor Program, the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs sees hundreds of projects go wrong each year, costing homeowners thousands of dollars and leaving them with shoddy or unfinished work. There are four important elements your readers need to know about the...

HARWICH PORT — Dr Gravity's Kite Shop has been a mainstay here for more than 40 years. It will soon be joined by an expanded Dr. Cavity's Candy Shack, to be located in the former First Church of Christ Science building. The former Christian Scientist building was purchased a couple of weeks ago by Dennis Miller, a resident of Bedford who owns several properties along Route 28 in the village and two condominium...

ORLEANS – Water quality issues were the focus at the Nov. 9 selectmen's meeting, with the board starting with an update from consultant Mike Domenica. A draft amended comprehensive wastewater management plan to be presented for informal review to the Cape Cod Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection was a focus of the discussion. Because the plan contains non-traditional nitrogen removal...

ORLEANS — The announcement over the PA system at Stop and Shop Saturday was about a decidedly different sale. Turkeys were available at a special price, and customers were urged to load the birds into their cars and drive them over to The Farm, on Rock Harbor Road. That's where Sassy Richardson-Roche and her family and neighbors were waiting by a freezer truck to receive the donations to the Lower Cape Outre...

Harwich - Timothy D. Woollard, 63, passed away suddenly on November 2, 2016 at his home in Harwich. Born in Boston on September 23, 1953, his family moved to Wayland where he completed his primary and secondary education before matriculating to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, graduating from the Stockbridge School in 1973. He worked as an arborist for a few years before becoming manager of Gold Star Who...

Carolyn Yeaw Coursen (Age 88)   Carolyn Yeaw Coursen of Chatham passed away with family at her side on November 12, 2016 at the age of 88.              Carolyn was born in New Jersey the daughter of Everett Yeaw and Francis Hinman Yeaw.  She raised her daughters in Washington, D.C. and was a lifelong summer resident of Chatham where she retired.   Carolyn attended Smith College from 1946-1949 and gradu...

            Joseph Seaver Higgins, 38, of Harwich passed away at Brigham & Women’s Hospital on November 11 th after an 8 month battle with a rare form of stage 4 lung cancer. He was the beloved son of James H. & Frances L. (Kent) Higgins.             Joe was born March 16, 1978 at Cape Cod Hospital and grew up in Orleans. He was very active in Lower Cape Youth Hockey, skating with the in-house program...

CHATHAM – The town's attempt to block a citizens group's lawsuit that seeks to prohibit skydiving at Chatham Municipal Airport has been denied by the state appeals court. “We're disappointed,” said Chairman of Selectmen Jeffrey Dykens. “We've tried to exhaust all legal avenues for dismissal of complaint” in order to avoid prolonged and potentially expensive litigation. Associate Justice Eric Neyman turned d...

When Chet Grocki of Chatham was in high school in the 1950s, he was sometimes called out of class to play Taps at a military funeral. Local men from his town in Connecticut were fighting and dying in the Korean War. As a trumpeter in the Connecticut All-State Band, Chet was in demand for this somber task. “It was the beginning of my awareness of the idea of military service—what it ultimately meant was peop...

CHATHAM – Selectmen voted Tuesday to call a special town meeting for Monday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. to ask voters if they want to purchase the Eldredge Garage property. A group of residents and business owners have a purchase and sales agreement with the Eldredge family and intend to assist them in getting the property ready for town acquisition, potentially to be used for public parking. The board also voted...

CHATHAM – On Jan. 1, single-use plastic bags will be a thing of the past in Chatham. The board of health, which passed the ban a year ago, issued a reminder last week that it will be implemented on the first day of the new year. “We wanted to let the public and the merchants know it's going into effect Jan. 1,” said Health Agent Judy Giorgio. “We want to make sure they're all prepared.” Health department...

Local voters backed Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's presidential election, sent William Keating back to Congress and elected a first-time candidate to the state senate. Truro Democrat Julian Cyr captured the Cape and Islands Senate seat being vacated by Dan Wolf, defeating Harwich resident Anthony Schiavi. Cyr managed to beat Republican Schiavi in his hometown of Harwich as well as in Orleans, but not in Chatham....

Chatham, Harwich and Orleans will each hold ceremonies marking Veterans Day on Friday, Nov. 11, beginning at 11 a.m. The Chatham ceremony will take place in the community center. In the past the ceremony has been held at the downtown rotary, but after last year's event was held in the community center due to weather, many people said they enjoyed the indoors setting better, said organizer Robert Franz. “Bei...

CHATHAM – When surf is breaking on the Chatham Bar and fishing boats are either on their way out of the harbor or coming back home, the Coast Guard has taken to positioning one of its near-shore lifeboats near the entrance channel. “We have not done this in previous months,” said Station Chatham Senior Chief Corbin Ross. Members of the commercial fleet requested the move, however, due to increased shoaling on ...

CHATHAM – Cape Cod is a great place to teach science. “We use our environment as much as we can,” said Monomoy Middle School seventh grade science teacher Melinda Forist. It's evident from her students' projects that the natural world is not just something they study in books; they do actual water quality testing, conduct energy efficiency audits and conduct experiments in the field designed to help endangered...