HARWICH — The planning board is in the process of putting more teeth into the Commercial Village Overlay District in Harwich Port, converting what are currently voluntary guidelines into mandatory zoning requirements. Town officials had been of the opinion the overlay district in Harwich Port was a zoning provision with the same legal force as other zoning bylaws, but that understanding was challenged when Cum...

In this little corner of Massachusetts it can be tough for local high school athletic teams to find opponents not only on the same level, but sometimes at all. That said, it's time for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to take a hard look at its criteria for assigning teams to divisions and leagues because if they don't, someone is going to get badly hurt. Right now the primary means of de...

HARWICH ─ When Monomoy golfer Jake Poitras first invited teammate and fellow senior Matt Veary to hit the links with him, Veary wasn't having it. “He started playing a couple months before I did and was like, 'Come to the driving range with me,'” Veary recollected. “I said, 'Nah. Golf's not fun. Why would I want to do that?' Then I did and I loved it. I had no intentions of continuing to play, but then I fel...

NANTUCKET ─ When the Monomoy football team headed across the waters to face Nantucket in the Sharks' first-ever post-season game, they knew it would be a tough one, and it was. But even as the Whalers ran up the score en route to another lopsided victory (61-12) Monomoy did its best to stay in the game, earning a pair of late-game touchdowns before leaving with heads held high. The Div. 7 quarterfinals marked ...

HARWICH – “'The Boys In The Boat'…The Rest Of The Story,” set for Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7 pm at the Pilgrim Congregational Church, is the next program in the church’s speakers series. The speaker is Jim Pocock, great nephew of famed boat-builder George Pocock, who built the boat that won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The 2013 best-selling book “The Boys In The Boat” recounted the story of the ei...

We respectfully disagree with a statement made by Stephen Davol, one of Chatham's representatives on the Monomoy Regional School Committee, during last week's meeting to fill a vacancy on the education panel. He prefaced his question to the two candidates for the post by cautioning that school committee members “do not affect the day-to-day operations of the schools.” That's the job of the superintendent, he said...

Put A Rest To Conspiracy Theories Editor: In the wake of the pending release of the JFK assassination files that have been classified since 1963, I was reminded of my own interest in conspiracy theories, new and old. My wife and I drove across country to Monterey, Calif. from the Cape this summer, stopping in Roswell N.M. to visit the UFO Museum located there. It is an interesting place, filled with artifac...

All over Harwich – based on the pictures I took this past week – there are over 70 of them. Some are easily visible – many are barely noticeable by people driving by – most cannot be read except by pulling off the road and getting out of a car. There is a collection of them in front of the Harwich Police and Fire Departments’ headquarters buildings, and the most recognized one is located near the Route 39-Old Que...

Jena Clough, owner of DreamFyre Pole Fitness, believes that studying pole dance does as much for the mind and attitude as it does for the body. “I’m here to empower women,” she says. “Moms come to me—they can’t stand to look in the mirror.” Through pole dance they have “gotten physical strength and confidence back. The pole means confidence.” Clough, 30, offers classes at Bodystrong Fitness in Orleans and p...

ORLEANS — Nauset Public Schools students may travel in propane-fueled buses starting next September. At a meeting of the joint school committees Oct. 26, the Eastham, Orleans and Wellfleet boards and the regional school committee authorized Superintendent Tom Conrad to negotiate an agreement with the Cape Cod Collaborative to provide student transportation starting next fall. Brewster's committee did not have ...

ORLEANS – The 1850 Captain Linnell House is on track to change hands in October 2020 after owners Bill and Shelly Conway signed a purchase and sales agreement last month with the Orleans Historical Society. The Conways will continue to operate their restaurant and host special events until then. After that, OHS will welcome weddings and special civic and private events. In a joint news release with the Conways...

EAST HARWICH — Visitors to The Cape Cod Chronicle's web page can now view live conditions on Pleasant Bay, thanks to a new webcam installed at Pleasant Bay Community Boating. The camera, which provides a new image every minute or two, is part of a collaboration between the newspaper and PBCB that began in June with the installation of a weather station . The equipment will help improve The Chronicle's storm ...

Mary Elizabeth Roca             Brewster, Massachusetts—Mary Elizabeth Roca, 75, left us on October 16, 2017, with her family by her side at Wingate Brewster Nursing Home, after living courageously for one year with lung cancer.             Mary was born September 15, 1942, in Aurora, Illinois to Benjamin Franklin and Katherine Thelma Shirer. She graduated from Batavia High School in not four but thre...

Francis “Friendly Frank” John Lapinski 78, died peacefully on Sunday, October 8, 2017 at home in Harwich.               Frank was born in Bayonne N.J., grew up in Far Rockaway, N.Y., raised his family in Kent and West Hartford, Conn.  Frank was the beloved son of the late Frank and Anna Lapinski.  He is survived by his brother Dennis R. Lapinski and his wife Diana of Las Vegas, Nevada; his daughter Laura an...