A visit to Monomoy Island reveals a stunning landscape rich with wild birds, swaying beach grass, and miles of soft sand. But to call it “pristine” would be an exaggeration. To know why, all one has to do is look among the grasses and seashells anywhere on the beach. You'll find a wealth of trash. Some people might say, 'So what?' and chalk it up to modern life. But on the island, and off, trash has become a h...

Airport Critic Silenced By Board Editor: Paula Lofgren had been a dedicated, hardworking, thoughtful, well-prepared Chatham Airport Commissioner for three years.  She persistently represented the town’s residents and airport abutters' point of view on the commission that seldom voiced that perspective. She was recently denied reappointment by the board of selectmen. So now there are three pilots on the c...

  “Saturday night at the movies Who cares what picture you see When you’re huggin’ with your baby In the last row of the balcony?”   About six years ago, I wrote a series of three articles for this Chronicle column about Bill, the mythical time traveler. It is the only time I’ve attempted to create a series. In my articles, Bill had grown up in Chatham and left in 1964 after finishing college. I...

 It took a while, but it seems as if the former Harwich Middle School has found its purpose. In January, with Community Center Director Carolyn Carey acting as de facto manager, artists and craftspersons began leasing space in the capacious building. Now, in some 28 classrooms and other spaces, including the former industrial arts shop in the basement, a thriving creative community exists. In a way, throwing o...

There's a lot that bothers me about the debate over the Affordable Care Act and its myriad potential replacements. Most of all, though, everyone should stop referring to it as a health care debate. It's not. A more accurate description would be a health insurance debate. You can argue that Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the replacements proposed by Republicans are about health care, because they impact ho...

  The first time we took Tilikum down there, testing out the Mako’s range and speed, we ended up just inside the lee of the island. The ocean was just around the corner. Open and wild and powerful and indifferent. A cool, salt breeze played at different angle, first our face, then our knees and jumping at times to the hair on our arms. It was there and gone again, at unpredictable intervals. Standing at the...

Does Harwich Need A Pet Cemetery​? Editor: I have recently had occasion to drive down the industrial area on Queen Anne Road in Harwich. I just learned that the large swath of land being cleared was for a town-funded pet cemetery. Harwich has very few industrial areas left to build on. These three or four lots could have created 15 bays for the working class to start or expand a business. Those businesse...

How important is the cohesiveness of Chatham's downtown business district? Historically, the town's main business district – what folks refer to as “downtown” – has tended to shift. At one point, many businesses congregated around the neighborhood we know today as the Old Village. Businesses were interspersed with residences, and more often than not they were one and the same, with shop owners living on the sa...

Hatred Comes To Harwich Editor: It’s taken me a week to write this letter because I wanted to be very clear about the facts.  My husband and I live year-round in Harwich and delight in having our children and grandchildren come to visit, as so many of us do.  I want to tell you about an ugly incident that happened to us at the lakeside beach on Cahoon Road off Route 137 on June 26.  To set the scene let me ...

In a recent letter to the Chatham Board of Selectmen, a resident raised the prospect of tinkering with tradition. It's well past time, George Olmsted wrote, to put to rest the title of “selectman,” and instead refer to the town's executives as the select board. “Two women and three men [on the current board] encourages the change,” he reasoned. This is not a new argument. Ever since Josephine Ives became th...

I saw, I bought, I planted. Then I watered and waited, and waited and watered for days, then, in horror, watched the original healthy looking deep green leaves of the nursery tomato plant I’d purchased devolve to a pale yellow, then crumbling brown, illustrating only too well the biblical scripture “from dust ye came and to dust ye shall return.” I watch skeptically as my nasturtium leaves proliferate, ab...

Newspaper Connects Students, Environment Editor: This year, fifth grade students at Monomoy Regional Middle School immersed themselves in the newly created grade five Earth and Human Activity Project. Throughout the school year, students studied the impact of humans on the Earth and identified related problems and possible solutions to them. Students engaged in educational field experiences, hands-on, in-sc...