CHATHAM — Early on, one of the key hurdles identified by local working families has been the lack of affordable early childhood education programs. The Monomoy Regional School District is exploring ways to bridge the gap by introducing a plan for universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) for Chatham youngsters. Last week, the Chatham 365 Task Force made its recommendations about ways the town can provide better suppo...

BREWSTER – When it comes to living with white sharks, there are many options: stay out of the water, move inland, or, if you're Greg Skomal, a marine biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, you do all that you can to learn as much as you can about the creatures, and ideally save a life or two in the process. Skomal has been doing just that—studying everything possible about white sharks—for more...

CHATHAM — Saying there’s no single action that will help make Chatham an affordable place for young families and other year-round residents, the Chatham 365 Task Force has recommended a varied package of 30 reforms that cover everything from affordable housing to the minimum wage. One proposal, having the school district offer universal preschool, seems to be gaining traction. The detailed proposal is the c...

CHATHAM – The largest annual fundraiser for the South Chatham Public Library, the summer book and bake sale, didn't happen this year. The process of moving dozens of books from the library across the street to the South Chatham Village Hall proved too difficult and problematic for the mostly older volunteers who usually help out. That left the “little library that could,” as supporters refer to the 145-year-ol...

CHATHAM — Though they favor a compromise to save trees at the gateway to downtown Chatham, state officials are still requiring a shared-use bike lane for the intersection of Crowell Road and Main Street. Selectmen still chafe that plans for the new intersection still include shared-use bike lanes, despite the town’s efforts to route bikes away from main roads in downtown Chatham. But not wanting to abandon the...

CHATHAM – A proposal to allow direct instrument approaches to Chatham Airport during poor weather was attacked Monday as a significant change that will lead to greater use of the facility by larger and louder aircraft. The proposal, included in a draft of the airport master plan update, will not make the airport safer, as the airport commission claims, but will change it “from being a good weather airport to b...

Based on MCAS scores, progress for English language learners and attendance rates, the Monomoy Regional School District earned high marks from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, receiving the highest accountability rating of any pre-K through 12th grade school district on Cape Cod. Meanwhile, state education officials ranked Monomoy Middle School as having the highest “accountability r...

CHATHAM – A flurry of controversy over elements of the latest draft of the Chatham Municipal Airport Master Plan has officials expecting a larger crowd than usual at the airport commission's next meeting. The Sept. 30 meeting will take place in the large meeting room at the community center rather than the small meeting room at the annex, where the commission usually meets. The session starts at 5 p.m. Acco...

CHATHAM – The process of nominating South Chatham to the National Register of Historic Places, in the pipeline for the past two years, will move forward next month with an informational meeting for all property owners in the proposed historic district. The session will be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, at the annex on George Ryder Road. Sponsored by the historical commission and the South Chatham Villa...

CHATHAM — Over centuries, rising sea levels threaten to simply wipe parts of Chatham off the map. But long before that happens, town officials are hoping that some of the world’s great scientific minds will put the town on the map as a global center for climate change research. For the past six months, a working group has been quietly meeting to discuss a broad strategy to attract the interest of an academic i...

Archaeological Dig Fleshes Out The Story Of Chatham's Founding Family CHATHAM – When he was first asked to investigate what was believed to be the original homestead of the town's first European settlers, William and Anne Nickerson, archaeologist Craig Chartier didn't expect to find much. He figured he'd dig a few holes “just to make the Nickersons happy.” And indeed, the first few holes yielded nothing. Bu...

CHATHAM – The Massachusetts Shellfish Initiative (MSI) Task Force held a public meeting to solicit preliminary stakeholder and public feedback on its strategic plan. It was one of four public meetings being held in the Commonwealth as part of an overall process of studying, analyzing, and strategizing for the future development and regulation of shellfishing in Massachusetts. The task force, rather than shellf...