CHATHAM – The gleaming white boat was trailered down to the ramp at Ryder’s Cove and eased into the water on an April day so windy it brought tears to your eyes. “Swing it,” said Mike Davis to the crew at Chatham Boat Company. “Go, Go Go!” Captain John Our quickly reversed the Miss Fitz and raced off to the Chatham Fish Pier. “She feels like a brand new boat,” Our said. Miss Fitz is in Chatham Harbor ...

CHATHAM — In a bid to circumvent a 164-year-old law that was rooted in religious bigotry, selectmen are going to unusual lengths to support the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. That includes calling a special town meeting for May 14, the second night of the town’s annual town meeting. The Brown-James Buck VFW Post applied for $200,000 in historic preservation funds from the Community Preservation Act to ...

CHATHAM – To mark Earth Day, Sustainable Practices will sponsor a free showing of the film “Paris to Pittsburgh” at the Chatham Orpheum Theatre. The film will screen at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 20. While tickets are free, they must be reserved at the theater box office. The Brewster-based Sustainable Practices is sponsoring town meeting articles in eight Cape towns to prohibit town agencies from purchasing a...

CHATHAM – The second Chatham 365 task force forum last Wednesday drew fewer people than the first session on April 6, but participants were no less vocal about the challenges they face in living here year round and offering an extensive menu of ideas to help ease the burden on both families and seniors. Housing, jobs, tax breaks and support services for young families were among the many topics discussed by th...

CHATHAM — The conservation commission has officially been served with a suit by a Minister’s Point property owner alleging that it wrongly permitted future dredging in an area that provides the only deep-water access to Chatham Harbor. The area in question, just inside the North Inlet, was approved for emergency dredging last year, but the dredging was not carried out because of deteriorating weather. Filed ...

CHATHAM – The demographic shifts that the Chatham 365 task force was established to address aren't just affecting young families. Local institutions are also being forced to make tough decisions as the makeup of the community shifts. When Edmund Robinson, minister at the Chatham Unitarian Universalist Meeting House for the past 11 years, retires on Jan. 1, he won't be replaced by a full-time minister. In fact,...

CHATHAM – Construction of a retaining wall along the sidewalk in front of the Eldredge Public Library won't require the removal of a large stately horse chestnut tree that overhangs Main Street. If the tree is healthy, that is. The initial plans to improve the front lawn of the historic library called for removal of the tree, which probably dates from the 1930s, called for removal of the tree, which was in ...

CHATHAM – Under a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan, hunting could be allowed on the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge for the first time since it was established in 1944. In a draft hunting plan released last week, the agency is proposing allowing hunting of migratory waterfowl and coyotes. Fish and Wildlife Service officials will hold an information session on the proposal on April 30 at the community c...

CHATHAM — Concerned about the ability of crews from Coast Guard Station Chatham to respond to emergencies during high surf, selectmen voted this week to send a letter to Washington for clarification of a recent decision to downgrade the unit from a surf station to a “heavy weather station.” On Monday, station commander Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Carlos Hessler was before the board of selectmen to answer q...

CHATHAM — In a bid to leverage a $1 million state grant, the town is proposing to spend $851,798 on a package of flood prevention improvements for the Little Beach neighborhood. Residents and property owners in the area have pledged the remaining $617,245, or 25 percent of the nearly $2.5 million project. There may be a need to call a special town meeting this fall to ask voters to approve the town’s cont...

CHATHAM – When Assistant Conservation Agent Paul Wightman needed boxes to hold trail guides for the town's conservation properties, he searched for commercially-made boxes that would fit the bill, but couldn't find any that had two compartments, were rugged enough to withstand the weather and looked good. When the woodworking group of the Chatham-Harwich Newcomers Club inquired if the town had any projects the...

Forum Participants Suggest Ways To Keep Town Vital CHATHAM – Prior to Saturday's Chatham 365 task force forum, Courtney Alex Wittenstein said she wrote a break-up letter to Chatham. “I'm living proof of what's happening here,” said Wittenstein, who grew up in town but lives in Harwich. “I couldn't move here, I couldn't raise my family here, I couldn't start a business here.” During the two-and-a-half-h...