You can celebrate a pirate’s underwater treasure at the Wydah Museum on Provincetown’s pier, but who prizes underwater trash? No one it seems, especially the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, although paradoxically they were disappointed to find Brewster’s Sheep Pond too clean to patrol for litter last month. Fortunately or unfortunately, Harwich’s ponds are not so garbage free, and the OLAUG divers ha...

The pandemic’s behind us, but as fall approaches and people spend more time together indoors, public health officials say it’s time to pay attention to COVID-19 as an endemic illness like the flu. Recent numbers from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show an increase in the number of COVID cases and hospitalizations, just as schools return to session. In the four weeks of July, Barnstable County ne...

With powerful Hurricane Franklin racing off to the North Atlantic southeast of us today, and with Idalia having made her mark on the Gulf Coast of Florida earlier this week, experts say it’s not too late to brush up your family disaster plan. Local emergency managers note that, with many year-round residents who are new to the Cape, and with more than 30 years having elapsed since the last noteworthy hurri...

Agway of Cape Cod is celebrating its 30th anniversary with 30 days of 30 percent off sales, garden and “vet tech” talks, contests and giveaways through Sept. 9. The company that sells products for landscapes, pets and homes from locations in Orleans, Chatham and Dennis is a family-run business with the third generation of the Wile family of Brewster now owning and running the stores. The business began in 1...

BREWSTER – George and Irma Rendina are deciding how to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary on Sept. 28, since he got much of the glory when he turned 100 on July 1. “His 100th was big planning because everybody came,” Irma said. All four of their sons, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren attended a birthday bash at Crosby Mansion over July Fourth weekend. George was born and raised in the Bron...

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. But sometimes the whole world feels a bit like an oven, and thanks to climate change, days of extreme heat are getting more common. On days like those, experts say it’s time to take special precautions to avoid heat-related injuries and illnesses. “While most people come to the Cape to cool off and do not think of Cape Cod as a place where people suffer from...

CHATHAM – Pine Acres Realty at 938 Main St. in Chatham is celebrating its 75th anniversary as the oldest independently-owned real estate company in town. The real estate firm formed in 1948 by William T. Ohman Sr. and Marjorie Law is still going strong under the ownership of Lori Fanning Smith, 54, and Chris Rhinesmith, 52. (Pine Acres has partnered with Compass for marketing and technology.) “I love that t...

HARWICH – Vivien Oswell has been painting for as long as she can remember, a gift that she credits to divine intervention and a little shop on Main Street in Harwich Port. Oswell, who turned 100 years old this month, was still producing commissions for customers as recently as November. She was a founding member of The Guild of Harwich Artists in 1979 and has a unique method of painting. “God does the paint...

Public Information Sessions, Workshops Planned Ahead Of Fall Town Meeting ORLEANS – Mark Mathison lives in a neighborhood with immaculate green lawns. He also remembers a push among some of his neighbors in the past to have their homes connected to town sewer sooner. Sewering is an efficient method of removing nitrogen and cleaning up the town’s waterways. But so is avoiding the use of chemicals such as pes...

CHATHAM – Chatham welcomes two new business owners — Heather Flueckiger of Heather Rose & Co. and Josh Jenkins of Nickerson Tree and Landscape. The two George Ryder Road businesses, while separate entities, were both recently owned by Joe Nickerson and his son, Tim. Heather Rose & Co. is located in a two-story building set behind a lawn at 136 George Ryder Rd., just a couple of doors down from Chath...

BREWSTER — Show of hands: How many audience members collect Social Security? The majority of hands went up. How many have kids or grandkids that don’t believe it’ll be there for them? About as many hands up. That’s how Robert Blancato introduced himself to his new community last week, calling for a grassroots push to press federal lawmakers to sustain Social Security. A public policy authority who’...

NORTH CHATHAM – Assisted living programs are a great option for seniors who need regular assistance from a caregiver, but they’re not inexpensive. A new partnership with Broad Reach Assisted Living at the Victorian is helping connect certain wartime veterans with a little-known Veterans Administration benefit that can help defray those costs. “It’s helping those veterans who have, of course, done so much for t...