Under normal circumstances, local businesses struggle to find enough employees to stay fully staffed through a busy summer season. And with foreign workers serving as a political lightning rod in Washington, this summer promises to be anything but normal. Problems with the H-2B and J-1 visa programs could trim around 1,000 foreign workers from the Cape's summer workforce, officials say. “It's grim,” Cape Co...

HARWICH PORT — Outer Cape Health Services, the region's nonprofit community health center, is on the edge of something big. The health care provider is launching a major expansion in Harwich Port, based at the former Thompson's Farm Market property at 710 Route 28. Two weeks ago, Outer Cape moved its telephone call center to the building's spacious upstairs offices, where a team of workers handled 1,100 requ...

Retired teacher Gail Harding of Harwich is far from finished with an aspect of her working life which she still holds dear: working with young girls and helping to strengthen and empower them mentally, emotionally and physically. Through her role as a mentor in the after-school program Girl Power, held weekly for six weeks at the Harwich Community Center, Harding enjoys working with third and fourth grade girl...

Mary Ann Harwood of Chatham, a physician in the emergency room at Cape Cod Hospital, began taking dance lessons about a year ago – but she never dreamed that she would soon be vying for first place in a dance competition in front of a sellout crowd. This Saturday, March 4, Harwood will be one of nine Cape Cod doctors, each paired with a professional dancer, who will compete in a fundraising event for the Cape ...

Chatham Elementary School Grade three and four students are following Mass Maritime cadets on the T.S. Kennedy as the ship heads back to Florida. They enjoyed the live map showing boats in the Atlantic Ocean, read some blogs and looked at pictures. They even found the picture of a cadet wearing the Monomoy Shark T-shirt that I mailed to Mass Maritime Academy before the T.S. Kennedy departed. G...

CHATHAM – It's no secret that housing costs on the Cape – and in Chatham in particular – are a barrier to young people moving and/or staying here. With the average value of a Chatham home running $872,615, the salary it takes to afford a house is beyond those offered by most area employers. When members of the town's economic development committee (EDC) began looking at how to encourage greater age diversity i...

The job of a minister always involves counseling people and helping them through the challenges that life brings, both large and small. In the most pleasant and placid of times, it is a task which requires great listening skills, patience, understanding and an open mind. In times of upheaval and uncertainty, the minister's job can go from lighthouse in a storm to lighthouse, lifeboat and lifeguard all in one. ...

Health care professionals agree that, when it comes to feeding baby, the best formula is breast milk. As part of a UNICEF and World Health Organization initiative, more and more hospitals around the world are taking steps to help new mothers breastfeed successfully – and Cape Cod Hospital is among them. Cape Cod Healthcare created a breastfeeding task force last fall to help Cape Cod and Falmouth hospitals ach...

Chatham Elementary School A Bullying and Cyber Communication Awareness presentation for parents will be held on Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the school. The presentation will include the following topics: gateway behaviors to bullying; understanding digital communications; keeping your children safe online; your child’s digital footprint; privacy settings; social media sites; crossing the criminal line; who’s look...

CHATHAM — It's a workplace truism: stress in an employee's home life leads to stress on the job. Sometimes those stressors are minor, and it helps to be able to share them with a sympathetic listener. Sometimes the stress comes from big problems like a health crisis, relationship troubles or addiction. A new partnership between the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Rogers and Gray Insurance is offering an aff...

Newly minted Chatham Historical Society Trustee Stuart Green has been hard at work recently, seeking historic preservation funds to help restore Chatham's circa-1762 Atwood House Museum. Nevertheless, he wants to make one thing clear. “It's not just about the buildings,” Green explains. “It's the people.” Green's passion for nonprofit work, for “giving back as much to the community as I receive,” began when he...

Ninety years ago, Cape Cod became the first region in New England to establish a county health department. It had a variety of goals, including the installation of proper landfills for trash and the testing of all cows for tuberculosis. Ninety years later, the Barnstable County Department of Health and the Environment has new goals, but its public health mission is alive and well. The department began operatio...