The figures are, frankly, astounding. The number of single-family homes in Chatham sold during 2020 increased 53.5 percent over 2019, with the median sales price rising to more than $860,000. Orleans saw an 86.8 percent increase, with a median sale price of $827,000. Sales were lower in Harwich, increasing 10 percent, which in most years would be a respectable level. COVID-19 helped drive record-setting real e...

The elderly man on crutches moved slowly across the Friends’ Marketplace parking lot, pushing a shopping cart of groceries. You would think that, after loading up his car, he would have left the cart for an employee to retrieve. Not this bent-over but purpose-filled citizen, who retraced every difficult step back to the cart corral alongside the store, then back again to his car. At a time when some may be won...

West Chatham Runway Is Unsafe Editor: What a mess we have been left with in West Chatham. It is unconscionable for town officials and MassDOT to leave the roadway between Barn Hill Road and George Ryder Road in such an unsafe condition. Instead of cleaning it up and making it safe in December, there was a push to rush the job, and then MassDOT retreated, leaving behind an unsafe area that is causing a great...

Too often in the past, Chatham has passed up opportunities to preserve its past. The most notable instance is the passing up of the offer to acquire the CG36500, the motor lifeboat piloted by Bernie Webber and his crew to rescue 32 men from the sinking tanker Pendleton on Feb. 18, 1952. Fortunately, the Orleans Historical Society (now the Centers for Culture and History in Orleans) stepped in and saved the vessel...

A Win-Win Compromise Editor: In West Chatham, runway protection zones (RPZs)/safety-zones at both ends of the runway contain multiple homes, stores, offices and roads, which are declared by the FAA as “unacceptable, incompatible land uses” and unsafe. Where this occurs, the FAA AC150/5300-13A §322 recommends moving the RPZs away from the unacceptable land uses. This then requires planes to land further alon...

We’ll admit it. We were, at first, a little hesitant at the prospect of erasing the word “selectmen” from our lexicon when it comes to Chatham town government. That’s because we’re proud of the heritage behind our local government, largely unchanged since colonial times. Decade after decade, selectmen have made the decisions that have helped shape Chatham, setting local policies and responding to local emergencie...

Whenever we editorialize about national politics, we are criticized, unfailingly, by those who feel we should keep our comments local, as well as others who simply call us “fake news.” But after the events in Washington, D.C. last Wednesday, we can't be silent; indeed, no American should be. We won't rehash the incident that turned from a protest to a mob to an insurrection. The scenes of people in MAGA hats c...

The Elf on the Shelf has returned to wherever imaginary illusions retire for another year, and we are getting a crack at a do-over (differently) in 2021. His departure leaves a void, as his dust-bathing in the flour bin and fan- spinning adventures briefly distracted us from the daunting concerns of the day. The New Year’s baby cannot get us out of this muck, he’s just a kid! As January yawns its dreary winter be...

Proposals Turn Back Clock At Airport Editor: Starting in 1950, decisions – consciously or unconsciously – were made and re-made in Chatham to effectively prohibit the airport’s (CQX) growth – physical expansion as well as expansion of aircraft use. Those decisions manifested themselves by land use authorities’ allowing considerable residential development in “runway protection zones” established by law and ...

Thankful For Asymptomatic Testing Editor: Thanks to Outer Cape Health Services and Pat Nadle, Julian Cyr , Sarah Peake, and Mass DPH for supporting asymptomatic COVID-19 testing at the OCHS sites. Hopefully, funding will continue past Jan. 10 and a “stop the spread site” can be arranged in the near future. I was lucky to obtain a testing appointment for my husband and myself after an exposure scare which ha...

There is a lot of hope invested in 2021. Hope that the pandemic comes to an end. Hope that the economy picks up. Hope that schools can return to in-person classes. Hope that the turmoil and bickering in Washington, D.C. ends. Just a week into the year, it's hard to see signs those sentiments will be realized. A lack of federal leadership resulted in a botched rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. The situation in M...

As of Monday, more than 330,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. That's more than one in 1,000 citizens and more than twice the number of deaths as India, a country with a population of 1.3 billion. That is beyond tragic; it is unimaginable and unforgivable. As we look back at those we lost during 2020, that number looms over everything. Locally we have escaped a high death toll from the novel coronavirus, but ...