CHATHAM – Harry Potter is casting a magical spell on bookstores once again. On Saturday night, Harry Potter fans, wizards, and witches queued outside Yellow Umbrella Books to countdown to midnight—and the greatly anticipated July 31 release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two.” The timing was fitting – July 31 is the birthday of both J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. Based on an origi...

CHATHAM – Since its construction in 1915, the former Chatham Bowling Alley building at 45 Chatham Bars Ave. has been a commercial building, and the town is wrong in trying to stop its continued use for commercial purposes, property owner Chatham Bars Inn argues in a lawsuit filed against the town last week. The inn filed suit in Barnstable Superior Court seeking to overturn the zoning board of appeals' June 30...

CHATHAM — Including the old service station and the even older livery stable, the Eldredge Garage property is rich with local history. But with more than an acre and a half of land on Main Street with a view of Mill Pond, it's also rich with development potential. Selectmen Dean Nicastro and Cory Metters toured the site Tuesday, a day before the board was expected to hold another closed-door session to discu...

CHATHAM – The view from Stage Harbor of three iconic homes – known as “The Three Sisters” – will not change much under a redevelopment proposal approved by the zoning board recently. One of the historic homes will be relocated to another site, a second will take its place and a new one will be built that will closely resemble the original, according to plans proposed by property owners John and Tanya Lund. ...

CHATHAM — On the advice of business leaders and others, the board of selectmen is revisiting its decision to turn down the possible purchase of the Eldredge Garage property. A series of speakers argued that the land at 365 Main St. represents the last good opportunity to create additional public parking in downtown Chatham. In their public meeting Tuesday, selectmen voted unanimously to reconsider the purcha...

CHATHAM – For the first time, researchers Monday documented a great white shark in Pleasant Bay, much to the surprise of a family who saw the 14-foot predator pass within a few feet of their boat. The Whaler was moored just inside the cut between North Beach and North Beach Island when the shark swam by about eight feet off the beach. The 17-foot boat was “just a little big bigger than the shark,” observed Met...

CHATHAM – Town officials will be reviewing plans to renovate and upgrade facilities at Old Mill Boatyard after bids for the project came in over budget. The low bid for the work was $1,694,950, according to Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. The cost of the project had been estimated at about $1.55 million. “We obviously have to review where we go from here,” said Keon. Last week, Lt. Governor Karyn Po...

CHATHAM – When local shellfishermen wanted help setting up a meeting with officials from the state division of marine fisheries to discuss changes in regulations governing quahog size, they turned to an unlikely source: The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance. Until fairly recently, few would have made a connection between the Alliance and shellfish. Last year, however, the West Chatham-based organization...

CHATHAMPORT — For decades, wireless station WCC sent critical information to ships around the globe, 365 days a year, around the clock. Many of those messages were repeated many times, often serving as a kind of homing beacon for mariners from faraway Chatham. When live traffic wasn't being transmitted, the wireless operators used an ingenious mechanical device known as a Creed keyer to repeatedly send strin...

Chatham summer resident Lisa Brown’s captivating “The Airport Book” (Roaring Brook Press, 2016), is a handsome, large format picture book about a family of four that goes on a trip. And the more time you spend with book's beautiful illustrations, the more they give you. One airplane’s pilot is a woman—a great message for very young girls. And then there are mysteries. What’s in the weirdly-shaped package wrapp...

CHATHAM — Harbormaster Stuart Smith was not showing preferential treatment when he allowed his brother's boat mooring in Ryder's Cove to be used by Selectman Seth Taylor. That's the opinion of Town Counsel Douglas Louison, who investigated the matter at the request of resident George Myers. Louison said Smith was following established practice last May in issuing the third party permit to Taylor, allowing...

CHATHAM – For the first time, researchers Monday documented a great white shark in Pleasant Bay, much to the surprise of a family who saw the 14-foot predator pass within a few feet of their boat. The Whaler was moored just inside the cut between North Beach and North Beach Island when the shark swam by about eight feet off the beach. The 17-foot boat was “just a little bit bigger than the shark,” observed Bet...