By: Tim Wood
CHATHAM – Firefighting can be a dangerous business. But aside from the obvious risk of bodily harm, there's another, more insidious risk that firefighters face: cancer. According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study, 68 percent of firefighters are expected to develop cancer, compared to 22 percent of the general population. It's not just the smoke that firefighters are subjected to ...
By: Tim Wood
Monomoy Regional High School department heads are asking for an apology from the school committee for the way several teachers were treated at the committee's March 23 meeting. At tonight's school committee meeting (Thursday, April 13), an executive session will be held to discuss the teachers' complaint. Along with the March 27 letter from the department heads, committee chairman Brian Widegren said h...
CHATHAM – Federal legislation to settle a disputed boundary at the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge has thrust the town town into the national political scene. “We're part of the national dialog now,” said Selectman Seth Taylor, who testified on the bill last week before a House of Representatives subcommittee in Washington, D.C. last Wednesday. “This is in play at a level where they're really ripping each oth...
By: Tim Wood
CHATHAM -- In a civil suit filed in Barnstable Superior Court, Skydive Cape Cod charges the town with breach of contract and discrimination for failing to renew its contract to operate out of Chatham Airport in 2013. The suit, filed in January by Hyannis attorney Robert Lawless on behalf of Skydive Cape Cod owner Jimmy Mendonca, claims the town interfered with its contract with Cape Cod Flying Circus, the airp...
By: Tim Wood
CHATHAM – A state department of environmental protection hearing officer is recommending that a revetment not be allowed to protect a Shore Road home. The conservation commission approved a 108-foot revetment to protect the 498 Shore Rd. property of James and Lisa McGonigle in 2014, but the decision was overturned after an appeal filed by DEP and a group of 10 residents. The owners appealed the decision, and t...
CHATHAM – Town officials were scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to testify in a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on legislation clarifying the boundary of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Town Manager Jill Goldsmith, Selectman Seth Taylor and Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson were to attend the hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fe...
CHATHAM – Even though the April Fools Plunge was postponed from Saturday to Sunday, Justin Tavano and Gerard Smith showed up at Harding's Beach on April 1, along with one other person who couldn't make it Saturday. Together they braved the cold and wind-driven rain to take their annual swim on April Fool's Day proper. maintaining their decade-long streak. SEE A GALLERY OF PHOTOS FROM THE APRIL FOOLS PLUNGE HE...
CHATHAM – Chatham Bars Inn will go before the planning board next week with a proposal to allow the resort to continue to use a warehouse it owns on Chatham Bars Avenue as a storage and maintenance facility. Town officials issued stop work orders last year halting the inn's active use of the building at 20 Chatham Bars Avenue. Once a bowling alley but for many years a storage facility, the building is located ...
CHATHAM – Members of the Aunt Lydia's Cove committee want a say in how the town spends the money raised through the fees they pay to operate out of the municipal fish pier. Those fees, which raise about $150,000 annually, are proposed to be placed in a new waterways user fee revolving fund through an article on the May 8 annual town meeting warrant. The fish pier permit fees will be combined with a new waterwa...
By: Tim Wood
Inlet In South Beach Could Prove Troublesome For Fishing Fleet CHATHAM – For the past few months, shellfisherman Randy Saul has been watching a washover on South Beach, about a half mile south of Lighthouse Beach. He knew there was deep water on the ocean side of the narrowing neck of sand as well as on the west side, in the old Southway. It was only a matter of time before the ocean broke through the low, n...
Court Rebuffs Boston YWCA's Attempt To Gain Ownership Of Historic Homes CHATHAM – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has cleared the way for a Philadelphia nonprofit organization to once again offer vacations at three historic cottages in the Old Village to its members. In denying an appeal last week, the court let stand a ruling turning back the Boston YWCA's attempt to wrest control of the three c...
By: Alan Pollock
CHATHAM — On Friday, Peter Connick raised his right hand and became Chatham's fire chief, only the fourth professional chief in the town's history. Connick takes the place of Michael Ambriscoe, who retired at the mandatory retirement age of 65, having served Chatham for a dozen years. “He made us what we are,” Connick said. “He's left this place so much better than he found it.” “It's been an honor and a...
