Packing hurricane-force winds and a massive storm surge, last weekend’s coastal storm left its mark not only on the battered shoreline, but on the the people of the Lower Cape who were left to clean up the mess. Some of those people were still without electrical service at press time Tuesday afternoon. Redrawing Maps Because it brought wind gusts over 90 mph, giant surf and a storm surge of around four fe...

CHATHAM – It's hard to believe, but growing up in Norwalk, Conn., Irene Gillies hated public libraries. “When I was a kid I was allowed to walk downtown to where the library was,” she explained. “I was into Agatha Christie, and that was in the adult section, and I was told I couldn't take [a book] out unless my mother was with me. Since I was allowed to be there by myself, I was highly insulted.” Other than...

CHATHAM – Four new osprey perches installed around Chatham recently not only will offer a warm welcome to returning birds searching for a place to nest, but also allowed local Boy Scout Carlisle Nash the opportunity to fulfill his Eagle Scout requirements in true Cape Cod style. “At one point I was reading something in the paper about how there were so many ospreys and not enough perches, so they were nesting ...

The recent failure of efforts to establish a National Historic Register District in the Stage Harbor Road area in Chatham and talk about establishing a historic district in Orleans raised questions about the benefits of historic districts, exactly what they protect and how to go about establishing one. There are dozens of historic districts Cape-wide. There are two main types of historic district: National Reg...

CHATHAM — The ghost of the controversial fire station project hovered over selectmen and finance committee chair Stephen Daniel last week as they discussed a new senior center. “The sense of the finance committee is that we've seen this movie before,” he said Feb. 20, recalling the escalating construction costs of the station. “A $2 million to $4 million project 18 months ago is now $8 million to $10 million...

Board Supports Beach Nourishment, Balloon Ban, Library Upgrade Town Meeting Articles CHATHAM – Fighting erosion along the town's Nantucket Sound shoreline is worth sinking $450,000 worth of sand into, but selectmen said Tuesday they'd like to find a more permanent solution to the problem. “This is going to be an ongoing cost to the town of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Selectman Jeffrey Dykens. “W...

CHATHAM — He was toasted as “the dean of Boston TV news,” but to Chatham residents who called the late anchorman Jack Hynes a friend, he was charming and accessible—a man who loved to talk about politics and sports. On Feb. 13, Mr. Hynes, 88, died of heart failure in Hingham. A son of John B. Hynes, Boston’s mayor from 1950 to 1960, Mr. Hynes was a well-known reporter and anchor on Boston channels five and 5...

CHATHAM — The story of Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the tragic Columbine school shooting in 1999, would be moving to hear anytime. But delivered to students at Monomoy Middle School just two days after the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., it was devastatingly poignant. In a school-wide event booked long before the Parkland tragedy, presenter Deedee Cooper shared Rachel’s s...

CHATHAM – Twice since January, flooding from heavy rains and tidal surges have made roads in the Little Beach area impassable. As South Beach rapidly deteriorates, eliminating protection from the open ocean the area has enjoyed for decades, the scenario is likely to be repeated fairly frequently, say officials. “This is probably the new norm,” said Director of Health and Natural Resources Robert Duncanson. ...

CHATHAM – If the town continues to sock away $150,000 a year toward its post-employment benefit (OPEB) liability, it will take more than 110 years to meet its full obligation of more than $16 million. Selectmen are eyeing a somewhat shorter timeline; they want to full fund the OPEB trust in 10 to 15 years, less if possible. To meet that goal, the board last week instructed staff to prepare town meeting arti...

CHATHAM – The staff of the Eldredge Public Library is always looking for ways to promote reading and the library. So when Assistant Director Amy Andreasson and Youth Services Library Tammy DePasquale sat down last fall to plan out social media for the coming months and discovered that December was the birthday month of bingo, the light bulbs lit up. “The more we looked at it the more we thought we could do som...

CHATHAM – Until this past October, a large section of the Chatham Elementary School playground, an area known as the field, was alternatively a dusty or muddy mess, often unusable. But after a cooperative project last summer between the town and the school department that involved fixing drainage, bringing in irrigation, topsoil and seed, the area now has grass, for the first time in years. “It seems like a sm...