Parkland, Fla., is more than 1,500 miles from Cape Cod, but a mass shooting inside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School there on Feb. 14 shook the Monomoy School District to its core, with educators and local officials redoubling efforts to keep students safe. “I think every time something like this happens, it causes everybody to rethink,” said Harwich Police Chief David Guillemette. “It brings the issue ...

CHATHAM –Police Chief Mark Pawlina went before the board of selectmen last Wednesday to stress the need to improve security at local schools by installing bullet-proof doors and locks on classrooms and a full-time school resource officer. Pawlina had no specific spending proposal; indeed, school facilities are under the purview of the Monomoy Regional School Committee, not selectmen, so the board had no authority...

CHATHAM – Sharks in the Park will be back this summer – for perhaps the last time – but they won't be in the park. Rather, the exhibit of colorfully-decorated cut-outs of the predators of the deep, the town's most high-profile summer visitors, will be staged on the lawn of the Eldredge Public Library. Call it Sharks at the Library. The colorful, whimsically decorated five-foot sharks attract thousands of vi...

CHATHAM — Though they’re decidedly undecided about a location for a new senior center, selectmen this week endorsed a town meeting article that funds a feasibility study and the hiring of an owner’s project manager. The article asks town meeting to appropriate $100,000 to fund a site feasibility study, to pay an architect to produce a conceptual design and cost estimate for a new senior center, and to hire a...

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...