CHATHAM – The town's annual Christmas celebration officially gets underway this Sunday when Santa Claus arrives at the Chatham Fish Pier. Santa will arrive in style, on the historic CG36500 motor lifeboat, featured in the book and film “The Finest Hours,” at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 3. He'll be escorted by members of the Chatham Coast Guard Station and greet children at the pier. After making his way through the crow...

CHATHAM — Selectmen agree that it’s probably time to consider hiking water rates to better maintain and expand the town’s water system. But they don't want to do so in a way that soaks low-income residents or small businesses. Meeting as water and sewer commissioners Tuesday, the board held a hearing on a complex proposal that would increase the amount customers pay for water, both to raise revenue for capital...

CHATHAM — Having provided a measure of financial stability for local families for decades, the Chatham Children's Fund is now enjoying a little stability of its own – just in time for the holidays. On Monday, resident David Oppenheim said he and his wife, Gail, intend to make the office at 210 Stony Hill Rd. available to the Children's Fund on a permanent basis. It's a boon for the longstanding nonprofit, wh...

On Sunday, 450 local families queued up at the Family Pantry's headquarters in Harwich, and a satellite center in West Barnstable, to receive Thanksgiving dinners. Each left with a turkey and grocery bags filled with potatoes, vegetables, stuffing and a pie, courtesy of the Family Pantry and its donors. Now that's something to be thankful for. As we've done each Thanksgiving since 2004, The Cape Cod Chronic...

CHATHAM — In an organizational meeting last Thursday, members of the new Eldredge Garage Property Planning Committee said they'd already received scores of suggestions for the re-use of that prime downtown real estate. The nine-member panel was chosen by the board of selectmen to review the potential uses of the property at 365 Main St., which was purchased by town meeting last January for $2.5 million. The ...

CHATHAM – Cockle Cove Beach has seen its share of erosion in the past decade, but last month, for the first time, storm-driven waves claimed a section of the town beach's parking lot. The storm also breached a dune and sent water from Nantucket Sound into the marsh behind the beach. Cockle Cove is “probably the foremost hot spot we have, with some of the highest erosion rates along Nantucket Sound,” said Coast...

CHATHAM – At a recent luncheon for veterans at the current senior center on Stony Hill Road, participants gathered for a group photo. But before that could happen, tables and chairs had to be moved out of the way, and one guest stumbled and nearly fell to the floor. “At the end of the day, I saw that as a perfect anecdote” for what's wrong with the current council on aging building, said COA Director Mandy Spe...

Preliminary survey results indicate that parents favor reconfiguration of the Monomoy Regional School District's two elementary schools in order to keep both viable as enrollment continues to decline. A majority of parents support creating “upper” and “lower” elementary schools, with students in pre-K through grade two attending Harwich Elementary School, and grade three and four students going to Chatham Elem...

CHATHAM — On the 99 th anniversary of Armistice Day, a grateful community gathered at the community center Saturday to thank the town's veterans. “What does it mean to be a veteran?” asked retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Robert Franz. For his part, his service left “an indelible imprint on the soul,” and as a veteran, he said he views life differently. When he sees news reports of American troops in...

CHATHAM – A thimble, a musket ball, 17 th and 18 th century pottery and ceramics, an ancient arrowhead and half – yes, half – of a pig skull. Those are just some of the items found by archaeologists sifting through soil excavated from underneath the floors of one of the town's oldest houses, the 1752 Atwood House on Stage Harbor Road, on Monday. How some of those objects came to be underneath the floorboa...

CHATHAM – Even if the Stage Harbor Road area is never officially designated a National Historic Register District, demolitions of historically significant homes along the roadway can still be referred to the Cape Cod Commission for regulatory review. Jon Idman, chief regulatory officer of the commission, said in an email to Community Development Director Kathleen Donovan that because the Massachusetts Historic...

CHATHAM – The Bradford pear tree removed from the front lawn of the Mayo House will return, in a different form, to benefit the Chatham Conservation Foundation. The Foundation, which owns the historic Main Street three-quarter Cape, removed the tree two weeks ago after being told by an arborist that its heavy canopy and shallow root system made it a potential hazard. After it was cut down, rather than chipping...