CHATHAM — When it comes to encouraging young working families to stay in Chatham, the town’s economic development committee has voiced some creative ideas. Last week, selectmen said they’re listening. The committee has raised the need for more affordable child care, and the need to control water rates, as two ways to ease the financial burden on working families. Selectmen last week agreed to schedule discus...

CHATHAM — With two worthy candidates nominated to have parts of the community center named after them, selectmen have decided that the town needs a policy on the naming of town facilities. At their Dec. 5 meeting, the parks and recreation commission voted unanimously to support naming the community center gymnasium after the late Gary Anderson; they also unanimously favored naming the lobby in honor of the l...

CHATHAM — Depending on your point of view, a proposed change to the town’s zoning bylaw would either create new housing opportunities for working families or open the town to an untamed avalanche of residential development. The zoning amendment would allow property owners to build “accessory dwelling units” on their properties by right. It aims to replace a bylaw provision designed to encourage the developme...

When the weather cleared on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1978, local residents emerged from their homes to find that the area's shoreline had been significantly rearranged – in some cases more or less permanently. While the Blizzard of '78 paralyzed many areas of Southern New England with several feet of snow, trapping people in vehicles and ultimately accounting for 54 deaths in Massachusetts alone, the snow wasn't the n...

Parking Lot Steps Were A Safety Hazard by Tim Wood CHATHAM – Each fall, Yankee Ingenuity becomes the de facto downtown information booth after the small building that usually serves that purposes closes for the season. “We're the nearest store,” said owner Jon Vaughan. This past fall, the most commonly asked question was when the stairs leading from the town offices parking lot to the Main Street sid...

CHATHAM — Saying they need more money to promote the town as a destination, the chamber of commerce is seeking a $15,000 hike to its town budget appropriation next year, representing a 20 percent increase over the current year’s payment. On Monday, selectmen said they appreciate the chamber’s work to promote the town and could support some kind of budget increase, but they stopped short of approving the appr...

If and when it comes, the decision to change the grade alignment at elementary schools in Chatham and Harwich will be made by the Monomoy Regional School Committee and both town's boards of selectmen. Town meetings, however, will not have the option of weighing in on whether students from one town can be sent to the elementary school in the neighboring community, according to a change in the language of the Mo...

CHATHAM – New bleachers at Veterans Field, replacement of the fish pier observation deck, restoration of a downtown memorial and preservation of town records are among more than a dozen projects seeking Community Preservation Act funds this year. This year's CPA requests total $1,845,075, with the largest amounts for recreation projects. Six requests in that category from town departments and other agencies se...

CHATHAM – For 30 years, the Dennis-based Aquaculture Research Corporation maintained a satellite shellfish upweller on the shores of Stage Harbor. The facility allowed the company, which annually sells millions of seed shellfish to Chatham and other Cape communities, to take advantage of the warmer Nantucket Sound waters to grow out shellfish earlier in the season than it could at its Cape Cod Bay-side facility. ...

CHATHAM – “Hooked on Chatham” will be the theme for this year's Fourth of July parade. The theme represents the idea that people who live or visit become “hooked” on the town's many aspects other than the obvious fishing, such as the beaches, boating, shopping and history, Independence Day parade committee chairman Justin Bohannon told the selectmen Monday. It was submitted by Connecticut resident and regular ...

CHATHAM — From the town’s perspective, the latest volleys in the Monomoy refuge boundary dispute have added insult to injury, selectmen said Monday. On Jan. 5, federal officials replied to a letter the town sent to U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke more than half a year earlier, asking him to intervene in the town’s dispute with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The reply didn’t come from Zinke or from an...

CHATHAM – “Hooked on Chatham” will be the theme for this year's Fourth of July parade. The theme represents the idea that people who live or visit become “hooked” on the town's many aspects other than the obvious fishing, such as the beaches, boating, shopping and history, Independence Day parade committee chairman Justin Bohannon told the selectmen Monday. It was submitted by Connecticut resident and regular ...