CHATHAM — Despite the environmental harm they cause, helium balloons will remain a colorful part of downtown band concerts, at least for one more summer. Selectmen Tuesday approved their sale at next year's concerts at Kate Gould Park, but several board members said they might be open to considering a town-wide balloon ban in the future. Downtown property owner Suzanna Nickerson said that helium balloons,...

CHATHAM – If you want to leave your sailboat, kayak or canoe on a town beach, you'll have to get a sticker for it. Much like stickers are required for boats kept at town landings, boats kept along the shore at town beaches will now require a town-issued sticker. The move is designed to try to get a handle on the boats kept at beaches and to clear away unused or derelict vessels. “We just want to know whose ...

Thanks to an almost total communications outage in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the full extent of the damage caused by back-to-back hurricanes Irma and Maria remains unknown. For scores of Lower Cape residents waiting to hear from friends and loved ones there, that means more heartache and helplessness.   Mortell Organizes Relief Drive Ignacio Mortell of Chatham, who grew up in San Juan, is gra...

 Having weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, José brought gusty winds and scattered power outages to the region Saturday before being blown out to sea Sunday, leaving homeowners to clean up leaves and twigs but no serious damage. As of Friday morning, a weather station in West Harwich reported having received 1.17 inches of rain during the storm, with many locales receiving less.  The peak wind gust reco...

CHATHAM — The town's effort to reclaim more than 3,000 acres of shellfish flats and submerged lands appropriated by the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge has just received some important political support. On Friday, Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker sent a letter to the House Committee on Natural Resources expressing support for a bill filed by Congressman William Keating, a Democrat, which would r...

CHATHAM – The developer of a proposed 14-lot subdivision off Barn Hill Road is willing to talk with neighbors about their concerns with the project, but said some things are not negotiable, such as a 40-foot buffer along the southern property line. “That's a nonstarter,” William Marsh of Eastward Companies said during last week's planning board meeting. The Hunter's Rise subdivision, proposed for the seven-...

About 80 Nickersons flocked to Chatham recently to celebrate three milestone anniversaries during the 120 th annual reunion of the Nickerson Family Association, Inc. At the same time, the Nickerson clan sent an archaeologist and crew into the tangled honeysuckle and grapevine behind the association's North Chatham property to continue searching for the location of the c. 1664 homestead of ancestors William an...

CHATHAM – It wasn't unusual for Monomoy Regional School Committee member Karen Ryder to find herself in the minority in discussions and votes. At times she was even criticized for asking questions and not accepting the recommendations of the administration. To Ryder, one of four Chatham representatives on the committee, that's what a school committee member should do. A rubber stamp was not to be found in her ...

CHATHAM – It's long and complicated, and it's taking the waterways advisory committee weeks – make that months – to review, but officials say a long-awaiting revision of the town's waterways regulations will make mooring and boating rules clearer and easier to understand and comply with. Committee members say they often hear complaints about the inscrutable nature of the current regulations. “I hear it all ...

CHATHAM — Selectmen will soon appoint a nine-member committee to examine the possible uses of the Eldredge Garage property at 365 Main St. “It is clear we are going to have parking as a component at some level. We understand that and we've known that from the beginning,” Selectmen Chairman Cory Metters said last Tuesday. But various other ideas have been floated for the property, including a park, rest rooms...

Having weakened to tropical storm status overnight, José is set to pass south of Nantucket today, bringing gusty winds, coastal erosion and heavy rain. Meteorologists say the experience will be more like a strong fall nor'easter than a hurricane. Because the center of the storm is expected to loop south of Nantucket, stormy weather is forecast to remain in the area throug...

CHATHAM — Town meeting voters next May will be asked to spend around a quarter million dollars to purchase a boat ramp on the Mitchell River. And some of those voters might be surprised to learn that ramp, in use by the public for decades, wasn't owned by the town all along. Just west of the Mitchell River drawbridge, the landing is popular among shellfishermen and users of small recreational boats. The land...