CHATHAM – In 1968, two and a half years after Lady Bird Johnson initiated her national beautification program, the women of the newly-formed Chatham Garden Club began to beautify Chatham by planting flowers, ornamental grasses and flowering trees. Armed with trowels, gardening gloves and watering cans, the women tended plantings in traffic islands and window boxes. And half a century later, garden club members...

CHATHAM — If you take the time to separate out your plastics and tin cans before pitching out the trash, you might think you’re pretty well schooled in recycling. Turns out, most people need a periodic refresher about what and how to recycle. To that end, the town has received a state grant of up to $7,500 to improve the town’s “Recycling IQ.” “We were one of the first communities on the Cape to get this,” D...

CHATHAM — Summer visitors will be able to continue to park at the old Eldredge Garage property this summer, but it’ll cost them. In what will be the town’s first experiment with paid parking in downtown Chatham, selectmen this week endorsed a plan to charge visitors – but not Chatham residents or taxpayers – to park at the town-owned site this summer. The recommendation came from the Eldredge Garage prope...

CHATHAM – Boaters anticipating accessing waters along the town's eastern coast by the usual routes this summer may have to change their expectations. “Delete last year's GPS” settings, Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon recommended. Even though they haven't had a chance to explore inlets, navigation channels and popular boating spots in detail because of the weather, officials say that the storms that play...

CHATHAM – Lisa Franz, executive director of the town's chamber of commerce for nearly a decade, has stepped down. Franz's resignation was effective last Friday, March 30. “I just thought it was time to move on,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday. She said the decision was hers, and while there's “ever a good time,” with most of the work for the upcoming season – completion of the 2018 chamber guide book...

CHATHAM — Attempting to answer concerns that the project would cause prolonged disruption, MassDOT officials say the West Chatham Route 28 reconstruction project will be complete within two calendar years, even accounting for a work moratorium during the busiest summer months. Following up on a March 22 meeting with town officials, MassDOT sent a letter to Selectmen Chairman Cory Metters last Thursday clarif...

Lisa Genova of Chatham hopes her new novel, “Every Note Played,” about a concert pianist who has recently been diagnosed with ALS, will help people empathize with those suffering from the disease. “ Story is such a powerful vehicle for empathy,” Genova said in an email interview last week. ALS is short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and is sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s Disease after the famous New Yor...

CHATHAM – Two last-minute candidates, one of whom is a former selectman, have transformed this year's annual town election from what was an uncontested yawner into a potentially hot race. Last Thursday, the final day to secure a place on the May 17 ballot, Seth Taylor turned in nomination papers to run for the two three-year terms on the board, while Jamie Bassett turned in papers for the one-year unexpired te...

CHATHAM — The board of selectmen Monday softened plans to increase a variety of fees at the transfer station after a private trash hauling company indicated it had started taking its business to Harwich. Faced with a $90 per ton increase to dispose of single-stream recyclables, and a large penalty if recyclables are mixed in with trash, Tim Milley said his company, Milley Trucking, has begun bringing its tra...

CHATHAM — On Monday, the April Fools of Chatham Fire Department and their legions of friends will be taking their annual frigid dip in Nantucket Sound for a worthy cause. The event, taking place on April 2 instead of April Fools Day to avoid conflicts with Easter, invites the public to get a serious jump on the 2018 swimming season by dashing into the icy waves for a quick swim. Participants and spectators a...

CHATHAM – Although still in preliminary, town officials were urged last week to keep moving forward on plans for new commercial fishing offloading facilities in Stage Harbor. “We need this tomorrow,” fisherman and Aunt Lydia's Cove Committee member Jim Nash told the waterways advisory committee last week. The group was getting its first look at plans for renovations to the Eldredge trap dock, which the town...

CHATHAM – Peter Cocolis' career in the aerospace industry, where he worked on commercial and military programs, and in the Air Force, where he worked at the Pentagon and participated in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in the 1980s, taught him both to ask a lot of questions and not be afraid to make mistakes. “You learn by doing and you learn by making mistakes,” he said. Currently chairman of the plannin...