CHATHAM – Even though the April Fools Plunge was postponed from Saturday to Sunday, Justin Tavano and Gerard Smith showed up at Harding's Beach on April 1, along with one other person who couldn't make it Saturday. Together they braved the cold and wind-driven rain to take their annual swim on April Fool's Day proper. maintaining their decade-long streak. SEE A GALLERY OF PHOTOS FROM THE APRIL FOOLS PLUNGE HE...

CHATHAM – Chatham Bars Inn will go before the planning board next week with a proposal to allow the resort to continue to use a warehouse it owns on Chatham Bars Avenue as a storage and maintenance facility. Town officials issued stop work orders last year halting the inn's active use of the building at 20 Chatham Bars Avenue. Once a bowling alley but for many years a storage facility, the building is located ...

CHATHAM – Members of the Aunt Lydia's Cove committee want a say in how the town spends the money raised through the fees they pay to operate out of the municipal fish pier. Those fees, which raise about $150,000 annually, are proposed to be placed in a new waterways user fee revolving fund through an article on the May 8 annual town meeting warrant. The fish pier permit fees will be combined with a new waterwa...

Inlet In South Beach Could Prove Troublesome For Fishing Fleet CHATHAM – For the past few months, shellfisherman Randy Saul has been watching a washover on South Beach, about a half mile south of Lighthouse Beach. He knew there was deep water on the ocean side of the narrowing neck of sand as well as on the west side, in the old Southway. It was only a matter of time before the ocean broke through the low, n...

Court Rebuffs Boston YWCA's Attempt To Gain Ownership Of Historic Homes CHATHAM – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has cleared the way for a Philadelphia nonprofit organization to once again offer vacations at three historic cottages in the Old Village to its members. In denying an appeal last week, the court let stand a ruling turning back the Boston YWCA's attempt to wrest control of the three c...

CHATHAM — On Friday, Peter Connick raised his right hand and became Chatham's fire chief, only the fourth professional chief in the town's history. Connick takes the place of Michael Ambriscoe, who retired at the mandatory retirement age of 65, having served Chatham for a dozen years. “He made us what we are,” Connick said. “He's left this place so much better than he found it.” “It's been an honor and a...

CHATHAM — The political narrative in town has entered a new chapter, with Chatham hosting what appears to be its first political action committee. Last Wednesday, West Chatham resident Rick Leavitt registered a new PAC called the Chatham Citizens for Responsible Government with the town clerk's office. The stated purpose of the committee is “to inform Chatham voters on issues affecting the operation of local...

CHATHAM — The region may still be drying out from some recent soaking rains, but what could be a long, hot summer is just around the corner. And that's turned the heat up on water conservation planning. Selectmen last week scheduled a public hearing to discuss new proposed restrictions on non-essential water use that regulate residential irrigation systems and swimming pools.  The hearing will be held as part ...

Video and photos showing the new break in South Beach.

CHATHAM -- Saturday's northeast winds and high tides scoured out a previous washover in South Beach about a quarter mile from Chatham Lighthouse, creating an inlet through which several vessels traveled Sunday. Water was flowing at low tide through the inlet, located approximately across from Outermost Harbor.  It empties into the waterways previously known as the Southway, which was the principle Chatham Harb...

In votes early this week, selectmen in Harwich and Chatham threw their support behind a two-town partnership for wastewater treatment. If endorsed by voters at each town's spring town meeting and at a subsequent ballot question in Harwich, the inter-municipal agreement calls for Harwich to pay Chatham $6,675,000 over seven years in exchange for providing a certain amount of treatment capacity at Chatham's wast...

SOUTH CHATHAM – Author Anne D. LeClaire's first novel in 11 years begins with a line that any writer would be happy to call their own: “Every day is ordinary. Until it isn't.” It's such a good line that fellow Chatham author Bernard Cornwell asked LeClaire if he could use it. At first, she declined. But when Cornwell suggested they both dedicate the book that the line appears in to each other, she relented....