The days are getting shorter, and Chatham's Main Street can be deserted after dark as a breeze whirls dead leaves through the gutters. Sometimes, down by the lighthouse with the wind howling and nothing but the black water below, it can be downright creepy. You’re right to be creeped out, because it turns out a ghost has been haunting these streets for many years. Over a century and a half ago, the ghost wa...

CHATHAM – Barring unforeseen objections, it looks like smooth sailing for the proposal to nominate South Chatham as a National Register Historic District. There were few questions and no objections raised to the plan at a public informational meeting last week sponsored by the historical commission and the South Chatham Village Association, attended by about 25 neighborhood residents. At the end of the session...

CHATHAM – The nature of retirement has changed in the past few decades. With fewer companies offering pensions, older folks who might have quit the workforce altogether once they reached 65 are now either working longer or transitioning to some sort of quasi-retirement that includes a part-time job or consulting work. Those factors have led the Chatham Retired Men's Club, now in its 62 nd year, to drop the wo...

CHATHAM – The future of the historic home known as Starboard Light is looking a little brighter. Robert Moss has a purchase and sales agreement on the 154 Champlain Rd. property and wants to move the circa 1860 Cape slightly east on the lot and build several other structures alongside it. While the old house would remain on the original property, it would be rotated so that the front faces west, and a new hous...

HARWICH – The results of the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey at Monomoy Regional High School are out, and have given school administrators, parents, and educators much to think about. The 2019 survey was administered in June, and after the weeding out of potentially invalid surveys (in Monomoy's case, 13), a sample size of 522 respondents was used to compile the data, 401 students from grades 9-12, and ...

CHATHAM — Early on, one of the key hurdles identified by local working families has been the lack of affordable early childhood education programs. The Monomoy Regional School District is exploring ways to bridge the gap by introducing a plan for universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) for Chatham youngsters. Last week, the Chatham 365 Task Force made its recommendations about ways the town can provide better suppo...

BREWSTER – When it comes to living with white sharks, there are many options: stay out of the water, move inland, or, if you're Greg Skomal, a marine biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, you do all that you can to learn as much as you can about the creatures, and ideally save a life or two in the process. Skomal has been doing just that—studying everything possible about white sharks—for more...

CHATHAM — Saying there’s no single action that will help make Chatham an affordable place for young families and other year-round residents, the Chatham 365 Task Force has recommended a varied package of 30 reforms that cover everything from affordable housing to the minimum wage. One proposal, having the school district offer universal preschool, seems to be gaining traction. The detailed proposal is the c...

CHATHAM – The largest annual fundraiser for the South Chatham Public Library, the summer book and bake sale, didn't happen this year. The process of moving dozens of books from the library across the street to the South Chatham Village Hall proved too difficult and problematic for the mostly older volunteers who usually help out. That left the “little library that could,” as supporters refer to the 145-year-ol...

CHATHAM — Though they favor a compromise to save trees at the gateway to downtown Chatham, state officials are still requiring a shared-use bike lane for the intersection of Crowell Road and Main Street. Selectmen still chafe that plans for the new intersection still include shared-use bike lanes, despite the town’s efforts to route bikes away from main roads in downtown Chatham. But not wanting to abandon the...

CHATHAM – A proposal to allow direct instrument approaches to Chatham Airport during poor weather was attacked Monday as a significant change that will lead to greater use of the facility by larger and louder aircraft. The proposal, included in a draft of the airport master plan update, will not make the airport safer, as the airport commission claims, but will change it “from being a good weather airport to b...

Based on MCAS scores, progress for English language learners and attendance rates, the Monomoy Regional School District earned high marks from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, receiving the highest accountability rating of any pre-K through 12th grade school district on Cape Cod. Meanwhile, state education officials ranked Monomoy Middle School as having the highest “accountability r...