Good news: The fresh and salt waters of Harwich, Chatham and Orleans have remained clean and safe for swimmers all summer, according to health agents in the three towns. “So far there have been no exceedances or failures of our beaches,” says Harwich Health Director Meggan Eldredge. “There are no complaints. Honestly, I don’t know of any last year, either.” One minor issue in 2017 was that Red River Beach had ...

When JoAnne Clancy of Harwich retired from her work as assistant town accountant for the town of Harwich in 2009, she thought she’d have loads of time to work on her craft of decorative painting on slates, mailboxes, plates, wineglasses and barrel staves. Not so. “I’m too busy,” she says. Clancy became a volunteer for the Harwich Cranberry Festival, managing the craft fairs as well as keeping the festival’s...

The days are long now and if the tide is right, shellfishermen can head out to the flats of Monomoy, spend hours harvesting and return to shore with their limit as the sun sets and turns the horizon pink and purple. But then they would lose $500 and all their hard work, because the wholesale companies they sell to close hours before the sun goes down, and shellfishermen can’t keep their product overnight – not...

CHATHAM - Chatham resident Ryann McIntire used to be sure she understood all there was to know about Lyme disease. "I thought you got a bite from a tick, you got a rash then took meds and it was over." That was until her own personal battle with Lyme began and she started to realize the elusive nature of this pernicious disease. Her first step was trying to pin down what was wrong with her. McIntire grew up in...

Despite a few dire predictions, 2018 probably won't see any great surge in the numbers of disease-carrying ticks on Cape Cod. But experts say it’s as important as ever to prevent tick bites, especially in these first days of summer. Deer ticks, which can transmit Lyme and other dangerous diseases, are at a particularly dangerous stage of their life cycles in late spring and early summer. Adult ticks, which wer...

At a time when only half of all new businesses survive beyond the five-year anniversary, three local businesses are marking significant milestones. Snow & Thomson Insurance at 514 Main St., Harwich Port, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. “We’re one of the few on Cape Cod that has made it,” says owner and president Alexander Thomson. “It’s kind of fun.” Ralph H. Snow founded the business...

Conductors need be ready when things go haywire during live concerts. This is one lesson that maestro John P. Hagon of Harwich, who has been teaching at Berklee College of Music since 1978, impresses upon his conducting students. “What do you do?” Hagon says. “You try to keep going.” Clarinets are the backbone of a band, just as violins are the backbone of an orchestra. Once when Hagon was about to condu...

You know you need more exercise to boost your energy, but you’re too tired to make dinner, much less go to the gym. It’s a vicious cycle, and one way to break it is, well, cycling. But with work and a busy schedule, who has time to go for a leisurely bike ride? Though it’s certainly not for everyone, cycling to work might be a good way to get regular exercise without consuming precious weekend time. The key, e...

The Cape and Islands’ chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, honored 20 small businesses in its annual awards breakfast last Thursday. Among the honorees were Puritan Clothing, Chatham Cookware, Brax Landing and Talking Threads Custom Embroidery. SCORE, whose volunteers provide free mentoring for entrepreneurs, small business owners and non-profits, presented their “Better Mousetrap” awa...

Like pizza? Have questions you’d like to ask the Chatham police and police chief? Your chance to enjoy pizza while getting your questions answered will come during an informal luncheon called “Pizza with the Police” on May 11 at the Chatham Council on Aging (COA). “This is one of our community interactions that we do,” says Chatham Police Chief Mark R. Pawlina. And “what gets people together more than anyth...

When Dr. Mitch Tishler first opened his chiropractic office in Munson Meeting in October 1987, someone gave him a small ficus tree. That tree still stands in his light-filled examination room, where its branches tickle the ceiling. “All I do is water it once a week,” Tishler says of the tree. “I think it lives on love.” Like the ficus tree, Chatham Chiropractic Wellness Center has grown in place, and love i...

If you get your drinking water from a private well, a team of public health researchers would like you to volunteer for their study of harmful chemicals in the aquifer. Specifically, researchers are looking for wells that may be contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of chemicals linked with chronic health problems. Often associated with airports and fire training academies ...