Let's Have A Parade! Editor: With Gov. Baker lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, let’s push Chatham to open up July 4th and have the parade. Bring the community together, help small businesses, bring families together. It would truly be a special day if we can make this happen! Let’s have a parade! Bill Underwood New York, N.Y.   Summer Beach Services Update Editor: Dear Summer Beach Worshi...

What are you looking forward to? For us, it’s interviewing people face-to-face. Asking people to smile for a photo – and being able to see it without a mask. And relaxing our relentless coverage of COVID-19, which has been uninterrupted for the past 15 months. We can’t wait for a good office party, too, so we can enjoy the company of our coworkers. But that’s us. What are you looking forward to when the sta...

Find Alternative Takeout Containers Editor: I'm writing to ask local restaurants and take-out places to consider the containers they use for takeout and leftovers. It is now a driving force behind my choices of where to go when I want to bring food home and I'd like to encourage other consumers to consider the same. Throughout the pandemic, my husband and I have been committed to supporting local restau...

Remove Stop Signs For Climate Editor: There are now some seven billion humans all adding gasses that trap sunlight. There is overwhelming evidence that it is increasing the average temperature. The town can take at least small steps to reduce the increase. A vehicle uses much more fuel when going up to speed from a stop or from having to slow down. There are a lot of stop signs that could be removed, a p...

When town meeting established an affordable housing trust, it wanted to shake things up. For years, the affordable housing committee had been trying to increase the stock of dwellings accessible to people of moderate means. Members would hear of an available property, but by the time they could bring its acquisition before town meeting, it would be off the market. So town meeting yielded some of its authori...

Harwich voters go to the polls next Tuesday, May 18, to choose among candidates running for the board of selectman and the water and wastewater commission. In these, the only contested races on the ballot, we recommend votes for Mary Anderson and Ed McManus. Mary Anderson has impressed us ever since she took over as executive director of the Family Pantry of Cape Cod in 2005. She took the pantry from a modest ...

As it nears completion, opinion remains divided over the West Chatham Roadway Project. The changes to the 1,700-foot-long corridor between Barn Hill Road and George Ryder Road, bookended now with roundabouts, are significant. The central turning lane, a feature for more than half a century, is gone, the roadway narrowed to two lanes and the sidewalks on the south side and multi-use path on the north side wider, w...

Food May Follow Fate Of Fuel Editor: So, I heard on Fox News that President Biden may be banning meat to combat global warming. Then I remembered that Colorado Democrat Governor Jared Polis had issued a similar proclamation last month. My first reaction was, what kind of cockamamie idea will the Democrats cook up next. But then I read the article they quoted, and it made a bit more sense. Apparently, ...

We've been trying to puzzle out why a majority of the Chatham Select Board opposes dedicating town-owned property at 127 Old Harbor Rd. to affordable or attainable housing. The .88-acre property was donated to the town in 1971 by Marion Nickerson Ellis to be used “as additional playground and recreation area for the present site of the school located on the abutting property of the town.” It was to be designated ...

Candidate An Effective Leader Editor: I have been a volunteer at The Family Pantry of Cape Cod for the past 10½ years and have had the opportunity to know and volunteer under Mary Anderson as our executive director. The Pantry always ran seamlessly and efficiently, thanks in great part to Mary’s efforts. What I consider even more important, though, was Mary’s passion for the people we served. Her attitud...

Responding to budget cuts in the mid- to late-1990s, Coast Guard brass decided that Station Chatham would be combined with Station Provincetown under a single command, with a paring-down of resources for the two key stations. On our editorial page, we opined that the move was shortsighted and jeopardized the safety needs of local mariners – and our readers agreed. But we were paid an office visit by the group com...

Candidate's Experience Is What Harwich Needs Editor: The Harwich Board of Selectmen deserves to have a capable, independent, problem solver elected to its board.  Mary Anderson is that person. I’ve known and worked with Mary for many years, in her capacity as the executive director of The Family Pantry. The Pantry, under Mary’s watch, has grown into one of the largest, most successful non-profit organizatio...