CHATHAM — About 20 years ago, Barnstable County brought Lyme disease education to the schools. They’re still doing it today, and there’s reason to believe the effort is paying off. Entomologist Larry Dapsis, the deer tick project coordinator for the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, said he was approached by a Harvard researcher who was intrigued by the fact that Barnstable County is the only county in the sta...

CHATHAM – Through-hiking the Appalachian Trail is not for the faint-hearted. It's an enormous challenge, approximately 2,190 from start to finish, covering rolling hills and harsh mountain terrain stretching from Georgia to Maine. But you're looking to take a journey of self discovery, it's a good place to start. Kasey Gillies, who grew up in Harwich, graduated from Nauset High School and works at Pate's Re...

CHATHAM – Anyone who has driven down Stepping Stones Road in the past two weeks can't help but notice it: The hill that sat along the south side of the road between the bike trail and Heritage Lane is significantly lower. Heavy trucks have been leveling the hill, removing truckload after truckload of earth to create more usable terrain for an expanded Union Cemetery. Some of the sand has gone to protect se...

Even as the third in a series of powerful coastal storms bore down on the region this week, officials hadn’t yet finished cleaning up debris and assessing damage from the first storm. As they wrestled with the future of Liam’s Snack Shack at Nauset Beach (see story, page 3), Orleans officials took action to save the town bandstand from the encroaching surf. With the structure on the edge of the eroded dune, pu...

CHATHAM – The community is mourning a young boy who showed great resilience and bravery in the face of a rare disease. Last week, 7-year-old Jesse Nash lost his four-year battle with neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. As residents prepare to say farewell to the child who maintained a cheerful outlook despite round after round of treatment, friends and family remembered his full life and the de...

Parkland, Fla., is more than 1,500 miles from Cape Cod, but a mass shooting inside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School there on Feb. 14 shook the Monomoy School District to its core, with educators and local officials redoubling efforts to keep students safe. “I think every time something like this happens, it causes everybody to rethink,” said Harwich Police Chief David Guillemette. “It brings the issue ...

CHATHAM –Police Chief Mark Pawlina went before the board of selectmen last Wednesday to stress the need to improve security at local schools by installing bullet-proof doors and locks on classrooms and a full-time school resource officer. Pawlina had no specific spending proposal; indeed, school facilities are under the purview of the Monomoy Regional School Committee, not selectmen, so the board had no authority...

CHATHAM – Sharks in the Park will be back this summer – for perhaps the last time – but they won't be in the park. Rather, the exhibit of colorfully-decorated cut-outs of the predators of the deep, the town's most high-profile summer visitors, will be staged on the lawn of the Eldredge Public Library. Call it Sharks at the Library. The colorful, whimsically decorated five-foot sharks attract thousands of vi...

CHATHAM — Though they’re decidedly undecided about a location for a new senior center, selectmen this week endorsed a town meeting article that funds a feasibility study and the hiring of an owner’s project manager. The article asks town meeting to appropriate $100,000 to fund a site feasibility study, to pay an architect to produce a conceptual design and cost estimate for a new senior center, and to hire a...

Packing hurricane-force winds and a massive storm surge, last weekend’s coastal storm left its mark not only on the battered shoreline, but on the the people of the Lower Cape who were left to clean up the mess. Some of those people were still without electrical service at press time Tuesday afternoon. Redrawing Maps Because it brought wind gusts over 90 mph, giant surf and a storm surge of around four fe...

CHATHAM – It's hard to believe, but growing up in Norwalk, Conn., Irene Gillies hated public libraries. “When I was a kid I was allowed to walk downtown to where the library was,” she explained. “I was into Agatha Christie, and that was in the adult section, and I was told I couldn't take [a book] out unless my mother was with me. Since I was allowed to be there by myself, I was highly insulted.” Other than...

CHATHAM – Four new osprey perches installed around Chatham recently not only will offer a warm welcome to returning birds searching for a place to nest, but also allowed local Boy Scout Carlisle Nash the opportunity to fulfill his Eagle Scout requirements in true Cape Cod style. “At one point I was reading something in the paper about how there were so many ospreys and not enough perches, so they were nesting ...