In announcing its plans to demolish a historic home on Route 28 in West Harwich, the Bishop of Fall River displayed spectacularly bad timing. Yesterday, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates was scheduled to vote on a district of critical planning concern designation for the corridor of Route 28 from the Dennis town line to Herring River, driven largely by the efforts of residents concerns about preservi...

Chatham Seniors Deserve Support Editor: As a community we have supported our police department with a new police station, our fire department with a new fire station, and our children through a new regional high school. It is time, actually beyond time, that we support our seniors! Chatham’s current senior center is outdated, cramped, inflexible and thoroughly inadequate to meet the needs of our town’s sen...

If you have your health, your family, friends, or even just fond memories, you’ve got reason to be thankful today. But if you’re looking for more reasons, just browse the pages of this newspaper. You can read about 12-year-old Cole Strzepek, who lives with intractable epilepsy and organized a collection of socks to help kids feel more comfortable while they are in the hospital. Inspired by his bravery, people ...

Theater Drop-off Spot Needed Editor: It was not until I became “mobility challenged” that I began to realize the importance of “handicap access.” Chatham does a pretty good job of providing access to most things in town with a few exceptions.  One of the biggest exceptions is the lack of a handicap drop-off spot in front of the Orpheum Theater. It wasn’t until I was forced to negotiate the bumpy, downhil...

I had rowed out the night before, in the moonlight, into a nearly empty Oyster Pond. November light is so very different, as the last of the leaves have fallen and the shores are almost luminously brown dusted with gold and rust. Not that I could have seen that in the dark. But I did see a fair amount. The lights of the few remaining occupied houses ringing the pond, the streetlights down at the beach on Stage Ha...

In his recent book “The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America's Coasts,” Pulitzer Prize winning author Gilbert M. Gaul suggests that the 20th century pattern of coastal development has doomed vast swaths of prime real estate to potential destruction. Thousands of miles of heavily developed shoreline lies in the path of increasingly powerful storms and rising sea levels. Building eff...

Pause Airport Master Plan Process Editor: I want to add my voice to the increasing number of citizens who oppose the master plan for "upgrading" the Chatham Municipal Airport. Alternatives 2 and 3 are unacceptable. I and others want more town selectmen, fire safety personnel, and the code enforcement office involved in hearing the concerns we citizens are raising, such as: * Increased (not decreased) saf...

Harwich will suffer a major loss when Town Administrator Christopher Clark walks out the door on Friday. Clark has been a responsible administrator of the community for nearly six years. He came to the community at a time when the town was struggling financially, at a time when there was negative free cash, and he has turned those conditions around and built sound reserves. This past year that success was recogni...

Recently I spent time with a friend whose colorful language peppered the conversation. I commented, somewhat sarcastically, about her potty mouth. Another friend then piped up about her own recent language indiscretion. After a very bad, no good, frustrating day, she ended up at a big box store where she couldn’t get anyone to help her. She fired off a “Where are the %$#*x*@ gift cards!” to one of the employees, ...

Committee Seeks Grant Proposals Editor: The Chatham Community Preservation Committee is now soliciting applications for Community Preservation Act (CPA) grants for the next financial year. The committee may approve applications in four general areas: open space, historic resources, recreation land and facilities, and community/affordable housing. However applications can include, with some restrictions, a b...

We have to admit that we're not crazy about the Chatham Board of Selectmen's choice of land at 1610 Main St. as the site for a new senior center. But we also admit that it was the best option on a table strewn with poor choices. It's been almost five years since the Gerontology Institute at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Police and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston conducted a ...

Changes Modernize Chatham Airport  Editor: Recent letters expressing concern about new “instrument approaches” pretend to be authoritative but actually demonstrate a lack of understanding of the topic. This is not surprising, as the subject is complex even for aviators. Here are just a few examples: Concern: Lack of a control tower makes these approaches unsafe. Fact: the proposed approaches are by...