Harwich town and chamber of commerce officials who successfully lobbied for Cultural District designations for Harwich Port and Harwich Center are to be congratulated for their efforts. Now comes the harder work: making those designations work for Harwich. The Massachusetts Cultural Council's approval of the district designations last Thursday highlights the work Harwich has done to boost the profile of the ar...

New Festival Officers Editor: The Harwich Cranberry Festival Inc. is a non-profit, all-volunteer group that organizes and produces the annual July and August arts and crafts fairs at Brooks Park, Beach Day each September for the children, musical concerts throughout the year, and the hugely popular Cranberry Festival and Cran-Jam in September at the community center. Proceeds from the vendors and some donat...

Solutions to the ongoing housing crisis are proving elusive. Building new units is a slow process, and building them at any meaningful scale more difficult still. Some towns, like Wellfleet, have instituted buy-down programs which underwrite the purchase of entry-level homes for first-time buyers, but that one-at-a-time approach, while immensely helpful to those who benefit, also barely makes a dent in the proble...

Building Planning Is Important Editor: Recently the Harwich Selectmen questioned the need for a strategic/capital plan for our public buildings. They also appear to question the initiative and actions of people that began efforts in this area. I realized our selectmen are not experts in the domain of physical asset capital planning and management, however, every town facility should have a capital plan. ...

Ill-served By Elected Representatives Editor: Comments on letters by Bruce Everett and the You Guest It by Scott Barrett: First I would like to thank Scott Barrett and Bruce Everett for providing their informative comments on climate policies from different prospectives. I too, like Mr. Everett, question our climate policies. Billions of dollars to be spent on programs included in a bill consisting of ...

It’s a familiar and predictable refrain after storms. The lights go out and I need a warm place to shelter from the storm. Who’s responsible? I need a hot meal and a shower, and a place for my pet. I can’t tell my relatives I’m safe because my cell phone stopped working. Who’s responsible? Let’s add a new one. A flooded road is keeping me from accessing my home. Who’s responsible? We are. All of us. Once...

Rentals Are Businesses Editor: In your "Minding your business " column dated Dec. 29, the principals of a vacation rental company state that simple logic shows that vacation rentals do not take up workforce housing. Their argument, while obviously self-serving, is illogical. Many if not most of the rentals are used far more by renters than owners, many of whom own multiple properties or are corporations. T...

Roads can have many different meanings and purposes. They are, first and foremost, ways to get from one place to another. A road can be an eight-lane superhighway or a narrow dirt path. A familiar road can provide comfort and assurance that home is nearby. A foreign road can be scary and intimidating. A road can bring people together or divide them. Roads can take us to new and exciting places or bring us where w...

Chronicle readers will be forgiven for feeling a bit of Helping Neighbors overload, given that our campaign to help the Family Pantry was featured in the last seven editions of 2022. But now that the fundraiser has successfully concluded, we can’t miss a chance to start the new year with some happy news. We reported last week that the drive had reached its goal of raising $100,000, but at the time we didn’t kn...

The Cape Cod Chronicle this week announced the addition of our newest staff member. The 14-week old kitten, playful and affectionate, fills a void we’ve been feeling since the death of her predecessor some time ago. Rescued from a no-kill shelter, she’s gray, or in printer’s lingo, a kind of halftone. In that way, she breaks with tradition; our previous office cats – Buddy and Trigger – were (naturally) black ...

Support EV Charging Stations Editor: Phrases like “putting the cart before the horse” and “if you build it, they will come” came to mind as I read the letters over the last two issues on the electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that apparently are being discussed for Harwich Port. While these EV charging stations probably won’t see the light of day in 2023, it is a concept that really should be followed ...

It's always sobering to look back and realize how many friends and acquaintances left us during the past 12 months. From town officials to community volunteers, neighbors and folks who made important contributions years, sometimes decades ago, its astonishing to realize the extent to which we rely on the time and talent of people to make our towns function on all levels. It is with sorrow, but also with gratitude...