CHATHAM — It’s more than a COVID-safe way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. This year, First Night Chatham is a tribute to ingenuity. For public health reasons, the town’s traditional family-friendly New Year’s party couldn’t happen as usual this year, but First Night volunteers and the artists they celebrate found some creative ways to provide at least a sampling of the usual festivities. To help set the scen...

CHATHAM – There's no escaping the pall the COVID-19 pandemic cast over everything during 2020. Despite a relatively low number of positive cases, Chatham did not escape the impact, economically, socially and politically. Main Street was shut down for weeks, events and celebrations were canceled, and schools went remote as officials wrestled with how to keep residents safe without rending the fabric of the comm...

CHATHAM – The historic Stage Harbor Coast Guard boathouse may not make it off the shore in Hull, where it has been sitting derelict for more than a year. David Doherty, who spearheaded the effort to bring the boathouse back to Chatham, said he was informed late Tuesday by the attorney for the structure's current owners that an agreement to purchase the building was off and that his deposit check would be retur...

ORLEANS – The COVID-19 pandemic is altering First Night Chatham, but it isn’t stopping the Lower Cape Figure Skating Association from holding its annual Holidays on Ice show at the Charles Moore Arena in Orleans.   However, this year’s show will look a little different — it’s going to be a virtual event featuring masked participants.   Forty-three figure skaters ranging from ages 6 to 17 participated ...

CHATHAM – The historic Stage Harbor Coast Guard boathouse may not make it off the shore in Hull, where it has been sitting derelict for more than a year. David Doherty, who spearheaded the effort to bring the boathouse back to Chatham, said he was informed late Tuesday by the attorney for the structure's current owners that an agreement to purchase the building was off and that his deposit check would be retur...

CHATHAM – Something wasn’t right. The screaming pain Paul Borde could feel in his lower back was starting to affect his daily life. The discomfort was really unbearable for Borde, who struggled to sleep and walk throughout the summer of 2019. Perhaps worst of all, the pain hammering away at the bottom of his vertebrae was hindering Borde’s golf game, which really sounded alarms for the avid golfer. “I thoug...

CHATHAM – The owners of the former Monomoy Theatre will return to the historic business district commission next month with a concept plan for redevelopment of the Main Street property, in order to convince the commission to reverse its vote to prohibit demolition of four buildings formerly associated with the theater. Because Chatham Productions LLC lacked a plan for the redevelopment of the 2.7-acre theater ...

Enrollment Drop Shows Need For Sustainability Initiatives CHATHAM — Selectmen acknowledged Tuesday that something must be done to address plummeting enrollment at Chatham Elementary, but shied away from any plan that calls for the closure of the school. Any long-term fix must be considered in the context of efforts to attract and retain young families in town, they said. As he previously did before the sc...

CHATHAM – Last week's coastal storm may have spared the area the heavy snow that fell elsewhere in the state, but the churning ocean took a toll on North Beach Island. The storm knocked down several substantial dunes and washed over a narrow section of the barrier island approximately opposite Chatham Bars Inn. “We've been watching that narrow section, fully expecting exactly what happened,” said Coastal Re...

CHATHAM – If you want to explore the closest World War II battlefield to the continental U.S., where would you go? If you said Pearl Harbor or Omaha Beach, you would have missed that war's closest battlefield by thousands of miles. More than 80 people turned out Thursday night for a Zoom lecture sponsored by the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center (CMMC) to hear Joseph Hoyt of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Ag...

CHATHAM – Last week's coastal storm may have spared the area the heavy snow that fell elsewhere in the state, but the churning ocean took a toll on North Beach Island. The storm knocked down several substantial dunes and washed over a narrow section of the barrier island approximately opposite Chatham Bars Inn. “We've been watching that narrow section, fully expecting exactly what happened,” said Coastal Re...

A survey of parents of Chatham and Harwich elementary school students as well as elementary school staff shows that a majority prefers housing all Monomoy Regional School District elementary students in one building. A breakdown of the responses, however, shows that Chatham parents overwhelmingly want to retain the town's elementary school, either in its current configuration or through redistricting. In a sim...