Town Deserves Explanation Editor: When vacationing in your lovely town at the beginning of August, I read and watched on TV the discovery of a the body of a young man missing for nine months, found in a decommissioned USCG boat within sight of where he was last seen. I was shocked to see the cold response by the Police Chief of Chatham upon finding their missing person 100 feet from where he disappeared. I ...

Although the bugs were out, the show above was, as usual, thrilling. Windless on the Oyster Pond, its surface like glass – no, molten glass or perhaps liquid chrome – our boat, Tilikum, made a track slowly past the channel buoy. Oddly, a cloud of wood smoke met us there, drifting up from the marshes to the southwest. Before I recognized the smell, I looked at the motor to be sure that the extra oil I put in th...

Would Chatham still be Chatham without its iconic Independence Day parade? Sure. Would the absence of the event make the July 4 holiday just a little bit duller for a whole lot of people? For sure. The recent resignation of all five members of the Independence Day parade committee, however, leaves a large void that needs to be filled. No doubt, it's a lot of work putting together the event, which has ...

Overpass For Harwich Port? Editor: All summer long, we encounter interminable traffic delays driving through Harwich Port center due to frequent pedestrian crossings, resulting in 10, 20, even 40 cars burning gasoline to allow one pedestrian to cross the street.  I would  propose one or more overpass walkways in the center of Harwich Port, thus allowing people to cross safely and quickly, and making for ...

To say I was swept or blown away by the recent events at the old “vintage” Harwich Middle School does not do justice to the transformations occurring there. Those words almost connote a violent action or a negative removal. It was, more accurately, a case of being “spirited away” to another dimension, a world of imagination, creativity and flight of fancy. Not only was the event the second appearance of Bu...

A visit to Monomoy Island reveals a stunning landscape rich with wild birds, swaying beach grass, and miles of soft sand. But to call it “pristine” would be an exaggeration. To know why, all one has to do is look among the grasses and seashells anywhere on the beach. You'll find a wealth of trash. Some people might say, 'So what?' and chalk it up to modern life. But on the island, and off, trash has become a h...

Airport Critic Silenced By Board Editor: Paula Lofgren had been a dedicated, hardworking, thoughtful, well-prepared Chatham Airport Commissioner for three years.  She persistently represented the town’s residents and airport abutters' point of view on the commission that seldom voiced that perspective. She was recently denied reappointment by the board of selectmen. So now there are three pilots on the c...

  “Saturday night at the movies Who cares what picture you see When you’re huggin’ with your baby In the last row of the balcony?”   About six years ago, I wrote a series of three articles for this Chronicle column about Bill, the mythical time traveler. It is the only time I’ve attempted to create a series. In my articles, Bill had grown up in Chatham and left in 1964 after finishing college. I...

 It took a while, but it seems as if the former Harwich Middle School has found its purpose. In January, with Community Center Director Carolyn Carey acting as de facto manager, artists and craftspersons began leasing space in the capacious building. Now, in some 28 classrooms and other spaces, including the former industrial arts shop in the basement, a thriving creative community exists. In a way, throwing o...

There's a lot that bothers me about the debate over the Affordable Care Act and its myriad potential replacements. Most of all, though, everyone should stop referring to it as a health care debate. It's not. A more accurate description would be a health insurance debate. You can argue that Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the replacements proposed by Republicans are about health care, because they impact ho...

  The first time we took Tilikum down there, testing out the Mako’s range and speed, we ended up just inside the lee of the island. The ocean was just around the corner. Open and wild and powerful and indifferent. A cool, salt breeze played at different angle, first our face, then our knees and jumping at times to the hair on our arms. It was there and gone again, at unpredictable intervals. Standing at the...

Does Harwich Need A Pet Cemetery​? Editor: I have recently had occasion to drive down the industrial area on Queen Anne Road in Harwich. I just learned that the large swath of land being cleared was for a town-funded pet cemetery. Harwich has very few industrial areas left to build on. These three or four lots could have created 15 bays for the working class to start or expand a business. Those businesse...