HARWICH — Helen Davis attended fifth and sixth grades in the former Harwich Middle School. Now an artist, she is renting one of her former classrooms as studio space. “This place has such a huge ability to be a great arts center,” Davis said. “It brings artists together and artists need artists.” The former Harwich Middle School is quickly emerging as a cultural center providing space, opportunity, camarade...

HARWICH ─ When asked what local chef Neville Coomber's most delicious dish was, his family's answer came in unison: his clam chowder. Now, although they have his carefully protected recipe, including his own secret ingredients, chowder in the future will taste a little different since one key ingredient is missing. Coomber, 47, died suddenly April 8, leaving his family stunned but comforted by countless memo...

HARWICH — Town Clerk Anita Doucette has been the keeper of the town's records for a quarter of a century. She is the second longest active town clerk on the Cape and she enjoys serving residents of the community. “I really appreciate the people in the town for allowing me to serve as town clerk. It has meant a lot to me,” Doucette said. “I love my job. I love what I do, knowing the history of Harwich and watch...

“Year by the Sea,” the long-anticipated film of Harwich resident Joan Anderson’s bestselling memoir, will open at the Chatham Orpheum Theater this Friday, May 26, with meet-and-greet reception, book signing and a Q&A with the author after the film. “I smile a lot,” Anderson said during a telephone interview last week. “It all came together beautifully in the end.” The film, shot in just 22 days in Chath...

SOUTH HARWICH — With Outer Cape Health Services giving up plans for use of the former Stone Horse Motel property as a medical center, new plans are being circulated to use the site for temporary and workforce housing. OCHS continues to own the 2.61 acre property along Route 28, but the health services provider has made a commitment to utilize the former BackOffice building that once housed Thompson's Farm Mark...

HARWICH — The conservation commission has been struggling for several months with ownership and land use issues with the Brewster-based Eldredge Farm. Last week, farm owner Jeff Eldredge received a little more support from the commission. The main issue in the use of the 4.9 acres on the Harwich side of the town boundary, ownership of the land, has yet to be settled. The town's assessing department does not re...

HARWICH — The town is seeking to make its dredge and beach nourishment permitting process a little easier by establishing a comprehensive permit that will cover activities along Nantucket Sound and in Round Cove in Pleasant Bay. Harbormaster John Rendon and Russell Titmuss of GEI Consultants, Inc. were before the conservation commission last week seeking support for the combined permit. Rendon said there alrea...

HARWICH — The conservation commission has cited the owner of the fish house in the Herring River for work that went beyond emergency repairs over the past couple of months. The commission also continued a hearing this past week on a proposal by Aquacultural Research Corporation to place an upweller system in the building. Conservation Administrator Amy Usowski said she sent notice to Francis Zarette of Farm Vi...

HARWICH — The town has taken steps to move forward with its plan to auction tax liens as a means of generating revenue from delinquent payments on property taxes. But selectmen on Monday night expressed concern that the initiative is moving too fast and questioned whether the necessary homework has been done. The town has scheduled the auction for June 6 and a list of tax titles scheduled to be assigned and tr...

HARWICH — It has not been an easy process getting paint on the historic Brooks Free Library building. The town has been working for a couple of years on a plan to restore the face of the buildings that house the library, a bank building, built in 1855 and the Brooks building, built in 1880. The painting plan has drawn a lot of review and discussion on how to move forward and whether or not to restore the wh...

HARWICH PORT — A little triangular oasis of public space in Harwich Port, Doane Park is looking particularly green this week, thanks to a lot of community cooperation – and a little good karma. The park has a new irrigation system that waters both the grass and the garden beds maintained by the Garden Club of Harwich. It replaces an old, failing system that left major dry patches in some places and leaked wa...

HARWICH — Despite a selectmen's race and seven Proposition 2½ funding questions on Tuesday's annual election ballot, voters showed little interest in who will run the community or what the cost of living will be, with just 1,758 voters cast ballots, a 17 percent turnout. In a bit of deja vu, the two new selectmen have previously served in the office. Yet Larry Ballantine and Donald Howell barely out-distancing...