HARWICH — Selectmen on Monday night issued a contract to Community Development Corporation to provide housing coordinator services to the affordable housing trust for a second year. But there was debate over who should issue the contract, the town's affordable housing trust or selectmen. Selectman Donald Howell, who also serves on the trust, declared it should be the selectmen’s decision, not the trust’s, to i...

HARWICH — Town officials opened the second round of bids for the East Harwich sewer project last Thursday and after bids in the first round came in high, they were a little relieved with what they received in the second round. Selectmen also voted not to call a special town meeting this fall to reaffirm a regional wastewater partnership with Dennis and Yarmouth, even if legislation establishing the partnership...

Fresh off the holiday weekend, Monomoy students and teachers will be back in the classroom on Tuesday, Sept. 3, with kindergartners starting Thursday and preschoolers the following Monday. There have been some infrastructure changes in the district, starting with the change to the Cape Cod Collaborative for bus service. The new buses have improved fuel efficiency, enhanced safety features, and the ability for ...

Support ‘Helping Neighbors’ NORTH HARWICH — If the goal of a food pantry was just to fill bellies, the shelves would be stocked with starchy foods like instant mashed potatoes and stuffing. But the Family Pantry of Cape Cod focuses on providing nutritious foods as a means of helping clients get healthier and live better. Key to that philosophy has been a concerted effort to increase the amount of fresh ...

HARWICH PORT — It took first responders many hours to control the public safety threat after a tanker truck flipped over and spilled gasoline on Sisson Road last month. But it will take cleanup crews much longer to try and reverse the environmental damage caused by the accident. A New Hampshire environmental engineering firm has completed an immediate response action plan following the July 18 spill, outlini...

HARWICH — In 1904 Caleb Chase, a West Harwich businessman, provided the town with a $10,000 grant in his will to assist residents in need. More than 100 years later that gift has grown to nearly $500,000, and the trustees who oversee the fund say it is underutilized and its guidelines should be changed so its use can be expanded. Grants to local residents are administered by the board of selectmen after screen...

HARWICH PORT— There was a surprise meet and greet on Saturday as people walking the sidewalk ran into former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden, a front runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, was in town for a fundraiser. It was meant to be a relatively quiet event, but Biden exited his vehicle about a block and a half away from the gathering point of his supporters, Perks Coffee S...

HARWICH – The old East Harwich fire station will be taken down by late September. There were plans to leave the old station in place after the new one is finished in mid to late September so that it could be used by the contractor on the East Harwich wastewater project, but those plans have changed. “That was the plan until about an hour ago,” Fire Chief Norman Clarke, Jr said on Thursday. Clarke stated ...

HARWICH — The affordable housing trust is switching its priority for development of affordable housing from land on Oak Street to a 1.11 acre parcel on Sisson Road where the Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre currently leases the former schoolhouse. The decision was made last Thursday after a review of the Oak Street site by local officials and Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) staff. The tr...

HARWICH — Vandalism at parks and beaches is nothing new, but this year’s activity is worse than the occasional upturned bench or overturned trash can. “I’ve been here for 14 years, and I’ve never seen it as bad as this,” Harwich Recreation Director Eric Beebe said. Late at night on Aug. 12, vandals struck the bathhouse at Bank Street Beach, plugging sinks, ripping a urinal from the wall and apparently try...

HARWICH – Hundreds of members and supporters of the Harwich Conservation Trust turned out Monday night to delve into the 400-year history of the Pleasant Bay area as seen through records and artifacts uncovered at the 49-acre Kendrick farm. The effort is an ambitious five-year undertaking to merge archeological and historical research and uncover a generation-by-generation history not only of one family, but of t...

HARWICH — A blue-green algae bloom turned the waters of the West Reservoir in the Bell’s Neck Conservation Area bright green Monday. Town officials warned people not to swim or allow dogs to swim or drink water from the reservoir. “The whole West Reservoir is a murky blue-green,” Conservation Administrator Amy Usowski said after posting three warning notices along the shoreline where people might come in conta...