CHATHAM — In the span of a few weeks, officials opened two new bridges in Chatham, one over the Mitchell River and the other crossing Muddy Creek. That's pretty big news for a town that, as of a few months ago, only had one automobile bridge. Both spans are winning high praise from the public, both received substantial outside funding, and both were completed on time. But that's where the similarities end. The...

CHATHAM – Beyond Main Street, just down the hill from the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance headquarters, a dozen men and women worked in the morning sun Tuesday to make the dreams of four families come true. Foundations for four Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod homes have been capped, and the volunteers were building retaining walls and preparing for a wall raising scheduled for next month. Next Tuesda...

Shark Week In Review During last Wednesday's shark population study trip, Dr. Greg Skomal of the state division of marine fisheries sighted a number of great white sharks and tagged two. The two sharks were tagged July 6, a 14-footer a half mile off Coast Guard Beach in Eastham and a 15-foot animal one-half mile off the south inlet in Chatham's South Beach, not far from the Shark Cove area. The sharks bec...

CHATHAM – After 25 years in the energy industry, Jason Nye was too young to retire when he and his wife Kathy moved their family to Truro last fall. A “self-professed gym rat,” he found the perfect transition in the Chatham Health and Swim Club, which the couple purchased last month. “It's something I know and enjoy,” he said of the fitness business. When he met owner Carol Penfield, they not only hit it off b...

CHATHAM — State and federal officials last week trumpeted a new statewide plan that gives communities more control when it comes to managing populations of threatened piping plovers. But when it comes to access to Chatham's stretch of North (Nauset) Beach by off-road vehicles, experts say not much has changed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife released ...

CHATHAM – In March 2014, a local resident suffered serious injuries in a fight during a basketball game at the community center. In reviewing the center's security after the fact, it was discovered that one of the video monitoring cameras in the gym had at some point been hit by a basketball and was out of focus. The incident “really pointed out some of the limitations of the older system we had,” Park Directo...

HARWICH — With Massachusetts Department of Transportation's plan to have Route 6 through town paved this fall, town officials are seeking improvements at the Exit 10 interchange that would reduce back-ups and accident levels. Deficiencies in acceleration lane length have been cited as cause for traffic delays and excessive accident rates there. “All summer long there are traffic tie ups there,” Lincoln Hooper,...

WEST HARWICH — Close to 20 years ago, town officials received a complaint from a woman living in the Pinewood Village Condominiums that she and her daughter were experiencing skin rashes when washing with the development's private well water. The state Department of Environmental Protection was called in to take samples, which showed high levels of five compounds related to dry cleaning and metal de-greasing t...

HARWICH — Life has its twists and turns, but the beat goes on. That's a lesson that Michael Dunford knows well. He joined the Harwich Town Band at the age of about 12 in 1975, and went on to a successful career as a banker, professional drummer and record exec. On Tuesday, he'll be back in the bandstand, where it all started. Following the lead of his mother, who had played in an all-girl drum and bugle cor...

  HARWICH — Two men pleaded not guilty this week to charges connected with two separate burglary cases in West Harwich and Harwich Port. On Friday, police were called to the Bell's Neck Conservation Area to meet with a woman who said the back window of her truck had been broken and tools had been stolen. While there, officers received a second similar call from the conservation area, but this alleged vict...

HARWICH — The cost for using rooms at the community center may be going up an average of 15.3 percent based on a vote of the community center facilities committee. This is the first fee increase since 2011 and will require approval from selectmen. While the room use fees have remained unchanged since 2011, the cost of operating the building continues to rise, members of the committee emphasized in a public hea...

HARWICH — It has been almost 20 years since Pleasant Bay received its Area Of Critical Environmental Concern designation, a state action designed to protect the sensitive nature of the embayment. Two decades later the health of the bay can be largely attributed to the efforts of the Pleasant Bay Alliance. Carole Ridley, the Pleasant Bay Alliance coordinator, was before selectmen Monday night providing a histor...

HARWICH ─ What do you get when you combine one ball, one long stretch of beach, and an enthusiastic group of kids? Perhaps one of the most fun summer activities around – beach soccer! The excitement, courtesy of the Harwich Police Soccer Club, with support from Harwich Recreation, is happening each week at Red River Beach. “It started the end of last summer,” said Harwich Detective Segeant Bob Brackett...

CHATHAM ─ Those who think a tie game can't be exciting weren't at Sunday's outing of the Chatham Anglers and the Harwich Mariners. Though it ended in a 1-1 deadlock, it was a game worth watching. It was a game in which many of the stats were identical. Each team had eight hits, and within those hits, each team had one run, both of which came from well-hit home runs, both in the fourth inning, and while each ...

Readers often wonder how novelists find ideas for their tales—for one author, her plot came to her in nature. “I was on a walk on Wellfleet's Great Island, on a path out to where the Smith Tavern once stood,” Judith Manchester of Eastham, author of “Sisters of the Stone,” recalled in an email interview. “I started thinking, ‘imagine the history this path has seen. Imagine the people who have walked it. Imagine...

When Laura “Poppy Grace” Wanamaker’s films are shown at the Chatham Orpheum Theater next week, don’t expect to get a front row seat. Those seats will be taken up by “Laura’s Moms” – Ginny Nickerson, Karen McPherson, Nina Schuessler, Jennifer Sexton, Jamie Niethold Nash, Lynette Walker, Carrie Fahle, Erica DeZitter, Tamara Harper and myself. When Robin Goellner, Wanamaker’s mother, passed away from breast cance...