HARWICH — Fundraising to preserve open space always takes a winding trail of commitments from the community. Perhaps no group has walked that trail more than the Harwich Conservation Trust, which is looking for more of those commitments to purchase a 6.65-acre parcel that will complete a 70-acre conservation puzzle along the Herring River corridor. HCT Executive Director Michael Lach said the path to the purch...

When I sat down at the computer to write my column this week I found myself gazing out the window at nothing in particular in a sort of stupor. My brain had gone silent, my thoughts had vacated and even my eyes didn’t seem to be working right. I had the energy of a sloth and to be fair, that may be underestimating the poor sloth. This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced ennui in the last few months but w...

In the next few years, the Monomoy Regional School Committee will face some significant decisions about the future of its two elementary schools. As we report this week, Chatham's declining enrollment means that Harwich is subsidizing more and more of the cost of running Chatham Elementary School. If the trend continues — and there's every indication that it will — in just a few years there may be only enough stu...

Love For The Love Caravan Editor: The Terraces Orleans wants to sincerely thank Rev. Wesley Williams and friends for organizing the “Love Caravan” that circled by our long term care facility on May 27. The whoop-whoop of the sirens, the honking horns, the line of decorated cars that looked as if it would never end was a sight to behold! Just awesome. We are so grateful to the Orleans and Brewster Police and...

The wind was coming from the direction of the ball field, or at least where you could normally make out the lights a mile and a half away at night. Up on this roof that I have been climbing up on since I was six, the treetops of the zelkova and the mountain ashes and the Bartlett pear trees I had planted as mere twigs swayed and swooshed their new green leaves in the breeze. Sunset over the Oyster Pond was com...

Opening a restaurant is no easy feat. Even for new local business owners who are taking over the reins of a successful location with a hearty customer base and making it uniquely their own, nothing about the process is simple or effortless.  Now try it in the middle of a global pandemic.  Lynne Hammatt bought the former Sandi’s Diner in March, as the seriousness of COVID-19 was becoming evident. After paint...

ORLEANS — The four towns of the Nauset Regional School District may not have to vote on the high school building project until next spring. Last week, the regional school committee asked the Massachusetts School Building Authority to move its deadline for approval of the project, already extended to Nov. 1, to May 31, 2021. For the $132 million effort to advance, town meetings in Brewster, Eastham, Orleans, ...

ORLEANS — After hearing the three hopefuls running for two seats on the board of selectmen discuss the hard choices facing the town, Orleans Citizens Forum moderator David Lyttle said the electorate will have “a really tough choice” among them June 23. “I commend all of you,” he said during the virtual public forum Tuesday night. “I think you are all excellent candidates.” Incumbents David Currier and Mef...

It’s looking like picnic weather for the outdoor town meeting set for Saturday at 10 a.m. at Nauset Regional Middle School, at least as of Tuesday morning. On Monday afternoon, the board of water and sewer commissioners held a virtual public forum on the wastewater-related articles on the June 20 warrant. During the session, Selectman Kevin Galligan said he expects to move Article 42 — to approve $12,218,000 in a...

Chatham Beaches To Open As Planned, But Schoolhouse Pond May Be A Problem CHATHAM — Though it’s anybody’s guess how may people will flock to the sand and surf this summer, or how many of them will fit on the beaches given new social distancing requirements, beach permit sales will continue as normal this summer. Well, almost normal. With the permit office closed to the public, resident beach stickers are ...

CHATHAM – The annual Independence Day parade is the biggest event of the summer. For more than 100 years, thousands of people — local residents, summer folks and visitors from throughout the region — have gathered to mark the nation's birthday with a processions sometimes stretching from one end of downtown to the other. Recent parades have included more than 100 floats, bands and other entries and hundreds of ma...

Raymond Russ, 89, of South Chatham and formerly of Simsbury, Conn., left this life on May 20, to join his late son, Stephen of Plymouth, Mass.  He leaves behind to mourn him his loving wife of 67 years, Evelyn, and son, Eric (Rhonda) and daughter, Betsy Kerr (Daniel), both of East Hartford, Conn., and daughter-in-law, Ingrid Russ of Plymouth, two granddaughters, and three  great grandsons whom he adored and will ...

While the passing of Thomas Joseph Raftery, VII, 77, on June 3 rd , 2020, in Chatham was unexpected, the countless lives he touched were not. If you were fortunate enough to know “Tom”, you at least once were the recipient of his generosity or expertise, or the beneficiary of his encouragement to forge deeper professional and personal connections between people across the planet. You probably were also gifted a g...

                CHATHAM - Mr. Bertrand “Bert” Alexander Czuchra died peacefully at home on June 1, 2020 at the age of 88.             Bert was born June 20, 1931 in New Haven, Connecticut, and spent his early years in the circle of his large extended family in the area. After high school, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 to 1954. He earned an AS degree from Quinnipiac College in 1956...

Jason C. Stone, Sr of Chatham passed away on his birthday May 30, 2020.  He had been living at North Hill in Needham for several months.  Hip replacement surgery proved to be a final challenge too great. Jay was born 91 years ago in Pittsburg, Pa.                Upon graduation from Penn State University, Jay married Martha almost 70 years ago.  He served his country in the US Navy as an officer aboard a mi...

Richard Augustus Phelps, 81, of Scarsdale, N.Y. and Tucson, Ariz. died on May 24th, after a long struggle with cancer.               Born January 29, 1939, to Augustus Ward and Marian Vreeland Phelps, he was raised in Scarsdale where he lived with his wife and four children until his retirement. His father founded and owned Phelps, Fenn and Co. from 1924-1966, the first all municipal bond firm in New York, ...