Residents clearly want town officials to scale back spending. The signs were not-so-subtly telegraphed at recent town meetings, and officials would do well to heed those warnings. Harwich began the trend by rejecting $4.5 million for reconstruction of Lower County Road, defeating funds for the controversial pet cemetery and coming within 34 votes of turning down the $39.6 million operating budget—unprecedented...

The Once And Future Volunteer Editor: Chatham has always been blessed with a wealth of people who are willing to step into a vacuum of need and offer assistance.  The recent honors bestowed on Juliet Bernstein are well-deserved and bespeak a life, not just long-lived, but well-lived also.  The passing last week of Pat Cass extinguishes a charitable light that helped illuminate Chatham’s tradition of giving ...

Impact Of Road Rejection Editor: What are the voters of Harwich thinking? Whose road is next to be voted down? When you don’t repair your infrastructure your values go down. Harwich has a quality reputation. Where is it going to go? Bob and Sue Kraus Harwich Wrong To Ignore Voters Editor: I would like to add my opinion to Joan McCarty's letter in the April 25 edition of The Chronicle, "Take Back The...

“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string I haven’t seen a crocus or a rosebud But it might as well be spring.” Rodgers and Hammerstein May snuck up on us this year. Perhaps it was the cold rainy weather or maybe that so much has happened in Chatham that we just did not pay attention to the calendar. But June and the summer are just ahead, and it is time now to pay att...

In Harwich: Ford And MacAskill When voters go to the polls on Tuesday they will be asked to fill two seats on the board of selectmen. One of those seats is presently held by incumbent Michael MacAskill, who has served for four years. The other two candidates are Thomas Sherry and Stephen Ford. Sherry is familiar to many of the voters in town, having run for the board a year ago and lost by 21 votes to Selectma...

A Vote For The Schools Editor: Harwich voters: Please take the time to cast your vote for school committee candidate Merideth Holden Henderson on Tuesday, May 21. This is a critical time for our town and our Monomoy School District. Our public school systems face so many challenges: balancing state mandates, the individual needs of all students, providing fair and attractive contracts to faculty and staff, ...

It’s the last of the wood fire season. The wood stove season. The months—middle of October, November, December, January, February, March to the middle of April—when we warm our downstairs with the wood stove. Except it is the middle of May. By the time this sees print, to tempt fate, temperatures could zoom in to the 70s. But such is not the case. I sit and write and have, yet again, used paper bags and paper ...

ADUs Will Change Chatham  Editor: A Chatham Town Meeting warrant article that requires a serious look is the planning board’s proposal to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on all residential and business properties. The purpose appears to fit into the 365 committee’s laudable concerns about our demographics, with too few young people able to find jobs or housing. Sadly, this amendment to our zoning byla...

Which holiday generates 11 percent more telephone traffic, is responsible for one quarter of all plant and flower sales and results in the sale of 152 million card sales? Hint: It’s right around the corner. The second Sunday in May is always Mother’s Day, so decreed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Variations of holidays celebrating moms have been going on for, well, forever. Early Egypt feted the goddess ...

Next Monday's town meeting in Chatham promises to be one of the lengthier sessions in recent years, with a 71-article annual warrant and a single-article special town meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 14. Quite a few of the measures promise to spark discussion, ranging from funding for a new senior center to land acquisition, proposals to ban plastic bottles and Styrofoam containers, and withdrawal of the town f...

A couple of weeks ago I posed a question to folks on my social media network: “What are the 20 most historically significant buildings and locations in the town of Harwich?” Harwich has an historical society, an historic district and historical commission, a handful of addresses listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and at least two facilities specifically dedicated to its history. It has over 70...

There’s a lot of misinformation about Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which will create more year-round housing by making it easier for homeowners to build and rent out in-law apartments. Let’s clear up a few things: Myth: This is a drastic change to zoning and our neighborhoods, adding density, and overcrowding homes. Reality: ADUs are already allowed under existing zoning and have been for hundreds of ye...