HARWICH — The town's newly approved housing production plan recommends hiring a part-time housing coordinator to assist with addressing housing needs. Housing Committee Chairman Arthur Bodin was before selectmen Monday night seeking support for the position. Bodin said his committee fully supports hiring a coordinator, pointing out no current town staff position addresses the housing issue. The need to hire...

As they do each spring, students at Harwich Elementary enjoyed a fun field day last week. Organized by physical education teacher Kate Serafini, the event included a variety of outdoor activities with lots of laughs. Click here for a gallery of photos

HARWICH — Selectmen on Monday night provided a new charge for the Station 2 Renovation/Rehabilitation Committee, which will enter the architectural/engineering design phase for the East Harwich fire station over the next several months. The committee was working with an ad hoc group of town staff in shaping the renovation/rehabilitation plans for the 40-year-old station near the intersection of Routes 137 and ...

HARWICH — The tax lien auction planned for this Tuesday was delayed while the town does more ownership research work and allows the real estate and open space committee to vet the 122 parcels proposed for auction. “It's a delay, not a postponement,” Treasurer/Tax Collector Amy Bullock said after meeting with Town Administrator Christopher Clark last Wednesday, the day after selectmen voted 3-2 to support a mot...

PLEASANT LAKE — Having learned marketable skills that leave them well prepared for the world of work, the military or college, 137 seniors turned their tassels at Cape Cod Tech's commencement ceremony Saturday. Class President Allie Woollacott remembered arriving at the school four years ago as frightened freshmen trying to remember how to use lockers for the first time. “Here we are, four years later, still...

EAST HARWICH — Selectmen last week gave their approval for a license agreement to a private resident seeking to expand and place a new surface on Seth Whitefield Road (Hawksnest Road). The road, which provides access to Hawksnest State Park, is presently a nine-foot dirt road, and the abutter is seeking to widen it to 18 feet. The planning board heard the pitch from resident Robert Fratus, who said he made imp...

EAST HARWICH — Biology students from Monomoy Regional High School got waist-deep in science last week during a cooperative research project held at Pleasant Bay Community Boating. The teens collected marine life from the bay and its shoreline, taking tiny samples for DNA testing. Part of the “Bioblitz” project organized by Northeastern University's Ocean Genome Legacy Center, the effort aims to preserve a ge...

HARWICH — Rain did not dampen the Memorial Day spirit as more than 150 people attended the ceremony, moved from Brooks Park to the community center on Monday morning. The trip to the community center was a worthy one, as Staff Sgt. Jeremy Armstrong, a 2003 graduate of Harwich High School, who served for seven years as a U.S. Army Cavalry Scout and is now a non-commissioned officer serving as an Infantry Squad ...

HARWICH — The Resilient Family Farm is under more town pressure to bring the commercial farming operation into compliance with town requirements. Building Commissioner Raymond Chesley has requested applications be filed with his department for “unpermitted” structures on the property. The property owner, Barry Dino Viprino, has contended he is operating a farm that has established agricultural exemptions at 35...

HARWICH — Treasurer/Tax Collector Amy Bullock said Wednesday that she is postponing a controversial auction of tax liens. In an email, Bullock said she was putting off the auction to a future date, "to allow more time for conservation and the Real Estate Open Space Committee to look into properties the town may have an interest in." Those possibilities were cited by several town officials Tuesday in urging ...

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...