Troubled By Shellfish Proposal Editor: This letter was sent to Dan McKiernan of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and copied to David E. Pierce and Gov. Charles D. Baker. As a concerned resident of Chatham, I attended your hearing regarding “In-State Sale of Undersized Aquaculture Reared Shellfish” and found the meeting very troubling. For generations, Chatham shellfishermen have been pro...

Now comes the great and long-awaited leveling. Not without fits and starts and shorts and coughs. But it comes as inevitably as the rising of the sun, as undeniable at the spinning of the Earth. Balance. The day after Independence Day, we awoke to the news that an orca was sighted a dozen or so miles off Chatham. Captain Bruce Peters of Capeshores Charters and customers were shocked to see the looming dorsal o...

Months after our recent move, I am still unpacking bins and boxes. I thought I had adequately weeded out unnecessary doodads and nonsense a year ago and seem to have survived quite well without any of the still-packed baggage we continue to haul down from the attic and up from the basement. Once in a while an old workhorse appears, like the crock pot or blender, which inspires me to concoct a savory stew or healt...

Harbor Run/Walk Tradition Returns Editor: The Chatham Harbor Walk/Run resumed on Sunday, June 26 after a two-year absence, with the help of its three main sponsors, Sealaw.org, The Chatham Squire and The Cape Cod Chronicle. The race opened back with over 200 runners and 70 walkers, a small but quality field. The winner, on vacation from Montana, blistered the course in 33:42. The top 10 runners included two O...

Chatham is already engaged in a skirmish with the federal government that basically comes down to retaining local control over fishing, and more importantly shellfishing, in local waters. Now the state, which is partnering with the town in the fight with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over jurisdiction over the waters and flats west of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, is proposing to change state-wide re...

A couple of times in the last week, there's been an unfamiliar sight outdoors: water droplets falling from the sky. Other than reducing the pollen clouds and temporarily rejuvenating plants and grass, the showers had no effect on the dry spell that's left Cape Cod parched. Don't be fooled into thinking that the pressure's off when it comes to conserving water. On June 15, Chatham put in place a series of vo...

I grew up spending all summer on a Long Island Sound shore in Connecticut. My family rented a cottage situated on a curved stretch of land some two miles long once owned by a person who in the early 20th century sub-divided it to allow for its development with single and groups of summer residences. Because the land was traversed by a shore road, with some properties on the south – beach – side and others on the ...

Sewer Measure Ignores Water Use Editor: With all due respect, my previous letter regarding water and sewer management was not a call for education but rather for expertise.  The voluntary water restriction should have been instituted as the increase in water usage was occurring over the course of 2015, allowing for an assessment of the situation perhaps before the water delivery system reached its maximu...

Much was made of the incident at the Chatham Airport Commission meeting two weeks ago when Chairman Peter Donovan stopped the video taping of the session while police were called to restore order at the annex meeting room. Those two actions – stopping the taping and calling the police – were noteworthy in that no one could recall either happening before. They also raise the question of whether the actions were ju...

It's All In The Details Editor: Riding around the roads off Queen Anne Road in East Harwich presents many questions and certainly tests the safety of drivers! Detours abound with seemingly no reason as to where barriers are placed and inexcusable lines of traffic abound with no officer details to exercise safety and caution. When experiencing one of these numerous delays I called the Harwich Police dispatc...

It's ironic that the United Kingdom's vote to exit the European Union came just a few weeks before the Independence Day celebration of one of its former colonies. Independence from the EU bureaucracy in Brussels was one of the key points of those backing the withdrawal. From that point of view, it's hard to argue; haven't we, after all, prided our nation on its independence right from the start? Far be it from...

Chatham officials are certain that filing legislation is the best way to resolve the dispute with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the western boundary of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Last week, Rep. William Keating assured Town Manager Jill Goldsmith and Selectman Seth Taylor that he would submit a bill to set the boundary at low water within a few weeks, before legislators recess for the summer....