Selectmen, Plan Board Oppose Zoning Change CHATHAM – Saturday's special town meeting promises to be a drama worthy of the Monomoy Theatre stage, as the new owners of the venerable property try to convince voters to change the zoning bylaw to allow its redevelopment. The players lined up this week as Greg Clark of Alexandra Properties, which purchased the 2.7-acre property at 776 Main St. and 70 Depot Rd. a ...

CHATHAM — The holidays might seem pretty distant, but the Chatham Children’s Fund is urging supporters to get in the giving spirit a bit early this year. Thanks to the pandemic and economic emergency, the nonprofit is expecting increased demand from clients seeking help with food, winter coats and holiday gifts. The group is launching its holiday project appeal early, since COVID-19 rules will complicate the o...

CHATHAM – The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hit Bob Staake like an emotional punch. “I just really lost it,” the Chatham artist said. Along with grieving the loss of the iconic jurist, “I anticipated what it meant, the vacuum it created. I knew it was going to be big,” he said. After taking a walk, he went straight to his studio outside his Main Street home and completed an illustration he knew would...

For restaurants operating under strict public health protocols during the pandemic, any small bit of good news is worth celebrating. While certainly not game-changing, the relaxation of certain rules that took effect Monday represented progress, said Peter Barnard, owner of the Impudent Oyster in Chatham. “It’s been helpful,” he said. “Everything helps.” Announced last week, the changes allow restaurants...

CHATHAM — It’s not exactly high praise, but given the pandemic and the economic disaster it spawned, the summer of 2020 could’ve been worse. The visitor economy was buoyed by day-trippers and longer-term visitors who came from places within driving range to the Lower Cape. One metric of activity in downtown Chatham is the use of the paid parking lot at the former Eldredge Garage property. Chatham Valet ran ...

Nearly two dozen students who are living in summer homes or staying with grandparents are attending classes in the Monomoy Regional School District this fall. But that increase in new students is more than offset by declines in enrollment, including the loss of 55 students whose families opted for home schooling rather than attending classes in-person or remotely. The district's total enrollment this fall drop...

CHATHAM – Two Chatham firefighters tested positive for COVID-19 following department-wide testing Monday. All members of the department were tested, along with employees of the harbormaster department and Monomoy Regional School district, after the daughter and mother-in-law of a firefighter tested positive ( see separate story ). It did not appear that the two firefighters who tested positive were not conn...

CHATHAM — A student at Monomoy Regional High School tested positive for COVID-19 last week, forcing an unknown number of students and staff to be placed in quarantine for two weeks and prompting a new round of coronavirus testing. Superintendent of Schools Scott Carpenter said school officials were notified of the positive test Friday night. The student does not appear to have contracted the virus at school, h...

CHATHAM — The health board is considering an emergency order requiring the town to publicize the names of restaurants where people have tested positive for COVID-19. Without violating the privacy of individuals who have been diagnosed with the illness, the board is seeking to inform the dining public when restaurants in town report COVID-19 cases. Restaurants are already required to notify the health departm...

CHATHAM — If you haven’t completed the U.S. Census yet, Selectmen Chairman Shareen Davis has 144 million reasons for you to do so. “It is important to fill out the census not for today but for the future,” she said. The town stands to lose $2,400 per resident who does not answer the census. In all, 6,000 year-round residents bring the town $14.4 million in federal funding annually, amounting to $144 million ...

CHATHAM – Seals have been a common sight in Aunt Lydia's Cove for years, popping their heads above the water and swimming about as they wait for a snack to tumble over the side of a fishing boat. But this summer it was different. Beginning in July, gray seals, sometimes numbering in the low hundreds, began hauling out on sand flats on the inside of Tern Island, opposite the fish pier. And instead of a few s...

CHATHAM – Form-based code, a method of zoning that, as the name suggestions, emphasizes form over use, may have gained some adherents Monday during a planning board forum on the West Chatham neighborhood center. Following the recommendations of the Cape Cod Commission, the planning board has been dabbling in form-based code as it considers zoning changes to the neighborhood center, the second of four along Rou...