CHATHAM — Though they previously voted to pursue a new traffic light scheme for the intersection of Crowell Road, Route 28 and Queen Anne Road, selectmen last week decided to allow public comment on other ideas, including a roundabout. The board voted on Aug. 15 to support traffic lights as the best approach to improving safety and traffic flow at the crossroads, but at a public meeting on Oct. 16, planners pr...

CHATHAM — By joint vote of the board of selectmen and the town's representatives to the Monomoy Regional School Committee, Jo-anne Sheehan was chosen Tuesday to fill a vacancy on the school board. The appointment is valid through May, when voters will choose a candidate to serve until May 2019. Sheehan, a West Chatham resident, retired in 2013 after a lengthy teaching career. Holding an undergraduate history...

CHATHAM – It isn't so much the view of the tower – which looks like a small missile or a very large model rocket – that bothers Tish Crowell. It's the possibility that her backyard could flood because a drainage swale was partially filled to accommodate the structure. “I can see it just going to come right here,” she said of stormwater runoff, looking at the yard of the Crowell Road home she shares with her hu...

CHATHAM – A recent Barnstable Superior Court decision narrows the scope of a lawsuit filed by Cape Cod Skydiving against the town, but allows the action to proceed on several counts, including breach of contract and civil rights violations. After an Oct. 5 hearing, Judge Cornelius Moriarty denied the town's motion to dismiss the $100,000 lawsuit filed by Skydive Cape Cod against the town in January but limited...

CHATHAM – The white shark swimming just off the shore of Nauset Beach was angry, but not at the 24-foot boat nearby. That wasn't the problem. The problem was an annoying bluefish that wouldn't stop harassing the shark. While the shark was peeved, those on board the Aleutian Dream marveled at the scene, including longtime shark researcher Greg Skomal. “It never gets old,” he said with a grin.     The...

CHATHAM – Stone Dow has just completed his sixth short-form video as the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance's newly hired artist in residence. “We're trying to turn out one a week,” he said during an interview in the Alliance's West Chatham headquarters, where he'll be assembling the videos as well as helping to manage and organize the organization's extensive media archive. Dow, 33, a 2002 graduate o...

CHATHAM – In the coming weeks, selectmen will face a number of policy decisions that will impact the shape of next year's annual budget. As presented by Town Manager Jill Goldsmith and Finance Director Alix Heilala at last Tuesday's annual budget summit, important policy decisions include capital spending levels; service expansion or reduction; revenue expansion; use of funds from the sewer intermunicipal agre...

CHATHAM — As conflicts between people of color and police dominate the news, Chatham Chief of Police Mark Pawlina stated that he wants “to get out in front of” the issues. “Let’s look at ourselves as police and as a community. How are we doing? What can we do better?” Pawlina said at a community policing and race relations forum hosted by Reverend Brian McGurk and St. Christopher’s Church Oct. 18. He assured t...

CHATHAM – About a century ago, Chatham’s town historian William Smith wrote, “No more graceful act could be performed by the grateful descendants of the Pilgrims than to erect… at Chatham a simple monument to this unhonored, but most deserving, friend and protector of their forefathers.” Smith was referring to Squanto (also known as Tisquantum), perhaps the most famous Native American to greet the Pilgrims. Sq...

CHATHAM – Selectmen Tuesday named seven residents to the committee charged with examining possible uses for the Eldredge Garage property, recently purchased by the town for $2.5 million. Named to the Eldredge Garage property planning committee were Sandy Wycoff, owners of the Chatham Clothing Bar; Scott Hamilton of Chatham Jewelers; former Independence Day parade committee chairman Brad Schiff; resident John K...

CHATHAM – At a public information meeting Monday evening on the Crowell Road Intersection Improvement Project, local residents critiqued the plan that selectman blessed in August for improving the intersection of Crowell Road and Route 28. While residents generally agree that the intersection is antiquated and dangerous, several of the roughly 40 people at the meeting at the town hall annex said they favored a...

CHATHAM – Hoping to impress upon federal officials the need for a permanent solution to the dispute over the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge's western boundary, town officials traveled to Washington, D.C. Monday and met U.S. Department of the Interior officials. Selectman Shareen Davis, Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson and Town Manager Jill Goldsmith also met with staff from the House Natural Resou...