In 1974, the Chatham Conservation Foundation purchased Strong Island in Pleasant Bay for $700,000, saving 46 acres of upland and another 78 acres of marsh from development. A three-acre area was reserved for a house for the previous owner and his heirs, but otherwise the island remains open to the public. It is considered a jewel, and it's hard to imagine today what the bay would be like had the island been devel...

Middle School 'Empty Bowls, Full Hearts' Fundraiser May 1 On Wednesday, May 1, from 5 to 6:30 pm, Monomoy Regional Middle School will host its second annual “Empty Bowls, Full Hearts” fundraiser to raise money for and awareness of hunger issues on Cape Cod.  For many families, monthly income is used for fixed expenses, such as mortgage or rent payments, insurance, and utilities. What little additional i...

ORLEANS – The historical commission, in the midst of an effort to promote historical districts that could preserve the town's built heritage, faced another request to demolish a part of that heritage last week. The board imposed a one-year demolition delay on the 1810 Alice Collins Hanvey house at 21 Great Oak Rd. in East Orleans. Members did the same for the historic Kendrick-Sparrow House more than a year ago, ...

ORLEANS — The mystery buyer-backer helping the Friends of Pleasant Bay preserve Sipson Island isn't a stranger. Rich Nadler and his wife Cheryl have lived year-round in Orleans since 2010. He's visited Sipson as a member of the town's conservation commission. “We had hoped to remain anonymous,” he wrote to The Chronicle last week, “but with the evolving role of the town in funding the conservation restr...

                Alice Anne “Tootsie” (Marconi) Clack, 84 of Franklin, formerly of Chatham, Ann Arbor, Mich. and Windsor Locks, Conn., passed away peacefully on Monday April 1, 2019 with her daughter by her side at The Branches of North Attleboro after declining health.                  Born on March 3, 1935 in Hartford, Conn., Alice was daughter of the late Angelo Francis “Wuzzy” Marconi and Alice Louise (Bold...

CHATHAM – To mark Earth Day, Sustainable Practices will sponsor a free showing of the film “Paris to Pittsburgh” at the Chatham Orpheum Theatre. The film will screen at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 20. While tickets are free, they must be reserved at the theater box office. The Brewster-based Sustainable Practices is sponsoring town meeting articles in eight Cape towns to prohibit town agencies from purchasing a...

CHATHAM – The second Chatham 365 task force forum last Wednesday drew fewer people than the first session on April 6, but participants were no less vocal about the challenges they face in living here year round and offering an extensive menu of ideas to help ease the burden on both families and seniors. Housing, jobs, tax breaks and support services for young families were among the many topics discussed by th...

CHATHAM — The conservation commission has officially been served with a suit by a Minister’s Point property owner alleging that it wrongly permitted future dredging in an area that provides the only deep-water access to Chatham Harbor. The area in question, just inside the North Inlet, was approved for emergency dredging last year, but the dredging was not carried out because of deteriorating weather. Filed ...

CHATHAM – The demographic shifts that the Chatham 365 task force was established to address aren't just affecting young families. Local institutions are also being forced to make tough decisions as the makeup of the community shifts. When Edmund Robinson, minister at the Chatham Unitarian Universalist Meeting House for the past 11 years, retires on Jan. 1, he won't be replaced by a full-time minister. In fact,...

CHATHAM – Construction of a retaining wall along the sidewalk in front of the Eldredge Public Library won't require the removal of a large stately horse chestnut tree that overhangs Main Street. If the tree is healthy, that is. The initial plans to improve the front lawn of the historic library called for removal of the tree, which probably dates from the 1930s, called for removal of the tree, which was in ...

HARWICH —The owners of two dogs which the board of selectmen ordered to be euthanized have appealed the decision in Second District Court in Orleans. The dogs, both one-year old American Staffordshire terriers owned by Melissa Sullivan and her daughter, Mary Spurrier, of Wendy's Way, were determined to be “dangerous” based on testimony provided to Town Administrator Christopher Clark in a public hearing on Mar...

WEST HARWICH — If it was a joke, public safety officials aren’t laughing. On Monday afternoon, police and firefighters were called to the Herring River marsh near the North Road footbridge for a report of a man face-down in the water. Unable to reach him from the opposite bank of the river, firefighters launched a full response by the regional dive team, as well as their own rescue boat. They summoned anothe...

HARWICH — Massachusetts Department of Transportation has confirmed that the Harwich Elementary School application for a Safe Routes to School project has been approved and $685,000 has been set aside for the work. The application was filed by Principal Mary Oldach in January. In March the Mass DOT's office of Transportation planning notified the school district the project was advancing to the funding process....

HARWICH — Town Administrator Christopher Clark said this week he is withdrawing the assistant town administrator candidate he put forward last week to selectmen because he did not think he had the votes from the board to confirm the candidate. Clark put forward David D. Flaherty, a Harwich resident and acting town administrator in the town of Raynham, as his choice to fill the position vacated when former assi...

EAST HARWICH — After months of stalled talks, 31,000 union workers at Stop & Shop supermarkets, including the ones in East Harwich and Orleans, walked off the job last Thursday. The employees, represented by Local 328 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, stood by the roadside and at store entrances and held picket signs. As of late Tuesday, there were no signs that the labor dispute would be ...