CHATHAM — With sand choking the main inlet to Chatham Harbor across from the lighthouse, most of the commercial fishing fleet is now using the north inlet by Minister's Point to access the Atlantic. But the narrow channel there needs to be widened, and fishermen are hoping that state and federal dredging restrictions don’t leave them high and dry for the 2018 season. Except at peak high tide, the Chatham Bar...

A mass shooting on the Lower Cape is a possibility that is almost too painful to ponder, but one that’s impossible to ignore. To that end, local paramedics are teaching school nurses battlefield techniques for controlling severe bleeding, and they’re also sharing those skills with the public. Last Wednesday, Harwich and Chatham paramedics trained a group of nurses from the Monomoy Regional School District, as ...

HARWICH — Memorial Day weekend signals the start of the summer boating season. With work continuing on the new docks and buildings at Saquatucket Harbor, however, there may be some delays and inconvenience to boaters. Harbormaster John Rendon said this week the dock construction project is going well, but he added BTT Marine Construction Inc., the waterside project contractor, is continuing to work on the east...

HARWICH — Selectmen on Monday night paved the way for the sale of the Freedom Ferry when they voted to allow the transfer of the ferry slip at Saquatucket Harbor to the proposed new owner, Jack Sheeran of Chatham. Sheeran also received the approval to transfer the vessel's Class F permit. An opinion from town counsel Matthew G. Feher of KP Law stated the Harwich Harbor Management Plan makes “clear that any tra...

HARWICH — Ed McManus squeaked past a serious challenge from political newcomer Thomas Sherry in Tuesday's annual election, winning a seat on the board of selectmen by just 21 votes. Sherry, asked Tuesday night if he was considering a recount, said he was not sure and would have to mull it over. “Right now I just want to thank the people who worked so hard for me,” he said. McManus received 901 votes with...

HARWICH — The town and the First Congregational Church of Harwich are working through a memorandum of agreement regarding activities in the Harwich Center Cemetery related to litigation over the cemetery ownership. The dispute centered around a Memorial Garden established in the cemetery for the cremated remains of parishioners. The cemetery commission said there were historical unmarked graves in the same loc...

HARWICH – When a principal's phone rings in the early hours of the morning, it always gives a moment of pause. Fortunately for Monomoy Principal Bill Burkhead, a recent 7 a.m. call meant good news, even if it was something he had to keep mum about for a bit. Now the secret is out and being celebrated: Burkhead was named the Massachusetts Principal of the Year by the Secondary School Administrators' Association. ...

HARWICH PORT — In a unique partnership with the fledgling Cape Cod Toy Library, Lighthouse Charter School students have had a practical lesson in the power of play. As part of the library’s “Partners for Play” outreach program, the middle school students borrowed toys from the toy library and then visited the youngest students at the Partnership School in Orleans on two successive Fridays earlier this month....

HARWICH – The Monomoy boys varsity lacrosse team was celebrating Monday night not only their big Senior Night win against Sturgis West but an even bigger victory against the D-Y Dolphins that gave the team its first-ever spot in the playoffs. Fresh from their commanding Senior Night win against Sturgis West, the Monomoy Sharks played host to the D-Y Dolphins, seeking to avenge an earlier season loss, and boy d...

HARWICH – Late-game heroics led the Monomoy softball team to an exciting come-from-behind victory against Falmouth on Monday, with the Sharks defeating the Clippers 3-2 in seven innings. It was the battle of two similarly named pitchers as Monomoy's Mollie Charest duked it out against Falmouth's Molly Bruce, with Charest earning the W with 13 strikeouts and only three hits allowed. Falmouth took the lead in...

"The Miracle Worker," which opened on May 11 at the Chatham Drama Guild, is both interesting and insightful. Directed by Pam Banas, the play is set in Alabama during the 1880s and is based upon the true story of 8-year-old Helen Keller – blind, deaf, and mute since infancy – and her new teacher, Annie Sullivan. Thrown into tantrums, rage and violence as a result of her inability to communicate, Helen is in dang...

Frank, Charley and Mary have been friends for decades, friends through thick and thin, from poverty to fame and success. “Who’s like us? Damn few!” We first meet them in 1976, and it’s soon apparent there has been some kind of falling out between the three. How did they get here? In Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” this trio merrily and sometimes not so merrily go back in time stopping every few years u...

CHATHAM – Watching just the trailer for “I'll Push You,” a documentary that screens at the Chatham Orpheum Theater May 24, conveys the emotional depth of the experience Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray went through when they traveled the El Camino de Santiago in 2014. Filming the two friends' journey also changed the life of director Terry Parish. “When you're on the journey with them you are also a pilgrim of...

First, let’s state the obvious. The possibility of a school shooting on the Lower Cape, however remote, is terrifying. And it’s sickening that, in this age, we’re holding active shooter drills in our schools and training the nurses to apply tourniquets. But mass shootings happen, and ignoring that possibility is irresponsible. If you’re tempted to invoke the “it can’t happen here” perspective, know that you’re...

Club Helps Out Learning Program Editor: Once again, the Harwich Evening Women’s Club has come through for the families of the Monomoy Cooperative Learning Programs, a self-sustaining extended day program. Through their generous donation for the summer program, several families were able to receive financial assistance to attend the seven-week program. I would like to thank them on behalf of the families t...

Daffodils in the middle of May. But no tulips yet. I measure the march of spring by an immovable date on the calendar, specifically my birthday in the second week in May. The tulips should be up now. They are not. Sometimes they are passed. I cannot even find them. Meanwhile, daffodils are typically out around Easter. Whenever that is. They’re out then, in one fashion or another, in April. So now I am all s...