Dissenting View Says Court Should Decide Issue CHATHAM – The House Committee on Natural Resources has issued its report on legislation setting the boundary of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge at the low tide mark, paving the way for the full House to vote on the bill. The report, dated Feb. 2, also includes a dissenting view by three members of the committee who say that a final decision on the boundary...

Town, Citizens Group Commit To Working Together To Address Crisis CHATHAM – Most weekday mornings, traffic traveling east on Route 6 comes to a standstill in Dennis, where the highway narrows into a single lane. Many of the vehicles are heading here, where the occupants work but can't afford to live. “We're becoming a bedroom town,” said Selectman Shareen Davis. The lack of affordable housing here is not...

HARWICH — There is a fairy name Finley who hangs out in the community center, and she has 11 additional friends who will be coming to town and taking up residence in other town buildings across the community. With school vacation approaching, the folks at the community center are hoping people in town, especially kids, will help seek out the fairies to mark the center's 18 th birthday, director Carolyn Carey ...

HARWICH — Selectmen will be putting two articles on the warrant this spring related to the Pleasant Bay Resource Management Plan, including the establishment of an intermunicipal agreement for a regional watershed permit with the towns of Chatham, Orleans and Brewster. Pleasant Bay Alliance coordinator Carole Ridley has been before selectmen a couple of times in the past few weeks defining the steps the town m...

HARWICH — In a 3-2 vote, selectmen approved a change in the Monomoy Regional School District agreement designed to streamline the decision-making process on grade configuration of the two elementary schools. Opposition to the proposal centered on concerns that the voice of residents was being removed from the process. “This language is negating the process of public involvement and putting it in the hands o...

HARWICH — Whether it’s a quick sandwich or a sit-down meal, the renovated Saquatucket Harbor waterfront will likely offer visitors some kind of dining option. In a prolonged discussion at Monday’s board of selectmen’s meeting, the debate continued about whether a snack shack should be included in the plans, or a 60-to-100-seat restaurant, or whether voters should be given the chance to opt out of either choi...

HARWICH ─ Marcus De La Vega comes from a town with a rich history of wrestling. Indeed, Port Jervis, N.Y. was the home of Olympic gold medalists Lou and Ed Banach. Now, De La Vega is bringing the sport to Monomoy Regional High School, currently through a club that he hopes will evolve into a full-fledged varsity program. “It's something I've always been involved in,” said De La Vega, a physical education tea...

DENNIS ─ It's been a season of struggle for the Cape Cod Furies, and their Jan. 31 game against the D-Y Dolphins was no different, with the Cape Tech/Nauset/Monomoy team coming away with a 4-0 loss. “I feel really disappointed,” said head coach Addie Weeks. “We had a strong game plan going in, and I think, to be totally honest, there was a lack of trust in it.” The home team Dolphins put the first goal pa...

I didn't watch the Super Bowl. Neither did I watch the World Series last summer. In fact, I don't actually watch a lot of professional sports, and it's not just because I don't have cable. It's mainly because I simply don't care. I know. Cue the shocked faces. A sportswriter who doesn't watch sports? Is that possible? Acceptable? Although I owe no one an explanation, I'm offering it nonetheless since I know I'm n...

Wilderness Sarchild, who will turn 70 in a few days, has found her own way of coping with aging: Embarking on a new career as a poet and a playwright. Her book “Old Women Talking” (Passager Books, 2017) begins with the words of an anonymous poet who writes that she doesn’t want people to think of her as “a sweet old lady.” Rather, she wants them to think “What’s she up to now?” The same can be said for Sarchil...

Locals Name Area's Most Romantic Spots   As red roses and hearts proliferate in store windows to celebrate Valentine’s Day, we asked a few residents and summer visitors to name some romantic spots in our towns. For a pair of Chatham’s long-time summer visitors from Mt. Vernon, N.Y., the fireplace area at Where the Sidewalk Ends Books holds romance. It was there last September that Michael Tener proposed ...

As soon as Rosie comes through the door, this Ethel Merman wanna-be will capture your heart. Rosie is all heart and more, and she wants to share her joie de vivre with the world. Maurice Sendak’s “Really Rosie” brings us back a world when children played and acted out stories before little screens tore them away. And what a great way to welcome in 2018 for the “little theater that could,” Nina Schuessler, produci...

Word that Harwich will receive a $1 million Massachusetts Seaport Economic Council grant for the landside portion of the Saquatucket Harbor upgrade opens up the potential for adding back into the project elements that were taken out when bids came in over the $3 million appropriation. Officials have begun to talk about the most significant of the deleted items, a town-constructed restaurant or snack shack. Las...

On To More Serious Subjects Editor: I am delighted to hear that skydiving is likely to resume over the well-litigated skies of Chatham this summer! Now the killjoys amongst us can turn their spurious wrath toward some other bugaboo, such as lawn mower noise. John Kraus Chatham   Here's To Winter Storms Editor: John Whelan's "Chatham on Foot" column continues to amaze with his photographic memory ...

The doldrums of February (most misspelled month of the year) are upon us. A cold, grey dampness permeates our mood. The uninspiring weather is punctuated only by the occasional bombogenesis which inevitably leaves us pondering 18 inches of a disturbing white powder that saps us of energy and breaks the strongest snow shovels available. Yes, we made it through the holidays intact, but now we’re broke. By now we’...

Donald C. Nesmith                                                                                                     Donald C. Nesmith, formerly of Harwich, died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at Liberty Commons in Chatham.  He was 93.  Mr. Nesmith was born and grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts and graduated from Brockton High School in 1942.  He atten...