Margaret Atkins Sommer              Margaret Atkins Sommer (formerly from Harrington Park, N.J.) passed away on Monday, January 8, 2018 at Liberty Commons, North Chatham. It was four days following her 88th birthday.               Margaret was born in Oklahoma City, Okla., and lived in Oklahoma and Peoria, Illinois during her formative years.  After high school ...

Allen E. Swanson             South Harwich - Allen E. Swanson, 88, of South Harwich, passed away peacefully at home on January 21, 2018. Allen leaves behind his wife of 62 years, Carolyn (Holmes) and three children, Kathryn Hurd of South Harwich, Eric and Charles Swanson of West Barnstable, three grandchildren, Christian Littlefield, Nicole and Sarah Swanson, three great grandchildren, Ethan, Audrey, and Caris...

Jane McCarter Nickerson West               Jane McCarter Nickerson West, 94, died peacefully on Monday, January 22 at Cape Cod Hospital after a brief illness. She is preceded in death by her husband John Hughes Nickerson in 1978 and by her second husband James C. West in 2006.                Jane was born in 1924 in Memphis, Tennessee to Robert and Grace McCarter. She spent her early life across the r...

ORLEANS — Keeping things safe on Beach Road, the town's scenic route through East Orleans to Nauset Beach, means different things to different people. If you cycle or walk along the winding road, it might mean adding bike lanes or sidewalks. If you live along the road, it might mean defending your landscaping and the overall scenic charm. The bike and pedestrian committee asked selectmen last week to supp...

ORLEANS — The fiscal year that begins July 1 will see a projected 3.8 percent increase in the non-school operating budget to $20,197,000, just within the 4 percent cap imposed by selectmen this year. Adding projected school costs (at 4 percent for now as final numbers for the Orleans Elementary, Nauset Regional, and Cape Tech budgets are not available) and debt service brings the proposed spending plan to $37,1...

CHATHAM – “Hooked on Chatham” will be the theme for this year's Fourth of July parade. The theme represents the idea that people who live or visit become “hooked” on the town's many aspects other than the obvious fishing, such as the beaches, boating, shopping and history, Independence Day parade committee chairman Justin Bohannon told the selectmen Monday. It was submitted by Connecticut resident and regular ...

CHATHAM -- Three crews will continue sewer work for the upcoming week. The first crew will be working on the Cornfield, while the second crew will work on Oyster Pond Lane installing a low pressure sewer main line. A third crew will begin installing drainage on Inlet Road. Beginning Jan. 29, the first crew is expected to complete work on the Cornfield and move to Village Landing; the second crew will comple...

CHATHAM — Thanks to a strong property tax base, a recovering economy and the town manager’s tight purse strings, selectmen Tuesday heard some good news about the draft FY19 town budget. Town Manager Jill Goldsmith is proposing an operating budget of $30,427,418, an increase of 0.57% over the current year’s spending plan. The draft budget not only stays within the constraints of Proposition 2½, but leaves alm...

CHATHAM — The name “Old Colony Rail Trail” is a nice tribute to the railroad that once serviced Harwich and Chatham, but it doesn’t communicate some key information: where the trail goes. “I see bikers between Thompson’s Field and [Route] 137 looking at maps and trying to figure out where they are,” Harwich bikeways committee member Shanna Nealy said. Nealy and her group met last week in a rare joint session...

CHATHAM – After months of negotiations between developer Eastward Companies and neighbors along Ocean Port Lane, the planning board last week approved a 13-lot subdivision off Barn Hill Road. The seven-acre Hunter's Rise development is one of the largest new residential subdivisions in town in recent years. The board approval came after Eastward Companies agreed to a 20-foot buffer strip along the subdivision'...

CHATHAM – The recent cold weather, coupled with seasonal habitat restrictions, will delay dredging near Fox Hill and Pleasant Bay. Planned dredging of the entrance to Mill Creek in the spring should still be on schedule, said Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. The Barnstable County dredge Codfish was due to clear shoals from the channel between Pleasant Bay and Ryder's Cove, off Fox Hill, a few weeks ago,...

CHATHAM – For 27 years the Cape Cod Commission has been evaluating the economic and ecological health of the Cape. On Jan. 14, Paul Niedzwiecki, executive director of the commission, delivered a lecture at the community center about the ways that climate change is likely to affect the economic and ecological health on Cape Cod and what the commission is doing to protect it. The lecture, titled “The Price Tag: Eco...

CHATHAM – The historical commission has decided to end its effort to declare Stage Harbor Road a National Historic Register District after an overwhelming majority of property owners in the neighborhood said they opposed the nomination. “There's no question of the historical significance of the street,” commission chairman Frank Messina said Tuesday, but without the support of a majority of the people who own ...

CHATHAM — Citizens still have more than a month to sound out on the future of the former Eldredge Garage property, but so far, public parking and rest rooms seem to be the most popular suggestions for the town-owned parcel. Last Thursday, more than a dozen neighborhood residents and other citizens shared their visions for the property with the Eldredge Garage property planning committee. The group will conti...

HARWICH — The finance committee has approved recommendations by its subcommittee studying stipends for elected town officials, include increasing the stipend for selectmen from $1,500 to $2,400 annually. The final decision will rest with voters in the annual town meeting this spring, finance committee member Dana DeCosta, chairman of the subcommittee, said this week. It would be the first increase in the stipe...