As Chatham celebrates its heritage with History Weekend this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it's worth noting that while institutions in town have done a great job of preserving our past, doing so remains a challenge, and may even become more difficult in the coming years. This is demonstrated in two stories in this week's paper. An historic, nearly 160-year-old home at a scenic bend in Champlain Road, ov...

The story of life on the Lower Cape is, and always has been, about water. Years ago, our waterways sustained generations of fishermen, whalers, merchant seamen and others, and they still fuel the economy today. People come to the Cape to be near the water, and that drives the visitor industry and the real estate market. The surge of residential development that began in the 1960s and continues today is undercu...

Harwich Faces Serious Traffic Problems Editor: As a Harwich resident using Route 124, Route 39 and Oak Street, I am reminded daily of two intersections that need to be monitored and supervised. Oak Street is heavily traveled through out the year. The volume and speed of traffic turning onto and off of Oak at Route 39 pose problems in terms of traffic flow and, more importantly, safety. Consider that this...

It really is almost summer. As much as we relish its positive virtues, we dread the perils: endless streams of traffic and never-ending supermarket register lines. Live here for a few years, you learn how to cope; right turns only, and shop early morning or late at night. We’ve traded constant winter road construction for seemingly suicidal clusters of colorfully clad cyclists. But there is one road hazard...

Can You Hear Me Now? Editor: I usually don’t get involved with too many ongoings here in our little town. But it might be time I threw one of my two cents in concerning the roadwork in front of my store. I see that new telephone poles have been placed strategically. But has anyone informed the telephone pole company that “wireless” has been invented? I’m no interior designer, but those poles would look ...

It's hard to square the dismal ratings two members of the Harwich Board of Selectmen, Michael MacAskill and Donald Howell, gave to Town Administrator Christopher Clark in his recent annual review with the picture of the town's administration painted by the analysis of the town's credit rating released this week by bond rating agency S&P Global. MacAskill gave Clark a rating of 42.5, and Howell had an even ...

Residents clearly want town officials to scale back spending. The signs were not-so-subtly telegraphed at recent town meetings, and officials would do well to heed those warnings. Harwich began the trend by rejecting $4.5 million for reconstruction of Lower County Road, defeating funds for the controversial pet cemetery and coming within 34 votes of turning down the $39.6 million operating budget—unprecedented...

The Once And Future Volunteer Editor: Chatham has always been blessed with a wealth of people who are willing to step into a vacuum of need and offer assistance.  The recent honors bestowed on Juliet Bernstein are well-deserved and bespeak a life, not just long-lived, but well-lived also.  The passing last week of Pat Cass extinguishes a charitable light that helped illuminate Chatham’s tradition of giving ...

Impact Of Road Rejection Editor: What are the voters of Harwich thinking? Whose road is next to be voted down? When you don’t repair your infrastructure your values go down. Harwich has a quality reputation. Where is it going to go? Bob and Sue Kraus Harwich Wrong To Ignore Voters Editor: I would like to add my opinion to Joan McCarty's letter in the April 25 edition of The Chronicle, "Take Back The...

“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string I haven’t seen a crocus or a rosebud But it might as well be spring.” Rodgers and Hammerstein May snuck up on us this year. Perhaps it was the cold rainy weather or maybe that so much has happened in Chatham that we just did not pay attention to the calendar. But June and the summer are just ahead, and it is time now to pay att...

In Harwich: Ford And MacAskill When voters go to the polls on Tuesday they will be asked to fill two seats on the board of selectmen. One of those seats is presently held by incumbent Michael MacAskill, who has served for four years. The other two candidates are Thomas Sherry and Stephen Ford. Sherry is familiar to many of the voters in town, having run for the board a year ago and lost by 21 votes to Selectma...

A Vote For The Schools Editor: Harwich voters: Please take the time to cast your vote for school committee candidate Merideth Holden Henderson on Tuesday, May 21. This is a critical time for our town and our Monomoy School District. Our public school systems face so many challenges: balancing state mandates, the individual needs of all students, providing fair and attractive contracts to faculty and staff, ...