EAST HARWICH — Selectmen last week gave their approval for a license agreement to a private resident seeking to expand and place a new surface on Seth Whitefield Road (Hawksnest Road). The road, which provides access to Hawksnest State Park, is presently a nine-foot dirt road, and the abutter is seeking to widen it to 18 feet. The planning board heard the pitch from resident Robert Fratus, who said he made imp...

EAST HARWICH — Biology students from Monomoy Regional High School got waist-deep in science last week during a cooperative research project held at Pleasant Bay Community Boating. The teens collected marine life from the bay and its shoreline, taking tiny samples for DNA testing. Part of the “Bioblitz” project organized by Northeastern University's Ocean Genome Legacy Center, the effort aims to preserve a ge...

HARWICH — Rain did not dampen the Memorial Day spirit as more than 150 people attended the ceremony, moved from Brooks Park to the community center on Monday morning. The trip to the community center was a worthy one, as Staff Sgt. Jeremy Armstrong, a 2003 graduate of Harwich High School, who served for seven years as a U.S. Army Cavalry Scout and is now a non-commissioned officer serving as an Infantry Squad ...

HARWICH — The Resilient Family Farm is under more town pressure to bring the commercial farming operation into compliance with town requirements. Building Commissioner Raymond Chesley has requested applications be filed with his department for “unpermitted” structures on the property. The property owner, Barry Dino Viprino, has contended he is operating a farm that has established agricultural exemptions at 35...

HARWICH — Treasurer/Tax Collector Amy Bullock said Wednesday that she is postponing a controversial auction of tax liens. In an email, Bullock said she was putting off the auction to a future date, "to allow more time for conservation and the Real Estate Open Space Committee to look into properties the town may have an interest in." Those possibilities were cited by several town officials Tuesday in urging ...

HARWICH — Helen Davis attended fifth and sixth grades in the former Harwich Middle School. Now an artist, she is renting one of her former classrooms as studio space. “This place has such a huge ability to be a great arts center,” Davis said. “It brings artists together and artists need artists.” The former Harwich Middle School is quickly emerging as a cultural center providing space, opportunity, camarade...

HARWICH ─ When asked what local chef Neville Coomber's most delicious dish was, his family's answer came in unison: his clam chowder. Now, although they have his carefully protected recipe, including his own secret ingredients, chowder in the future will taste a little different since one key ingredient is missing. Coomber, 47, died suddenly April 8, leaving his family stunned but comforted by countless memo...

HARWICH — Town Clerk Anita Doucette has been the keeper of the town's records for a quarter of a century. She is the second longest active town clerk on the Cape and she enjoys serving residents of the community. “I really appreciate the people in the town for allowing me to serve as town clerk. It has meant a lot to me,” Doucette said. “I love my job. I love what I do, knowing the history of Harwich and watch...

“Year by the Sea,” the long-anticipated film of Harwich resident Joan Anderson’s bestselling memoir, will open at the Chatham Orpheum Theater this Friday, May 26, with meet-and-greet reception, book signing and a Q&A with the author after the film. “I smile a lot,” Anderson said during a telephone interview last week. “It all came together beautifully in the end.” The film, shot in just 22 days in Chath...

SOUTH HARWICH — With Outer Cape Health Services giving up plans for use of the former Stone Horse Motel property as a medical center, new plans are being circulated to use the site for temporary and workforce housing. OCHS continues to own the 2.61 acre property along Route 28, but the health services provider has made a commitment to utilize the former BackOffice building that once housed Thompson's Farm Mark...

HARWICH — The conservation commission has been struggling for several months with ownership and land use issues with the Brewster-based Eldredge Farm. Last week, farm owner Jeff Eldredge received a little more support from the commission. The main issue in the use of the 4.9 acres on the Harwich side of the town boundary, ownership of the land, has yet to be settled. The town's assessing department does not re...

HARWICH — The town is seeking to make its dredge and beach nourishment permitting process a little easier by establishing a comprehensive permit that will cover activities along Nantucket Sound and in Round Cove in Pleasant Bay. Harbormaster John Rendon and Russell Titmuss of GEI Consultants, Inc. were before the conservation commission last week seeking support for the combined permit. Rendon said there alrea...