HARWICH — Thanks to hedges and other landscaping, as well as a slight bend in Route 28, entering traffic from Freeman Street or Snow Inn Road in Harwich Port can be a white-knuckle experience. The traffic safety committee has asked the selectmen to make changes to improve visibility at the intersection. Traffic Safety Committee Chair Gerald Beltis said the crossroad has been the site of 13 accidents in r...

HARWICH — Health Director Meggan Eldredge will be making a transition to assistant town administrator, but she will remain as the interim health director until the town fills that position. Town Administrator Joseph Powers Monday announced the appointment of Eldredge as assistant town administrator. “I’ve been eagerly awaiting this moment,” Powers told selectmen. Selectmen confirmed the appointment on a 4-0...

HARWICH — Town Administrator Joseph Powers presented selectmen with a balanced FY 22 budget Monday night. The $71,165,144 budget is up 3.3 percent, with funding sources covering the proposed increase. The draft budget has had some paring down since a few weeks ago when Powers unveiled a preliminary version, which had a more than a $1 million deficit between revenue sources and funding requests. The capital pla...

HARWICH — If the smiles behind the COVID-19 masks of the employees at Star Market and Shaw’s on Cape Cod are even more difficult to discern these days, it may be because they have just taken a hit in their weekly pay check. Comments about the pay reductions could be overheard in the aisles and at the cash registers of the Star Market in Harwich Port over the past couple of weeks. The move struck some patrons a...

HARWICH — The town received good news from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s project review committee meeting last week: approval of the proposed sidewalk project from Saquatucket Harbor to Harwich Port. Cape Cod Commission transportation program manager Steven Tupper informed town officials of the approval of the project, which will require waivers from MassDOT’s Complete Streets Program. Th...

HARWICH — Selectmen are weighing the use of the former fire station property on Bank Street for a four-bedroom home for disabled individuals. Jeff Locantore, who has cerebral palsy and two different types of seizure disorders, made a presentation to the board last week on the reuse of the property. Locantore, 35, said he and Jonathon O’Callaghan, 36, who has cognitive and physical disabilities, are working to ...

HARWICH — A second candidate has taken out nomination papers for the one seat on the board of selectmen on this year's town election ballot. Mary Anderson, who served as the executive director of The Family Pantry of Cape Cod for 11 years, threw her hat in the ring on Tuesday. Anderson joins Thomas Sherry, who took out nomination papers for the seat more than a week ago. Incumbent Ed McManus said on Tuesday he...

HARWICH — The community preservation committee voted last week to recommend that voters support two major funding projects for historic preservation and open space at the annual town meeting in May. The committee is endorsing funding for the Brooks Academy foundation and basement addition project and funds to assist the Harwich Conservation Trust with the purchase of the 31-acre Jenkins bogs property. The C...

HARWICH — Town Administrator Joseph Powers has entered into a new contract agreement with the board of selectmen that extends his tenure for more than three years. Powers has been serving as interim town administrator for a little more than a year. Last August, after interviewing four finalists for the town administrator’s position, selectmen were unable to obtain the super-majority vote required by the town c...

HARWICH – Educators at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School are eagerly exploring ways to use a recent gift of photographs, many depicting iconic moments from the civil rights movement. In one photo, the leaders and organizers of the August 1963 March on Washington sit at the feet of the sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in his memorial; in another Marlon Brando stands with his arm slung over James Baldwin’s shou...

HARWICH — Allen Harbor Marine Service is seeking permits to locate a 4,000-square-foot marine repair and maintenance facility on the lot just east of Villa Roma restaurant on Route 28 in West Harwich. The board of appeals approved a variance for the building in December. Owner Craig LeBlanc of Cool Change, LLC was before the planning board last week seeking a site plan review special permit and use special per...

HARWICH — The pandemic has hit the performing arts hard. With the ability to put on shows and classes now limited, the Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre revenues were down by $475,000 last year. “We have to re-invent ourselves,” said Rob Zapple, a member of the theater's board of directors and a longtime guest director. It became clear alternative space was needed to accomplish that goal, he said...