HARWICH — Clearing the way for repairs to the leaky belfry, crews carefully removed the church bell from the First Congregational Church Monday afternoon to applause from a small group of spectators below. Having cut away one of the columns to create a sufficiently wide opening, crews gingerly removed the 182-year-old bell from the belfry of the Fir...

HARWICH — The good news is work at the intersection of Routes 137 and 39 is nearly finished. The bad news is that work will continue north on Route 137, necessitating several detours and closures over the coming weeks. Access to the commercial area in East Harwich has been difficult, to say the least, as the town works on installing sewer mains. On Monday officials gathered to work out a traffic control plan f...

HARWICH — The state, several local agencies and Cape Tech are working together to provide more technical training and employment opportunities for adults through a new school program aimed at providing training for under-employed and unemployed adults. On Friday a dozen adult Cape residents graduated from the newly established program after completing a seven-week HVAC training program run in conjunction with ...

HARWICH — Given the town meeting battle last year that nearly saw a rejection of the $69 million budget, town officials have sharpened their pencils, and Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers has presented selectmen with a proposed budget for FY21 that represents a 0.33 percent increase. The selectmen, finance committee and capital outlay committee met in a lengthy session on Saturday to go over the budget,...

HARWICH — Sara Chase lives on the south side of Route 28 in South Harwich, on the opposite side of Route 28 from the utility lines that run from pole to pole along the edge of the state highway. Chase assumed she would not have to worry about the beautiful English elm tree on the lawn in front of her home. Chase owns the Captain James M. Ellis House, built circa 1865, and she has cherished the English elm that...

NORTH HARWICH — Nearly a month after the brutal attack that almost took its life, Scottie, the seven-year-old Welsh pony, is on the mend. While the close-knit community of equestrians on Cape Cod is still trying to come to grips with the cruelty of the crime, things are beginning to get back to normal, stable owner Claire Bangert said this week. “Scottie is recovering,” she said. The horse is now at a veter...

HARWICH — Representatives of Ember Pizza in Harwich Port were before Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers last Thursday for a show cause hearing on three noise/entertainment license violations from last summer and fall. This is not the first time the establishment at the corner of Route 28 and Bank Street has faced noise complaints that have been verified by the police department. Ember was before a hearin...

HARWICH — When they start the new school year this fall, Monomoy Regional High School students will be greeted by a dog who’s looking for love, attention, and the scent of marijuana or nicotine. Harwich Police Officer Tom Clarke, the Monomoy High school resource officer, proposed the idea as a means of supporting the school’s ongoing fight against vaping. The dog will be trained to detect marijuana and its a...

YARMOUTH — The cooperation and willingness to move forward with the Dennis, Harwich, Yarmouth Clean Water Community Partnership among selectmen from three towns was evident in a forum last Thursday, as officials put the finishing touches on the operating agreement for upcoming annual town meeting votes. The plan is to put the finishing touches on the three-town agreement this month and for each of the towns to...

HARWICH — From forging a new wastewater partnership and purchasing fire apparatus to declaring a climate emergency, voters will be asked to consider a varied 56-article warrant at the May 4 annual town meeting. Selectmen received the draft warrant last week and will review it and make recommendations on the articles before closing and signing the warrant on March 23. In financial articles, voters will be as...

HARWICH — From its perch high over Harwich Center, it's seen 182 years of comings and goings, pleasant summer days and hurricanes, parades and funeral processions. And for most of those years, the bell atop the First Congregational Church tolled on every sabbath, and for special occasions like the fall of Richmond during the Civil War. The First Con...

HARWICH — Potentially as soon as this summer, state transportation officials will begin renumbering highway exits on Route 6 and most other numbered highways in Massachusetts. MassDOT briefed the public on the plan at a session in Hyannis this week, and said the new exit numbers will be friendlier for drivers and will help emergency responders. Under the system, existing sequential numbers will be replaced by ...