The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has been difficult for everyone, but for those who rely on The Family Pantry for access to nourishing food for themselves and their families, things have been especially hard. Job loss, housing insecurity and juggling bringing home a paycheck with helping school-age children to navigate virtual classrooms have made a tough time even tougher. Now, with diagnosed cases of the virus ac...

HARWICH — Town officials are weighing the cost and impact of the FY22 capital plan, which contains approximately $20 million in requests and is driven by wastewater projects for which decisions have yet to be fully vetted. The capital plan had been carrying $8.4 million in wastewater funding FY22, representing the projected cost of a third contract for sewer construction to complete the system installation in ...

Hot Job Market For Dental And Veterinary Assistants PLEASANT LAKE — Whether it’s because of the pandemic or just because of the Cape’s unique economy, some people are looking to hit the reset button on their careers, moving from one type of job to an entirely different line of work. T he Community School at Cape Cod Tech is helping to meet that need, offering adult education training in a vari...

HARWICH – The Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) recently opened the walking trails at the Pleasant Bay Woodlands, nearly 50 rolling acres in East Harwich. For many years, HCT had been watching this top priority property, which in 2013 was the largest undeveloped tract in the entire 21,000-acre Pleasant Bay Watershed shared by Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, and Brewster. HCT led the $3.6 million effort to save ...

HARWICH — The Harwich Fund has provided a $4,300 grant to the Harwich Children’s Fund and a $535 grant to The Children’s Center. The focus of The Harwich Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation is to help non-profit agencies which serve youth, families and seniors in the Harwich community, because so many people and businesses have been adversely impacted by the pandemic, said Brian Scheld, chair of the fund’s advisor...

It takes a village to raise a child, as the saying goes. But what does it take to feed a village? Or to feed those in need in all the villages of Cape Cod, for that matter? It takes another kind of village, as it turns out – one filled with volunteers. Dozens and dozens of volunteers give their time, energy, ideas, talent and good old fashioned hard work every week to help the Family Pantry do its important wo...

A recent uptick of coronavirus cases throughout Massachusetts and specifically on Cape Cod has led local public libraries to cut back on services for the foreseeable future. Brooks Free Library in Harwich, Eldredge Public Library in Chatham and Snow Library in Orleans all recently decided to halt in-person browsing and begin offering only curbside services. “It was in the interest of community safety, both for...

HARWICH — The board of health is putting the finishing touches on a fertilizer and nutrient control regulation and will hold a public hearing in January before implementing the measure. The town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan calls for fertilizer and nutrient control regulations a way of reducing the amount of nitrogen entering watersheds and eventually reaching and adversely impacting the marine e...

COA Launches COVID Storytelling Project HARWICH — The last nine months have left all of us – but particularly seniors – feeling socially isolated. Through its new COVID Storytelling Project, the Harwich Council on Aging is encouraging the town’s over-60 residents to share their experience of the pandemic in words or pictures . “We’re really looking for anything: journal entries, poems, short st...

HARWICH — Selectmen are looking for new opportunities to engage the public about the town’s multi-year, multi-million-dollar wastewater plan, even as they ponder re-prioritizing certain parts of the plan. Saying a special meeting last Tuesday was under-publicized and poorly attended, selectmen have scheduled a series of meetings starting on Jan. 12 to get public input on some key decisions. With the next t...

HARWICH – Roughly a decade ago, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) was about to put Harwich High on warning because of its aging facilities. Fast-forward to 2020 and Monomoy Regional High School has earned continuing accreditation from the NEASC, in part due to its stellar school building, its staff, and its programs. The re-accreditation came as welcome news during a school year marke...

Gov. Baker Rolls Back Reopening   HARWICH — There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in Harwich and across the Cape, which has forced the town to reevaluate work protocols for town employees.   “As of Nov. 30, the town has been operating under Step Two model,” Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers told selectmen Monday night, referring to the second step of the t own’s pandemic work ...