HARWICH — The board of health has extended the ban on smoking in workplaces and public places to include town beaches, recreation areas and other town-operated properties. The board will decide at its June meeting whether to move forward with a ban on flavored tobacco products. The expanded prohibition on smoking in public places was brought to the board of health by the recreation and youth commission. The b...

HARWICH — The planning board last week approved a site plan review and special permit for the redevelopment of the Stone Horse Motel property and opted not to refer the redevelopment project to the Cape Cod Commission, despite requests from neighbors. The redevelopment plan for the former motel calls for constructing two dormitories with 42 rooms in each building, two beds per room, to be used primarily to prov...

Judging from the sheer number of gulls loitering at local herring runs this spring, it would seem that 2019 was a good year for the struggling fish species. And official herring counts seem to be confirming that suspicion. On Tuesday, the electronic fish counter at Johnson’s Flume in Harwich had registered just under one million river herring this year, Natural Resources Director Heinz Proft said. That’s up fr...

HARWICH — The planning board will meet May 30 to consider sending the Harwich Retail LLC plan to construct a 7,489-square-foot retail structure along Route 28 in West Harwich to the Cape Cod Commission for review. “This is our neighborhood,” said resident Danny Horn. “Send this to the Cape Cod Commission because it's not consistent with our neighborhood.” The property at 48 and 52 Route 28 is presently the site...

HARWICH — Incumbent Selectman Michael MacAskill was returned to office in Tuesday's annual town election. Newcomer Stephen Ford also won a seat on the board with an 80-vote margin over Thomas Sherry. Meredith Henderson won a one-year unexpired term on the Monomoy Regional School Committee over former Selectman Linda A. Cebula. Voters turned aside two debt exclusion ballot questions for road work. Voters in ...

HARWICH — A clear division among members of the board of selectmen on the performance of Town Administrator Christopher Clark was on display Monday night when the board reviewed its annual evaluation of the town administrator. The accumulative points given by selectmen in the evaluation determines if the town administrator has earned a cost of living increase. Clark's accumulative point total was 65.3, just abov...

HARWICH — Incumbent Selectman Michael MacAskill was returned to office in Tuesday's annual town election. Newcomer Stephen Ford also won a seat on the board with an 80-vote margin over Thomas Sherry. Meredith Henderson won a one-year unexpired term on the Monomoy Regional School Committee over former Selectman Linda A. Cebula. Voters turned aside two debt exclusion ballot questions for road work. Voters in ...

HARWICH — A plan to use the parking lot at the former fire station at 203 Bank St. for employee parking for businesses in Harwich Port is off the table. Instead, employees will be asked to use the small lot provided by TD Bank, adjacent to the Schoolhouse Road municipal parking lot. That was the proposal the Ad Hoc Harwich Port Parking Committee presented to selectmen Monday night. The group met last Tuesday t...

HARWICH — The assisted living facility Royal at Harwich Village has closed, and its residents have been relocated to other facilities. But advocates for the elderly are criticizing the way the abrupt closure was carried out. Around April 25, the facility notified residents and their families about plans to close by July 26, the 90-day minimum required by state regulations. The notification was followed sever...

HARWICH — The Massachusetts Historical Commission is applauding the efforts of the Friends of the South Harwich Meetinghouse with a historic preservation award honoring the restoration of the 183-year-old former Methodist Church on Chatham Road. The efforts of the Friends of South Harwich Meetinghouse, Inc. began in 2003, after the town took possession of the church building, which had been abandoned for 13 ye...

HARWICH — The topic of the town upgrading two roads in the Six Pond District drew a crowd to Monday night's board of selectmen meeting. Residents in the Round Cove and Seth Whitefield/Hawksnest Road area of East Harwich spoke firmly against making road improvements there, and selectmen backed them up, rejecting spending town money on the work. The improvements requested by Robert Fratus, Jr. also drew a petiti...

HARWICH — The pet cemetery project was put to rest Tuesday after town meeting voters approved a petitioned article that took the 2.25 acre parcel out from under the jurisdiction of the cemetery commission and returned it to the board of selectmen for general municipal purposes. The cemetery commission had a hard night, with voters also rejecting an article that would establish a revolving fund that would have ...