HARWICH — A lot needs to be done on the Cape to improve the retail climate for local businesses. That message was conveyed to the Senate Task Force on Strengthening Local Retail during a visit to town on Monday. The task force came to see what steps government can take to improve the economic climate for small businesses, many of which face a small window during the summer months to show a profit. Those that d...

HARWICH — The finance committee has approved recommendations by its subcommittee studying stipends for elected town officials, include increasing the stipend for selectmen from $1,500 to $2,400 annually. The final decision will rest with voters in the annual town meeting this spring, finance committee member Dana DeCosta, chairman of the subcommittee, said this week. It would be the first increase in the stipe...

HARWICH — Outer Cape Health Services, Inc. has applied for necessary town permits to move forward with its proposal to establish a medical clinic on the first floor of the Kennedy Building across Route 28 from Saquatucket Harbor. OCHS was scheduled to go before the conservation commission last night for a request for determination of applicability for the project, which is located in the FEMA flood hazard zone...

HARWICH — “Small business is our bread and butter on Cape Cod,” Cape and Islands Senator Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said this week as he plans to address the needs of local businesses in forums this week and next. Cyr and State Representative Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, will conduct a town meeting-style forum for members of the local chamber of commerce on Friday (tomorrow) between 2:30 and 4 p.m. at the Pilgrim Co...

HARWICH – When a quartet of thresher sharks died on Cape Cod Bay beaches in December, it was a sad day for shark enthusiasts, but the deaths presented a unique opportunity for the STEMinist Club at Monomoy Regional High School. After all, it’s not every day budding scientists get a firsthand view of a shark dissection. On Jan. 11, club members watched in awe as Marianne Long, education director for the Atlanti...

HARWICH — Finance committee member Ed McManus, a former selectman and the town's representative to the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, has taken out nomination papers for a seat on the board of selectmen. “The town is heading into some important and expensive expenditures and I've been watching from the finance committee and assembly of delegates and feel like I can give a better advantage to the town...

HARWICH — Town Administrator Christopher Clark told selectmen Monday night he received an email this week from another party interested in pursuing a public/private deal to locate a restaurant at Saquatucket Harbor. Clark was before the board seeking to lay out a process for how to move forward with such an arrangement. The town has had at least one other expression of interest from a private consortium for lo...

HARWICH PORT — Unfolding during last week’s fierce nor’easter, but completely unrelated to the storm, a major water main break in Harwich Port Friday caused system-wide disruptions and resulted in the loss of about 1.4 million gallons of drinking water. Water Superintendent Dan Pelletier said a six-to-seven-foot linear crack opened in a 10-inch cast iron main under Route 28 near Kildee Road shortly before mi...

HARWICH — In a surprise announcement, Town Administrator Christopher Clark appointed Assistant Town Administrator Charleen Greenhalgh as the new town planner, leaving her former position vacant. The announcement comes at a time when Clark is reallocating administration and staffing budgets that would alter segments of the community development department. Greenhalgh applied for the town planner's position afte...

HARWICH — The conservation commission responded positively to a preliminary pitch to locate two pilot kelp growing arrays in Nantucket Sound off Herring River. The pitch was made by West Harwich resident Mark Kelleher, who is seeking to use two locations off Herring River to string two 250-foot lines, one in an area about a half mile outside the mouth of Herring River and another just north of Kill Pond Buoy, ...

HARWICH — Play is an essential component of child development, fostering education and mental well-being. But in today's society, with children having two working parents, there may not be an opportunity for children to get together, and play can be challenging. There is an initiative underway seeking to create a safe, enriching play-literacy learning environment for families and children, providing toys, book...

HARWICH — The appeals board wants more information on the storage of materials associated with the National Grid gas pipeline project now underway. The board was asked to issue a temporary change of use permit for land off Route 39 to allow the storage of materials but is seeking additional feedback from the health board and conservation commission after a neighbor raised the possibility that asphalt storage c...