CHATHAM — For many years, fighting for a sustainable commercial fishery meant ensuring that there were enough fish in the sea to support the industry. A new sustainability initiative seeks to ensure that, years from now, there are enough fishermen. Though fishing is often a family business, there's never been a coordinated, nationwide effort to train, educate and support the next generation of commercial fis...

CHATHAM — Though they weren't ready to sign a check, selectmen last week gladly signed a letter once again opposing the use of pesticides to control vegetation along Eversource power line rights-of-way. The campaign is being organized by the group Protect Our Cape Cod Aquifer (POCCA), which is also asking Cape towns to contribute to a legal fund. Laura Kelley, president of POCCA, is visiting towns around the C...

CHATHAM – The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Sharktivity smartphone app is usually pretty quiet during the winter and early spring months. The white sharks that visit Cape waters during the summer are usually long gone by the new year, and the first sightings of the season usually don't happen until June. It may have come as a surprise, then, when notifications of shark detections began showing up on the a...

CHATHAM – Especially during Friday nights in the summer, when the Chatham Band performs at nearby Kate Gould Park, the north side of Chatham Bars Avenue is lined with vehicles, many of them parked up against a stockade fence along property owned by Chatham Bars Inn. Planning Board member Robert Dubis wants to make sure those parking spaces aren't lost under a new proposal by the inn to use the former bowling a...

CHATHAM – Architecturally, the Eldredge Public Library stands out on Main Street both for its uniqueness – its Renaissance/Romanesque Revival style is unlike anything else in town – and the nearly pristine state of preservation of the original 1886 building. Upon close inspection, however, some of the details of the building have suffered with age. Specifically, the sills, sashes and windows in the 131-year-ol...

CHATHAM — Members of the Aunt Lydia's Cove Committee will likely have a say in how the town spends money from a proposed waterways user fee revolving fund, ending a dispute with waterways advisory committee that seemed destined for a fight on the floor of town meeting. Meeting with selectmen Tuesday, waterways committee Chairman Peter Taylor said he intends to ask his committee members this week to add the C...

CHATHAM — Its prohibition of skydiving at the airport is creating more legal turbulence for the town of Chatham. Skydive Cape Cod, which ran excursions from the Chatham airport for three years before the town shut down the operation, has filed suit against the town seeking $100,000 in damages for lost business. The town is already feeling the squeeze from both sides of the skydiving debate. It is preparin...

CHATHAM – A 108-foot revetment proposed to protect a $3 million Shore Road home should be denied because it does not meet performance standards in state wetlands laws, according to a ruling issued last week. Presiding Officer Jane A. Rothchild recommended the upholding of a state department of environmental protection order denying the revetment, which overturned the conservation commission's approval of the stru...

CHATHAM – Local and state housing officials are collaborating to try to find a way get qualified buyers into two affordable condominiums along Route 28. The two-bedroom units at Main Street Village at 1070 Main St., marketed at $135,000 each, have been vacant for a number of years, and two attempts to hold lotteries failed to find buyers who met income limits and could qualify for mortgages. A few potential...

HARWICH — These days, shellfishermen have to worry about much more than where to scratch for clams. They face competing interests within the industry, with recreational and commercial shellfishermen, wild harvesters and aquaculturists all competing for resources. And then there are the pressures from outside the fishery, in the form of shorefront development, other maritime interests, and those seeking to use ...

CHATHAM — Saying they need additional time to consider a revised North (Nauset) beach management agreement with Orleans, Chatham selectmen last week said they will ask their counterparts in Orleans to extend the current agreement for another year. The two boards are set to meet jointly on April 24 at 7 p.m. at the Chatham Town Offices Annex on George Ryder Road to discuss the management of the barrier beach,...

CHATHAM – Firefighting can be a dangerous business. But aside from the obvious risk of bodily harm, there's another, more insidious risk that firefighters face: cancer. According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study, 68 percent of firefighters are expected to develop cancer, compared to 22 percent of the general population. It's not just the smoke that firefighters are subjected to ...