CHATHAM — Town Manager Jill Goldsmith presented selectmen Tuesday with a balanced, level-service operating budget for FY18 that's comfortably under the Proposition 2½ levy limit. At $30,124,872, it represents an increase of 3.89 percent over the current year's spending plan. The figure doesn't include the cost of educating the town's children, which adds approximately $9.3 million in assessments to the Monom...

On a cloudy and damp afternoon a few days before the beginning of the second annual knit-a-thon sponsored by A Great Yarn in Chatham, it’s cozy and warm inside Chatham’s two-year-old knitting store and bookstore, where a group of women is knitting together at a big round table. Many of these women, if not all, participated last year in the knit-a-thon by knitting long panels that were eventually crafted i...

CHATHAM – The legal fight between the Chatham Bars Inn and the town – or at least the rhetorical battle – is escalating. In a lawsuit filed in state Land Court Jan. 17, the Shore Road inn charged the town officials instructed then-Building Commissioner Justin Post to issue cease and desist orders in October for activities on its land in retaliation for the inn seeking damages for the town's eminent domain taki...

In Daniel Handler's view, stories with happy endings are just no fun. A prime example is the series of novels Handler wrote under the pen name Lemony Snicket. In “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” bad things happen to three orphans over and over and over again. “It's hard for me to think of a story that doesn't have a threat involved,” Handler, a Chatham summer resident, said last week in a telephone intervi...

CHATHAM – Although the chief reason most voters at Monday night's special town backed the purchase of the Eldredge Garage property was to expand downtown parking, the land could be put to a number of other uses, according to town officials. Open space, public rest rooms, and even workforce housing are among the possible uses for the 1.4 acre site. Selectmen will have the ultimate authority to decide the use, a...

CHATHAM – Although the chief reason most voters at Monday night's special town backed the purchase of the Eldredge Garage property was to expand downtown parking, the land could be put to a number of other uses, according to town officials. Open space, public rest rooms, and even workforce housing are among the possible uses for the 1.4 acre site. Selectmen will have the ultimate authority to decide the use, a...

CHATHAM – For eight years, Karolyn McClelland has lived with the possibility of losing her home due to what officials acknowledge was a “perfect storm” of mistakes and miscommunications. Next week, special town meeting voters will be asked to fix the situation by transferring funds to cover back taxes on McClelland's Beach Plum Road property, taxes that would have already been paid in full had the property bee...

CHATHAM — Saying Selectman Amanda Love clearly didn't intend to circumvent the Open Meeting Law with a Jan. 9 email she sent to fellow board members and to the press, selectmen nonetheless acknowledged the apparent violation and underwent a short refresher course from town counsel Tuesday. The Cape Cod Chronicle filed a complaint with the board about the email, which urged board members to consider promoting...

CHATHAM — Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are joining with Governor Charlie Baker to delay the implementation of a voter-approved law legalizing marijuana sales. Local officials are using that extra time to consider ways to keep pot retailers from opening shop in town. While voters across the state approved the law by a 54 to 46 percent margin, Selectman Dean Nicastro said that more than 57 percent of Chatham voter...

CHATHAM — As of early this week, the last remnants of the Jan. 7 snowfall had yet to vanish completely. Nor had the memories of the storm. Public Works Director Tom Temple praised the efforts of crews working to keep the roads plowed, despite a series of setbacks that left the town short of plows. Giving an update to the board of selectmen last week, Temple said it may be time for Chatham to consider using a l...

CHATHAM – Beginning Monday, Jan. 23, students at Chatham Elementary School will be looking for a little bit of good in everything. The 10-day “Look for the Good” program aims to promote mindfulness and kindness and highlight gratitude among students and faculty through a variety of activities, including a “gratitude wall” where kids can post comments about the people, places and things in their lives that they...

CHATHAM — Saying it's time for the town to once again have a mooring officer, waterways advisory committee Chairman Peter Taylor has asked the harbormaster to quantify the cost of managing the town's mooring permits each year. “Things aren't getting done because we don't have a mooring officer,” Taylor said at last Thursday's meeting. He had asked the committee to consider requesting an audit of mooring fee ...