CHATHAM – William Marsh, owner of Eastward Companies, has offered to donate to the town the two parcels of land in West Chatham which have been identified as a site for a new senior center. A special town meeting will be held tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 4) to vote on acquisition of the land at 1610 Main St. Marsh and the town had agreed on a $750,000 price for the property. But at a meeting with Town Manager Ji...

On both sides of his family, as far back as he can trace, Charlie Dodge descends from commercial fishermen. Some roots go to Norway and England, and then there is Tristam Dodge, of Newfoundland, hired by the settlers of Block Island in 1616 to teach them how to fish so they wouldn’t starve. Charlie Dodge was born on that small island 350 years later. His parents tried to buck centuries of tradition and insiste...

Thousands said goodbye to 2019 and welcomed the new decade during the town's First Night celebration Tuesday. The Beatles tribute band Studio Two played to a full house at Chatham Elementary School. TIM WOOD PHOTO Beginning with the town photograph at Chatham Light at noon, the festivities encompassed everyth...

CHATHAM – The board of selectmen will do everything within its power to convince the Coast Guard not to remove the buoy marking the entrance to Chatham Harbor. Officials have already been in contact with Senator Elizabeth Warren's office to enlist her help and last week voted agreed to write to Coast Guard brass to stress the need to retain the navigational marker. Selectmen also plan to ask neighboring towns ...

CHATHAM – Todd Hearle, the investor with local ties who purchased the Chatham Squire in May, has added another iconic business to his portfolio. Hearle's Captain's House Operating LLC purchased the Captain's House Inn at 369 Old Harbor Rd. Dec. 17 from James and Jill Meyer, who had operated the historic complex centered around an 1839 Hiram Harding House since 2006. The Barnstable County Registry of Deeds list...

CHATHAM – Voters at Saturday's special town meeting will be asked to endorse a site for a new senior center for the second time in less than a year. Last May, town meeting rejected building a $6.6 million center to house council on aging programs on town-owned land off Middle Road. At the Jan. 4 meeting, which takes place at 1 p.m. at Monomoy Middle School on Crowell Road, voters will be asked to set aside $75...

CHATHAM – The iconic Chatham Fish Pier Market, founded more than half a century ago by Willard Nickerson, has been sold. Steven Gennodie, who owns a fish processing company on the Boston Fish Pier and two retail fish markets on the South Shore, purchased the fish market and take-out eatery adjacent to the town's fish pier last month from Andy Baler for $1.2 million. Gennodie said most of the market's staff ...

CHATHAM – Negativity and hope competed for attention in town during 2019. Voters turned down a new senior center, but hope remained that a new location would be approved; an ugly fight developed over a new master plan for the airport, with accusations about conflicts and insensitivity flying faster than a falling skydiver; extreme weather struck but the response was immediate and competent; failure to complete...

Funds Help Young Working Families CHATHAM — When it comes to meeting the high cost of living on Cape Cod, the expense of preschool and after-school child care is a big challenge for young working families. For several years, Chatham’s human services committee has funded a childcare voucher program, and in light of increased demand, town officials are expected to expand the program slightly in the next town bud...

SOUTH HARWICH — When the public park at Ryder’s Cove is finally built, there will be two comfortable places for visitors to stop and reflect, thanks to the volunteer woodworkers of the Chatham-Harwich Newcomers Club. The men are putting the finishing touches on two custom-made mahogany benches to be installed once the park is ready. Earlier this year, town meeting appropriated $79,000 to clear invasive species...

HARWICH — Selectmen have agreed to hire Robert Lawton as acting assistant town administrator. Lawton has previously served as interim town administrator and as interim assistant town administrator in the past. Lawton served as town administrator in Yarmouth for 32 years and he has often been referred to as the dean of town administrators on the Cape. Lawton served as interim town administrator in Harwich from ...

HARWICH — It was a tumultuous year for Harwich, with Mother Nature firing a tornado across its boughs in July and political winds eroding the foundation of its government. The costs associated with the town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan also overwhelmed town officials and taxpayers. But there was also a little sunlight through the clouds with the announcement by Standard and Poor that the town’s f...

HARWICH – As The Chronicle's Helping Neighbors campaign draws to a close, the response, pushing the program's total fundraising for the Family Pantry of Cape Cod over the years to more than $1 million, was cause to celebrate. “This year the results were terrific,” said Family Pantry Director Christine Menard. The money raised will provide more than 278,000 meals for Cape families in the new year, she said, hel...

HARWICH — There is a lot of activity taking place in Harwich Center, with a couple of new businesses emerging and the construction for the new convenience store and apartments in the former gas station expected to get underway in the next month or so. To continue to foster the revitalization of the village, the Harwich Center Initiative Committee has asked selectmen to extend its tenure for another year and co...

HARWICH — The selectmen and finance committee got a preview of the capital outlay committee's seven-year capital plan last week. The public will have an opportunity to hear the plan details at a hearing Monday. The grand total for the seven years is $85,275,420, and a large portion of the capital expenses are driven by wastewater projects scheduled for FY 23, at $17.4 million, and FY24, which carries a cost of...

All through the natural year there are reasons to love being outdoors. There are all the living things, animals and plants, that fill our senses with color and light as well as scents both wild and wonderful. There are the textures of the seasons, from soft and lush to brittle and stark. There is the ever-changing night sky and the ongoing symphonies that fill our heads and hearts with an amazing variety of sound...