James L. Blankenship, 75, of Vero Beach, Fla., and Chatham passed away on May 5, 2019, from cancer with family by his side.              Jim was born in Kansas City, Mo. to the late L. Frank & Ora L. Blankenship. The family lived in Pocahontas, Ariz. and would later settle in Brooklyn, N.Y. He attended Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia and in 1961 he graduated from Lincoln High School in ...

CHATHAM – Within the Rolf E. Sylvan Gardens Conservation Area, there are hundreds of plant species, many of them left over from the days when Sylvan operated Lower Cape Nursery on the land. “There's just so much stuff in here,” said Cynthia “DooDee” Nowak, a landscaper who grew up and still lives nearby. “There's stuff programmed to bloom all the way through the fall.” Known for years for its lavish display...

CHATHAM – The board of health will hold a public hearing next month on a proposed regulation banning the sale of flavored tobacco and electronic cigarette products. The proposal was initially put before the board by Monomoy Regional High School students, who were particularly focused on e-cigarette, or vaping, products. The students conducted a survey at the school and found that 35 percent of students had tri...

CHATHAM — Town officials have mixed news when it comes to two projects they’d hoped to have complete before the Memorial Day weekend. While the Mitchell River drawbridge repairs were completed ahead of schedule, the construction of a new observation deck at the fish pier might not be. The contractor carrying out the work at the fish pier has requested a slight extension of the deadline for building the new o...

CHATHAM — By the slimmest of margins, voters Tuesday rejected a plan to seek a shark detection and deterrent system for Oyster Pond Beach. But they passed most other articles in the second and final night of the annual town meeting, and soundly approved a $325,000 plan to acquire property interests in the VFW to support renovations to its building. Voters approved several bans on consumer plastics, and decided ...

CHATHAM – Despite warnings that delays would escalate costs, concerns about the size and location of a new senior center led voters to reject the $6.6 million project and send it back to the drawing board on the first night of the annual town meeting. Also Monday, voters approved a zoning bylaw that will allow the creation of apartments in single-family homes, which advocates say will increase the stock of mar...

CHATHAMPORT — Before Lucky Lindy, Amelia Earhart or Howard Hughes took their places in aviation history, there was the crew of the NC-4, whose all-but-forgotten adventure began a century ago in Chatham. “Without an exaggeration, it changed the world,” retired Coast Guard Capt. Greg Ketchen said. “To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, it was a giant leap forward for mankind.” On Tuesday, Ketchen led a small assembly ...

In the 18 th century, sophisticated Parisians met in private homes to hear music performed in intimate venues. So it is appropriate that to mark the 20 th anniversary of the Chatham Music Club (CMC), which also meets in private homes to perform classical music, the group is planning a gala concert called “Vive La France.” The May 19 concert will feature a dozen soloists—singers and instrumentalists—as well as ...

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 – If there's a theme among Monomoy sports this season it has to involve paying attention to the younger generation of players. So it was with the girls varsity softball team, which celebrated a 6-5 walk off win against D-Y on Monday thanks to a well-placed extra innings hit from an underclassman. Eighth grader Erica Slade clinched the win for the home team Sharks in the bottom of the eighth inning with...

HARWICH – The Monomoy girls tennis team earned two Cape and Islands League victories this week when they defeated Sturgis East in a 5-0 sweep on May 9 and the St. John Paul Lions 4-1 on May 7. “We're having a great season,” said Monomoy head coach Bill Burke near the end of match play against Sturgis East. “We'll be 8-4 after today's match.” It was a rare rain-free afternoon when the Sharks hosted the Storm...

Do you love the 1940s? The music, the dresses and hats, the pay phones and jukeboxes? The idea of a local watering hole where regulars come on a rainy night not just to drink but to dance romantically and to share their stories and get a little support from one another?  And do you also embrace that the wonderful trappings of that decade also included the never-changing human condition: violence in the home wi...

There’s magic in the air! And the Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre is on the receiving end!  The creative team at the theater on Division Street in Harwich should take a bow along with the fantastic troupe of players in this razzle-dazzle trip called “Pippin.” The Tony Award-winning show is a campy hodgepodge that’s part circus, part “puppet show,” part musical with nearly 20 spell-binding song ...