A few nights ago I met some extraordinary people. We are introduced to Catherine as she sits on the porch of her childhood home seemingly celebrating her 25 th birthday with her dad. She’s pensive, eloquent and maybe a bit tense but moves so elegantly. Robert is a complex individual. His every word is heavy with meaning, and he demands attention. He must be tough to live with, you think. And just as you think tha...

There aren’t many days that I can spend the whole day outdoors with the birds, flowers and trees. Like most people I have work, chores and other things to attend to that demand my time and attention. I generally get outdoors every day for at least an hour or two, but long, lazy days to spend just meandering are rare and wonderful days that I save up for like some people save up for fancy things. This past w...

In Harwich: Ford And MacAskill When voters go to the polls on Tuesday they will be asked to fill two seats on the board of selectmen. One of those seats is presently held by incumbent Michael MacAskill, who has served for four years. The other two candidates are Thomas Sherry and Stephen Ford. Sherry is familiar to many of the voters in town, having run for the board a year ago and lost by 21 votes to Selectma...

A Vote For The Schools Editor: Harwich voters: Please take the time to cast your vote for school committee candidate Merideth Holden Henderson on Tuesday, May 21. This is a critical time for our town and our Monomoy School District. Our public school systems face so many challenges: balancing state mandates, the individual needs of all students, providing fair and attractive contracts to faculty and staff, ...

It’s the last of the wood fire season. The wood stove season. The months—middle of October, November, December, January, February, March to the middle of April—when we warm our downstairs with the wood stove. Except it is the middle of May. By the time this sees print, to tempt fate, temperatures could zoom in to the 70s. But such is not the case. I sit and write and have, yet again, used paper bags and paper ...

HARWICH PORT — Sporting more than just a name change, the nonprofit group Leadership Cape Cod is unveiling its new, broader mission today in a special event in Harwich Port. Since 1992, the group has provided leadership training to hundreds of local people in business, health care, the arts, education, social services and other sectors, under its old moniker, the Community Leadership Institute of Cape Cod an...

ORLEANS — Town Meeting agreed Monday to spend $47 million on wastewater infrastructure over the next three decades pending a favorable debt exclusion vote at the town election May 21, but rejected spending $1.5 million to acquire a conservation restriction on 18 acres of Sipson Island. “We have the Main Street sewers in the ground,” Paul Davis said from the floor, “on time and under budget. This article toni...

ORLEANS — The three candidates for two seats on the board of selectmen are grateful for the opportunity they've had to live here and worried about the lack of same for the next generations. “Of all the kids I taught in this town over the last 45 years, most have moved away,” Selectman Mark Mathison said. “They can't afford to live here.” His daughter, a teacher at Nauset Regional High School, lives at home w...

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 ...

ORLEANS — Town Meeting agreed Monday to spend $47 million on wastewater infrastructure over the next three decades, pending a favorable debt exclusion vote at the town election May 21, but rejected spending $1.5 million to acquire a conservation restriction on 18 acres of Sipson Island. “We have the Main Street sewers in the ground,” Paul Davis said from the floor, “on time and under budget. This article ton...

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...

Spring is such a busy time. Everywhere I go, I am reminded that much of our local nature is on the move. Some are leaving, some are arriving, and some are just moving about cleaning up, clearing out and settling in.  Most notable are the migrating birds and fish, but we, being part of nature, are also on the move. Snowbirds have been returning in droves, filling our roads and shops once again. The quiet days o...

Julie Suzanne Watson, 50, of Orleans passed away in her home on April 11th from an unexpected medical event. Julie was born March 22, 1969 in Cambridge to Lynda Brennan and Donald Watson. Julie graduated from the Northfield Mount Hermon School in 1987 and The University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1998 with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing.  She was an ardent lover of the ocean, swimming across Cape Cod ponds, ...

Judith Ransom Wheeler               Judith Samphere Ransom Wheeler passed away on March 8, 2019 in east Tennessee where she had returned to live closer to her daughter after many years of residing on Cape Cod. She was born in Melrose, September 16, 1939, to Homer Ransom and Jean Murry Ransom.               Judy graduated from Green Mountain College, Vt., with an Associate’s degree in Advertising and R...

Arlene Plennert Fisher Estero, Florida                   Arlene Plennert Fisher, 72, of Estero, Fla. and Harwich Port, passed away on Saturday, March 9, 2019. She had been a resident of Estero since 2016 and Harwich Port since 2007. Arlene was born December 6, 1946 in Chicago, Ill., the daughter of the late Frank Joseph and Marion (Koshiol) Plennert and sister of the late James Frank Plennert. Arlene...

Robert R. Marshall, beloved husband of Gail N. Marshall, died at his home on Monday, May 6, surrounded by family.  He lived a life defined by service, building airstrips for American planes to land in Korea, teaching at Chatham High School for 30 years, and retiring to become a Cape Cod Tour Guide.  In his last years he delivered Meals on Wheels and drove patients to medical appointments.             He leaves...