Which holiday generates 11 percent more telephone traffic, is responsible for one quarter of all plant and flower sales and results in the sale of 152 million card sales? Hint: It’s right around the corner. The second Sunday in May is always Mother’s Day, so decreed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Variations of holidays celebrating moms have been going on for, well, forever. Early Egypt feted the goddess ...

Next Monday's town meeting in Chatham promises to be one of the lengthier sessions in recent years, with a 71-article annual warrant and a single-article special town meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 14. Quite a few of the measures promise to spark discussion, ranging from funding for a new senior center to land acquisition, proposals to ban plastic bottles and Styrofoam containers, and withdrawal of the town f...

Perhaps you remember what computers looked like 50 years ago, or perhaps you have seen an old black and white movie showing a giant mainframe computer that takes up an entire air-conditioned room and spits out punch cards. That’s what computers looked like when Helen Gigley of Harwich first got into the field. At that time computer science as a study didn’t even exist. So it was apt that last month Gigley, a p...

ORLEANS — Beaming like Shakespeare's Prospero, Alan McClennen descended a long flight of stairs to welcome visitors to Sipson Island last week. No tempest drove the electric-powered vessel Friends of Pleasant Bay ashore; in fact, the floating classroom disembarked its passengers in knee-high water. After striding through the surf like General MacArthur making good on his “I shall return” vow, the group of en...

ORLEANS — With the agreement of the board of selectmen, the town's new affordable housing trust will fund the purchase of a half-acre lot on which Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod will build a two-bedroom ranch home. Voting separately May 1, the board and trust took an initial step toward creating 85 new rental units and 15 home ownership opportunities within the decade, a goal proposed in the recent town ho...

ORLEANS – Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) systems encourage users to separate out recyclables; disposal of their remaining trash requires purchase of specially marked bags.  In a presentation to the selectmen and the board of health last week, DPW/Natural Resources Director Tom Daley said that, on balance, it's mostly free to recycle compared to municipal solid waste disposal costs of $95 a ton. Economically and envir...

HARWICH — Voters made it clear in the first night of the annual town meeting that they are dissatisfied with town spending and its impact on the tax rate. After a lengthy discussion on the budget, during which no amendments were proposed, voters approved a $39.6 million budget by only 34 votes, 267-233. They also turned aside the one major debt exclusion warrant article seeking $4.5 million for the reconstruct...

              Gladys Robertson, 87, passed away on April 25, 2019. Born in Scotland, she moved to Chatham in 1960. She was the manager at the Chatham Laundry for many years. Gladys is predeceased by her husband George Robertson. She is survived by her son Keith, daughter-in-law Dayna and grandsons Ian and Kyle of Glocester, R.I. along with many nieces and nephews.           Burial will be private. For online c...

                  CHATHAM – Joan Stello, a lifelong resident of Chatham, died peacefully on March 20, 2019 at Liberty Commons.                 Joan was born on June 7, 1926 to the late Kenneth Kendrick and Dorothy Eldridge Kendrick.  She was the twin sister of the late Jean Stello and the mother of the late Donna Metters.                 Joan graduated from Chatham High School, class of 1945.  She worked...

A couple of weeks ago I posed a question to folks on my social media network: “What are the 20 most historically significant buildings and locations in the town of Harwich?” Harwich has an historical society, an historic district and historical commission, a handful of addresses listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and at least two facilities specifically dedicated to its history. It has over 70...

There’s a lot of misinformation about Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which will create more year-round housing by making it easier for homeowners to build and rent out in-law apartments. Let’s clear up a few things: Myth: This is a drastic change to zoning and our neighborhoods, adding density, and overcrowding homes. Reality: ADUs are already allowed under existing zoning and have been for hundreds of ye...

At last year's Massachusetts Municipal Association convention, Harwich received the Kenneth E. Pickard Municipal Innovation Award for its pet cemetery project. But what seemed like a good idea has escalated into a fiasco. The cemetery commission improperly used funds from its revolving account for site work at the 2.25-acre town-owned parcel on Queen Anne Road, including construction of a gazebo. That $70,000 was...

CHATHAM – In 1944, Monomoy Island was a former bombing range popular with hunters and dotted with summer camps. Thanks to its location, it was also a key site along the Atlantic Flyway, the network of coastal areas that serve as stopovers for migrating shorebirds. The establishment of the island—then a peninsula—as a National Wildlife Refuge meant the preservation of thousands of acres of habitat critical to the ...

CHATHAM – When visitors stop by Lighthouse Beach, they often ask anyone who looks like a local about what, for the past several years, has been the chief topic of interest here: great white sharks. Making sure folks get accurate information about the region's shark population is the impetus behind a new program being proposed by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC). Under the “Shark Smart” program, AWSC...

CHATHAM – Perhaps the town's most iconic restaurant, The Chatham Squire, is being sold. Richard Costello and George Payne, who started the Main Street restaurant and tavern in 1968, are selling the business and real estate to Todd Hearle, a Connecticut businessman who grew up in Chatham. General Manager Richard Sullivan confirmed the sale Tuesday, stating that it is expected to be completed by Memorial Day....