HARWICH – Roughly a decade ago, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) was about to put Harwich High on warning because of its aging facilities. Fast-forward to 2020 and Monomoy Regional High School has earned continuing accreditation from the NEASC, in part due to its stellar school building, its staff, and its programs. The re-accreditation came as welcome news during a school year marke...

Gov. Baker Rolls Back Reopening   HARWICH — There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in Harwich and across the Cape, which has forced the town to reevaluate work protocols for town employees.   “As of Nov. 30, the town has been operating under Step Two model,” Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers told selectmen Monday night, referring to the second step of the t own’s pandemic work ...

HARWICH — With Santa keeping a low profile this year, and with tree lighting ceremonies and caroling sidelined this season, any opportunity for getting in the holiday spirit is one worth taking. And once again, Bob Doane of Harwich has provided it, in the form of his high-tech display of holiday lights, which went live at the Harwich Cultural Center last weekend. “I have a couple new displays,...

HARWICH PORT — Even combined with the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Saturday’s heavy rain that saturated the ground did nothing to dampen the spirits of those who came out to support the annual “Homeless for the Holidays” drive in Harwich Port. This was the sixth year firefighters and police came together to collect toys and food and raise money for the program established in 2002 by Bourne fire...

HARWICH — The Harwich Conservation Trust is working with the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts to put in place two conservation restrictions on properties located in the zone two of Contribution Wellhead Protection Areas to the town’s public drinking water supply. The properties are located in sensitive resource areas and are adjacent to protected conservation lands. One parcel, 6.65 acres on the nort...

HARWICH — When Monomoy senior Caitlin Bouvier was in seventh grade, longtime area field hockey coach Cheryl Poore held an informational meeting about joining her Reach Field Hockey Camp. Bouvier was intrigued and told her parents she wanted to give the sport a try. Fast forward a few years, and Bouvier has signed on to play for the St. Joseph's College Monks in the fall. Bouvier's love of the sport began not l...

On the afternoon of Nov. 13, a Friday, Jan Hopkins of Harwich logged into a Facebook group called “Chatham Spread the Word,” and made an unusual offer. She said she would make “memory bears” from a lost loved one’s clothing as keepsakes. She would not charge for her services but she asked that the recipient donate time or money to the Chatham Angel Fund or the Chatham Food Pantry. The reaction to her offer ...

The spirit of giving is going strong this year at The Family Pantry, and Executive Director Christine Menard couldn't be more pleased. “I'm so psyched!” she simply said, expressing what every Family Pantry supporter feels as the generosity of the season ensures access to healthy, nutritious meals will continue for those in need in our community. Just as November's generous $20,000 matching donation given by a...

Rob Ritchey of Chatham, who has just released his debut novel, “Marriette” (West Barnstable Press, 2020), has an unusual background for a novelist: he is a podiatrist who recently returned to painting portraits. “I grew up in the Boston area being an artist, but then life pushed me along other paths,” he said in an email interview last week. “I was a machinist for a while after college and then on to medical s...

Orleans Charter Com Needs Input Editor: How well is Orleans town government working for you? Do you have any ideas to improve it? This is your opportunity to share those ideas and tell us what you think. Orleans has a home rule charter, a framework for its governance. Once every seven years a charter review committee (CRC) is appointed by the select board “to review the provisions of the charter and repo...

The pages of this week’s paper are filled with distressing news about the pandemic. We’re in the midst of what public health officials call a “surge upon a surge,” with new cases spread at Thanksgiving gatherings being added to the seasonal surge associated with the onset of cold weather. But at long last, after months of bleak uncertainty, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are being rushed t...

Nine months ago when the coronavirus pandemic began, few could have predicted that medical experts would recommend that families not travel or get together during the holidays to avoid spreading the virus. “For nine months we’ve been seeing increasing isolation,” says Emily Mitchell, director of the Harwich Council on Aging. “There’s no worse time to be isolated than at the holidays.” “This is hard, this is...

ORLEANS — As December began, COVID-19 cases climbed to 31 confirmed and 13 probable, “quite a jump for Orleans,” health agent Bob Canning told the select board. Fire Chief Geof Deering reported that three members of the department were exposed to the virus during an emergency call and are quarantining; tests are negative. “We have seven active cases in Orleans today,” Canning told the select board Dec. 2. “We’...

ORLEANS — Even as contractors are digging into downtown streets to install sewer pipes and excavating the foundation for a wastewater treatment facility, town officials are digging into the details of the second phase of the massive project: designing and building a collection system to remove all the nitrogen in Meetinghouse Pond. The town is under a mandate to reach a Total Maximum Daily Load of zero in the ...

ORLEANS — “Nearly every usable piece of land owned by the Town of Orleans is being used for a public purpose,” Director of Planning and Community Development George Meservey reported in a letter to Town Administrator John Kelly last month. At the select board’s Nov. 18 meeting, the planner reviewed three of those properties: the former American Legion Hall across from town hall at 139 Main St., the former highway...

On a recent Saturday, John Morgan drove his battered red F350 pick-up onto a long dirt road that runs along the Chatham Municipal Airport. The bed of the truck was full of lobster trap line of varying thickness and colors; a lobsterman getting rid of some of his old gear from a storage spot there had helped sling it aboard. The gear, no longer fit for a life on the ocean, travelled to Sandwich where it join...