CHATHAM – Allegation of conflict of interest were leveled last week against a member of the historical commission who is proposing to demolish an 80-year-old home on Stage Harbor Road. Neighbors of 372 Stage Harbor Rd. said commission member Tim Smith was present at a Dec. 29 on-site hearing at the house and was actively advising the current homeowner while members of the commission inspected the 944-square-fo...

CHATHAM – A sculpture of the Tree of Life, a gift to the town by the Women's Club of Chatham to mark the organization's centennial, was dedicated before a cold but appreciative crowd Sunday afternoon. The steel sculpture, by local artist Faye Anderson, hangs on the wall of the Eldredge Public Library to the left of the Library Lane entrance. “This is a big milestone for us,” club president Lorraine Cocolis ...

CHATHAM — With federal regulators now firmly in their corner, selectmen are vowing to come out swinging when a suit brought by skydiving opponents goes to trial in March. Saying they were acting in the benefit of public transparency, the board issued a statement announcing its position following an hour-long closed-door session Monday evening. The town has been in litigation over the issue of skydiving fo...

CHATHAM — Saying the costs simply don’t justify the benefits, selectmen Monday voted to wait until the May annual town election to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of board member Amanda Love, rather than calling a special election. “There’s a potential cost of at least $6,000 to hold a special election,” board Chairman Cory Metters said. And according to the town clerk, the earliest a special ele...

CHATHAM – About a dozen years ago, author Bernard Cornwell was asked by Monomoy Theatre Artistic Director Alan Rust to give a talk to the company on the background of Shakespeare's “Henry V.” Cornwell hadn't yet written his historical novel “Azincourt,” but knew enough about the 1415 campaign to give an authoritative presentation. Rust was impressed. “It was really quite stunning,” he said of that talk. Not lo...

CHATHAM — When Penny Haughwout sat down at her computer table to do some work Thursday morning, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary outside her condo on Starfish Lane. Her low-lying neighborhood, Little Beach, routinely gets puddles during heavy rains, and the field opposite her window becomes an impromptu duck pond. When she happened to glance up at around 11:30 a.m., she saw trouble. “When I looked up,...

HARWICH — Town Administrator Christopher Clark told selectmen Monday night he received an email this week from another party interested in pursuing a public/private deal to locate a restaurant at Saquatucket Harbor. Clark was before the board seeking to lay out a process for how to move forward with such an arrangement. The town has had at least one other expression of interest from a private consortium for lo...

HARWICH PORT — Unfolding during last week’s fierce nor’easter, but completely unrelated to the storm, a major water main break in Harwich Port Friday caused system-wide disruptions and resulted in the loss of about 1.4 million gallons of drinking water. Water Superintendent Dan Pelletier said a six-to-seven-foot linear crack opened in a 10-inch cast iron main under Route 28 near Kildee Road shortly before mi...

HARWICH — In a surprise announcement, Town Administrator Christopher Clark appointed Assistant Town Administrator Charleen Greenhalgh as the new town planner, leaving her former position vacant. The announcement comes at a time when Clark is reallocating administration and staffing budgets that would alter segments of the community development department. Greenhalgh applied for the town planner's position afte...

HARWICH — The conservation commission responded positively to a preliminary pitch to locate two pilot kelp growing arrays in Nantucket Sound off Herring River. The pitch was made by West Harwich resident Mark Kelleher, who is seeking to use two locations off Herring River to string two 250-foot lines, one in an area about a half mile outside the mouth of Herring River and another just north of Kill Pond Buoy, ...

HARWICH — Play is an essential component of child development, fostering education and mental well-being. But in today's society, with children having two working parents, there may not be an opportunity for children to get together, and play can be challenging. There is an initiative underway seeking to create a safe, enriching play-literacy learning environment for families and children, providing toys, book...

HARWICH ─ The Monomoy boys basketball team came away with one for the scrapbooks last Friday with a thrilling double overtime victory that came thanks to the tireless efforts of every player in the game. But the high point belonged to senior Eli Nickerson whose hail-Mary three-pointer proved the game winner for the Sharks in the 56-54 win. It was the stuff that basketball movies are made of: two rival teams ...

ORLEANS ─ Fresh off their first win of the season, the Cape Cod Furies had an uphill battle against the Marshfield Rams on Jan. 6, falling 6-0 in spite of a solid effort. After being held off by the Monomoy/Nauset/Cape Tech host team's defense for much for the opening period, a power play allowed Marshfield to send one past Furies goaltender Molly McKenna, giving the Rams a 1-0 edge en route to victory. T...

Injustices of the past cast long shadows which color the present. On Jan. 19, 20 and 21 three plays by award-winning local playwright Candace Perry, collectively titled “Shadows,” will address the long-reaching effects of slavery, the Holocaust and other instances of injustice, prejudice and racism. The productions will take place at the Chatham Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, at 7:30 p.m. and will be fo...

CHATHAM — For Chatham teen Alexis Comeau, 2017 went down as the year of her first great adventure. And it won’t be her last. Following months of research and work, Comeau and her boyfriend embarked on a cross-country trip in early September, driving a custom-outfitted cargo van from Cape Cod to California and back and returning in time for Christmas. Her parents set aside their worries for their 18-year-o...

New Year's Resolutions For Trump Editor: Some modest but important 2018 New Year’s Resolutions for Mr. Trump: Reveal your 2015/2016 taxes publicly in the press immediately. Stop seeking and accepting public adulation from your cabinet members. Listen more to Average Americans, not just to millionaires. Give Mr. Pence some real work to do, like fix Puerto Rico. Have dinner with your family eac...