The four towns on Pleasant Bay – Brewster, Chatham, Harwich, and Orleans – stepped up their commitment to work together to remove excess nitrogen from their waters. A quorum of each community's board of selectmen, meeting at the Cape Cod Commission's OneCape Summit in Hyannis June 22, voted in turn to approve a resolution crafted by the Pleasant Bay Alliance. The resolution endorses a composite picture of the ...

CHATHAM – Authorities are hoping to identify a man who stole one of the decorated Sharks in the Park from Kate Gould Park early Sunday morning. The shark was found along the shoulder of Main Street in South Chatham a short time later. While it was damaged, the artist who created it is making repairs and it should rejoin the other 50-plus sharks in the exhibit when they move from the park to the front lawn of t...

CHATHAM – Just as panelists were discussing the dynamic nature of the town's shoreline during a forum at the community center Saturday morning (see the story on page 14), Mother Nature was proving their point by creating a new break in North Beach Island. By Sunday the northernmost tip of the island was an isolated sandbar and the new cut was more than 100 feet wide and deep enough for boats to navigate, thoug...

David Murdoch, III, of Chatham died as the result of an accident on his boat on Monday, June 19 at the age of 78. David was born in Boston on November 16, 1938 to David Murdoch, Jr. and Doris Werner Murdoch. He was raised in Needham and Harwichport and graduated from Needham High School in 1956. Upon graduating, David enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he quickly achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant...

CHATHAM — In a step that is unusual, if not unprecedented, the town of Chatham has initiated a petition asking Gov. Charlie Baker's support for federal legislation that would restore the western boundary of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge to its traditional area. Typically neutral in political disputes, the town is asking residents and visitors to sign petition forms at various town buildings, at Cape Fis...

When officials receive a call for help from a boater in trouble, the problem isn't a lack of responders; typically, the Coast Guard, harbormasters from several towns and police and fire boats get underway. A new system being put in place this summer aims to streamline and simplify the way town resources are dispatched by the Coast Guard. The system involves a smartphone app used by town harbormasters, police o...

CHATHAM — Captain Dave Murdoch was an easily recognizable figure in the town of Chatham, between driving along in his blue Jeep with its American flag waving in the wind and walks with his dog Gordon. Now, friends and fellow mariners are mourning the death of the 78-year-old, whose remains were found near the southern tip of North Beach Monday afternoon. Investigators do not yet know how Mr. Murdoch died, bu...

CHATHAM – On their first trip of the season, shark researchers were off Nauset Beach last Thursday when they got a call from spotter pilot Wayne Davis. He'd seen the first shark of the season, swimming just off the shore of Monomoy Island. Unfortunately, in the 15 minutes it took the research vessel to motor south, the shark had moved into deeper water and was lost. Davis said the shark appeared to be a small ...

In a historic agreement, selectmen in Harwich and Chatham this week voted to adopt an intermunicipal agreement for wastewater treatment. The 25-year pact was approved by selectmen in Harwich Monday night, and in Chatham on Tuesday. It will take effect on July 1 or shortly thereafter, and allows Harwich to send 300,000 gallons of wastewater per day from East Harwich for treatment at the Chatham water pollution ...

CHATHAM – More than 2,000 participants and many thousands more spectators are expected for the upcoming Fourth of July parade, the 122 nd since the event began in 1896. On Tuesday, parade committee chairman Brad Schiff announced that historian Spencer Grey had been chosen as the procession's grand marshal. “We find it very fitting that Spencer, who is so respected and has a legacy of significant contributi...

A member of the audience at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Eldredge Public Library on June 13 asked Emily Rooney, host of WGBH-TV’s “Beat the Press,” to name a hero or heroine. After a brief pause she responded, “Andy Rooney.” The standing-room-only crowd in the library’s Forgeron Room applauded. Emily Rooney, 67, is, of course, the daughter of the famous broadcast journalist Andy Rooney, who died...

CHATHAM – In 1964, the town went through a complex series of steps in order to transfer a portion of what was then airport property to the town's VFW. A portion of the land now occupied by the Brown-James-Buck Post on George Ryder Road remains under Chatham Municipal Airport ownership, but lacks a lease. That is a violation of the airport's federal obligations, according to a 2015 Federal Aviation Administrati...

EAST HARWICH — On Monday afternoon, a small crowd of young men and women gathered outside the Wequassett Inn, where they work under the J-1 student visa program, to talk about bicycle safety. They learned about the rules of the road, bike maintenance and nighttime riding, but organizers hope they also learned something else. “We just want you guys to be safe,” Harwich Police Lt. Kevin Considine said. The tr...

HARWICH PORT — Changes are being proposed to the plan to redevelop the former Dino's restaurant location in the center of the village, and the possibility those changes could include a restaurant has some neighbors concerned. Last week the board of health heard a request for a septic permit for the property more than double the required capacity of the original proposal, leading some to believe a restaurant co...

HARWICH — At 31, Jeff Locantore is the youngest resident of Pine Oaks Village, an affordable housing development here. He lives independently despite having cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder, and don't get him wrong. He's glad to have his apartment, having spent seven years on the waiting list to obtain it. But it's not really the experience Locantore had hoped for. He'd feel more comfortable being among p...

As eighth graders from the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in East Harwich were walking along the Vietnam Memorial during a visit to Washington, D.C. last week, student Kayo Torres spotted several veterans standing near the far end of the reflective wall. He walked up to them, stuck out his hand and thanked them for their service. His fellow students fell in line behind him, and soon a line snaked along the...