CHATHAM – The only contested race in the June 25 annual town election is for two three-year terms on the Monomoy Regional School Committee. Incumbents Nancy Scott and Jacqueline Zibrat-Long are being challenged by Robert Hessler and Elizabeth Taylor. Selectman Shareen Davis is running unopposed, as is housing authority member Janice O'Connell. Polls will be open at the community center from noon to 6 p.m.; to req...

HARWICH – On May 25, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, George Floyd cried out for help, calling for his mother, a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck until Floyd’s life ended on the street of the Minnesota city. On June 6, an estimated 1,000 peaceful protesters kneeled in silence in Brooks Park for eight minutes and 46 seconds in Floyd’s honor, the only sounds the chirping of birds in nearby trees ...

WELLFLEET – Members of the Cape Tech Class of 2020 might have been the last class to graduate from the soon-to-be demolished school building on Pleasant Lake Avenue, but they were the first to hold their graduation at the Wellfleet Drive-In, and while the venue was born of necessity due to the COVID pandemic, the event was one to remember. Graduates and their families rolled into the theater lot on June 4 with...

Data from some surprising sources, including town water departments, indicates that seasonal homeowners came to Cape Cod earlier than normal this spring — but there’s no evidence showing that they brought the coronavirus with them, State Senator Julian Cyr said last week. Speaking for the Cape Cod Reopening Task Force, Cyr said the group was seeking to learn how many people had come to Cape Cod in the earlier ...

HARWICH — Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers has been directed to lead the town’s efforts to approve individual restaurant requests to expand outdoor dining and liquor service under phase two of the state's re-opening plan. Early actions by town staff, selectmen and Powers led to quick results on Monday with selectmen reaffirming approvals for nine restaurants that the interim town administrator determin...

HARWICH — Given the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Harwich Cranberry Festival Committee announced the cancellation of this year's crafts fairs, music and beach day events. “Over the past months the Harwich Cranberry Festival Committee has been simultaneously planning and putting into motion all the things necessary to hold our season’s events while watching the progress and impact of the COVID-19 pa...

HARWICH – When The Children’s Center closed in mid-March due to the state of emergency declared by Gov. Charlie Baker, Director Abby Newberry-West told parents the shutdown should only last a couple of weeks. But more than two and a half months later, requirements in newly released Reopen Massachusetts regulations for preschools and childcare centers will make it impossible to reopen this summer. “It’s a huge,...

My walks in the woods are getting pretty buggy. This is usually what stops me from my weekly forays into the woods that I love so much, and it always happens right about now. I tend to walk in areas that have water nearby so mosquitoes, deer flies, gnats and other bugs I can’t identify swarm around me as if greeting a long lost friend. To be honest, some days it gets to be too much. I do use bug spray if I...

One of the fun annual events you’ve crossed out on your COVID-19 socially distanced summer social calendar may soon be possible once again. The folks at the Payomet Performing Arts Center are exploring options for a series of safe, drive-in style outdoor concerts which, though not exactly what we’re used to in a summer concert, is sure to hit the spot for audiences who have become a bit too familiar with the insi...

Just as the Constitution protects our right to publish and prevents the government from censoring speech, it also ensures that citizens can peaceably assemble without fear of interference by either the government or other citizens. Whether that was the intention of people who posted messages last week on social media that seemed to be veiled warnings about the planned protest in Harwich, we can't say for sure. Th...

Support Climate Change Initiative Editor: Those of us living on the bend of Cape Cod’s peninsula have already experienced enhanced erosion of our beaches, rising ocean temperatures wreaking havoc on our native species and an increased intensity of storms that announce that we are on the front lines of a climate emergency. Many voices have recently articulated the insight that our concurrent coronavirus cris...

At a time that requires so much of our leaders and ourselves, it seems wasteful to say to one of the three committed citizens running for selectman, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Yet, that’s the arithmetic. Incumbents Dave Currier and Meff Runyon want to stay, and Andrea Shaw Reed wants to join. When the music stops June 23, there will be only two seats available. Each hopeful has a good case to make. Currier, w...

The constant flow of information about COVID-19 over the past three months has led local councils on aging to daily changes requiring new ways of living, limiting activities and programs, closing buildings and dispersing staff and volunteers, and leading to readjustments in services and a rethinking of how to get things done. That is now being followed by a slow process of reopening that may continue for months. ...

ORLEANS — Rain is predicted for the morning of Saturday, June 20. So is an outdoor town meeting. That long-range forecast is just one view; another prediction shows a string of rainy days leading up to a cloudy but dry June 20. “If possible, we’ll just postpone it to the next day,” Moderator David Lyttle told selectmen at their pre-town meeting session June 3. “These are remarkable times that call for remarkab...

ORLEANS — When is a closing an opening? When it’s a purchase that will ensure public access to Sipson Island, which has been privately held since 1711. On Monday, the Sipson Island Trust and its partner, the Nadler family, closed on the purchase of the Pleasant Bay gem from the Dietrich family trusts. The Trust now owns six lots and will acquire two more from the Nadlers when an additional $585,000 is raised, ...

Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby? Can you tell me where he’s gone? I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill With Abraham, Martin, and John.                          - Dick Holler ORLEANS — As Summer Bates started walking up over the hill to the middle school parking lot Saturday, tears came to her eyes. A torrent of people was pouring down to the village green to join a protest march in so...