A Scary Election Season Editor: Seemingly this country has now become its own worst enemy, and as this tire dump fire of a presidential election continues to rage, which is like having a front row seat to "The Jerry Springer Show," I'm thinking the current condition of this country and where we appear to be headed is akin to "The Fall of the Roman Empire." That's scary. Happy Halloween. Mike Rice South ...

Welcome to Chatham, summer home of the great white! The sign greets visitors to the annual Sharks in the Park exhibit and can found on buildings, homes and in shops all over town. It's meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek – or more, appropriately, teeth-in-sign, as the large bite marks in the placard indicate. Not everyone is amused by the association of Chatham with great white sharks, however. Chatham's high...

“ Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh, Here I am at Camp Grenada   Camp is very entertaining And they say we’ll have fun if it stops raining I went hiking with Joe Spivy He developed poison ivy….   You remember Jeffrey Hardy They’re about to organize a searching party Take me home, oh mudduh fadduh Take me home, I hate Grenada.”   Allan Sherman, who wrote and per...

Surprised By Trump Support Editor: I was not surprised when no one stood outside the community center with signs in support of Trump during the primary elections in March. I thought that was a good sign. But I was surprised when the votes were counted and 528 citizens of Chatham had voted for Trump. I hope now with just a few weeks left before the November election of the next president of the United States...

As this is being written, it's sunny and about 70 degrees outside of The Chronicle's office. It's a perfect fall day, the very epitome of why many of us who live here believe that autumn is the Cape's best season. It seems like we aren't alone. Almost every weekend since Labor Day, and many weekdays, downtown Chatham has been packed with people. Granted, it's a different crowd than those who are here in the su...

It wasn’t the brilliance that captured our attention. It was what was in the sky. Every morning, since April, I have been taking a moment to drive down to the overlook at Lighthouse Beach and check in. It used to be a habit of mine, years ago, to once a weekend drive to various town landings around town and see how things were going. Not there for more than a minute often. Just an exercise to touch base, like a c...

Vital Help For Library Editor: Recently the Friends of Brooks Free Library sponsored a raffle to benefit the library’s Vision Impaired Technology Assistance at the Library program (VITAL). An afghan that was knitted and donated by members of the library’s Knit Lit group was won by Harwich resident Bev Thatcher. I would like to thank the Knit Lit group for providing such a beautiful raffle prize, the many vo...

It is appropriate that Halloween and Election Day are only a couple of weeks apart. Mysterious October skies portend the reality of brooding November just around the corner. It is the season for change, when we embrace the light or the dark, good or evil. The hanging of glowing Halloween lights and choosing costumes precedes the spooky night of All Hallows Eve. In the spirit of the season, immersed in the afor...

Chatham clearly needs a new council on aging building. The current senior center on Stony Hill Road doesn't even come close to meeting the agency's needs, and never has. It always seemed a forced marriage between form and function. Built as offices and apartments, the COA's operation was shoehorned in from the beginning. Where to start with the deficiencies? No real meeting space; poorly arranged offices; three l...

After my kids graduated high school and left to pursue higher education, my wife and I discovered a truth about Cape Cod that its visitors, and some of its residents, have yet to learn: summer is busy – spring is uncertain – winter is long – but autumn is its best season. During our first post-Labor Day vacation in 1992, we learned that its benefits outweigh any drawbacks. Days may be shorter but the sunsets a...

Watching The Waters For All Editor: Friends of Chatham Waterways (FCW) would like to thank the 2016 Chatham Water Watchers for all their hard work during this year's Coastal Water Nutrient Monitoring Program. On five separate mornings this past summer, using various scientific instruments (Secchi disks, refractometers, dissolved oxygen meters and Niskins), volunteers measured water depths, clarity, salinit...

Readers will notice a few new additions to this week's paper. Along with stories focusing on Chatham and Harwich, we're including some additional coverage of the town just to the north, Orleans. There are several reasons for this move, but the most important one is that it's something that residents and businesses in Orleans have been requesting for some time. It's not something we're doing blithely, either. W...