With any luck, Hurricane Dorian will skirt out to sea well south of Cape Cod. But the powerful storm is a reminder of the need to be prepared for emergencies. A few people among us remember the double-whammy of hurricanes that came 65 years ago in 1954. On Aug. 25, Carol came ashore at Old Saybrook, Conn., bringing winds of over 115 mph, downing thousands of trees and damaging many boats on the Cape. A week la...

It would be nice, on this Labor Day weekend, to take a stroll from downtown Harwich Port to Saquatucket Harbor to view the new facilities and perhaps have a bite to eat on the new deck overlooking the water. Unfortunately, walking along Route 28 between those two locations is both inadvisable and downright dangerous. Not only is there no sidewalk, there's precious little shoulder area. At some spots, a pedestrian...

Keep It Safe, Selectmen Editor: Let’s work together! Let’s keep Chatham’s airspace safe. We all agree we want a safe environment in Chatham for our residents, families, friends and visitors. A safe place to live, work, play and visit. Safety on our streets, on our beaches and ponds, in our backyards and in our airspace is important to help keep Chatham thriving. We all agree that Chatham is a conge...

“Saturday night at the movies Who cares what picture you see When you’re huggin’ with your baby In the last row of the balcony?”    - The Drifters, 1964   I’ve driven by it for years. And for all those years, I have thought to myself that I had better make plans to go to the Wellfleet Drive-In soon. We all know that Cape Cod is changing and the Wellfleet Drive-In is one of very few Drive-In Theaters...

Chatham selectmen should move quickly to address neighbors' complaints about the use of Chase Park. We say “use” and not “ever-increasing use,” as it’s worded in a recent petition park neighbors submitted to the park and recreation commission, because in our view, Chase Park is one of the most underutilized public spaces in town. The land, off Cross Street, was donated to the town in 1953 by Avis Chase “as a p...

West Chatham Site Close To Home Editor: I read with interest in your paper recently that a location on Main Street in West Chatham could be the new site for the senior center currently located on Stony Hill Road. The West Chatham site has many things going for it, including:  1. On a main highway accessible for all types of vehicles in all types of weather.  2. Public transportation available. 3. Medic...

The dwindling of the school-age population in our area is a real concern; it is symptomatic of the failure to retain and attract young families. We all know the economic realities that contribute to the situation: the dearth of high-paying year-round jobs, the lack of affordable rental housing and the soaring price of homeownership. These are systemic, regional problems that Chatham, Harwich and Orleans cannot wh...

Park Is Meant For The Public Editor: Real estate has always touted the tag-line location, location, location, and while property value is affected by this, so is adjacent activity.  If you purchase property abutting or close to a public area, expect the public.  Because current or past use has been one way does not guarantee nothing will change in the future. It has always been my feeling that Chase Park...

Don't Hide New Senior Center Editor: The “Triangle” land proposed in the letters column (July 25) was a poor choice. Instead of hiding the council on aging senior center out of sight in Chatham’s backwoods, place it in a prominent downtown location where our elders can enjoy beautiful views, either by acquiring a home along Chatham’s extended waterfront or dedicating a parcel of land from the town-owned gol...

When Cape Codders or their visitors hear the expression “thar she blows,” they are usually then directed to glance over the right or left bow of the whale watching vessel they are motoring on to see a whale spouting water from its blowhole. But on July 23 the words took on a different connotation. In an eerie case of life imitating art, “Sharknado” was actually upon us, with sharks to the right of us and tornados...

Both the town and the Citizens for a Safe Chatham Airport have spent thousands of dollars in a court battle over allowing skydiving at the town's airfield. Last week, a Barnstable County judge allowed the town's motion for summary judgment in the suit brought by the citizens' group, essentially dismissing their claim that skydiving constituted a nuisance under the state Tort Claims Act. Because the town was compe...

Last week’s tornado was violent, frightening and destructive, and now that most of the trees are cleared away and the power’s been restored, a proper damage assessment is taking place. The cost to municipalities, businesses and private homeowners will almost certainly be in the millions of dollars. But make no mistake: when it comes to disasters, this wasn’t the big one. The tornado that crossed Harwich had...