HARWICH — The sign on the former Getty gas station property in Harwich Center that reads “Winstead Village Inn Expansion” is drawing a lot of attention. The landscaping along Main Street in front of the shuttered station has also been vastly improved, with holiday lighting signaling hope for the future there. The property is owned by Bassil Brothers Trust, which purchased it from Getty Realty Corporation for $...

HARWICH — Town officials got a close look Monday night at the capital plan and what it means for taxpayers going forward. The plan recommends $13 million in projects in FY18, driven primarily by more than $4 million in wastewater infrastructure. “The sale of wastewater is the elephant in the room,” Capital Outlay Committee Chairman Richard Larios told the gathering of selectmen and finance committee members in...

HARWICH ─ This weekend, when the curtain rises at the start of the Reaching Heart School of Ballet's “The Nutcracker,” it will mark the 14 th season of the show. It will also be the first time in those 14 years, according to the ballet school's director Melissa Heart, that there will be no special showing for Monomoy School District students during the school day. “We always have done school shows,” said He...

HARWICH — Establishments providing entertainment in Harwich Port will have to adhere to new noise level regulations after selectmen Monday night tweaked proposed regulations one more time before approving them. This was the third hearing before selectmen over the past month on proposed noise regulations designed to appease the business community and residents in the mixed-use district. After two sessions in wh...

HARWICH – Brent Hemeon has been working the soil on his farm between Grassy Pond and Bank Street for nearly 30 years, producing an abundance of fruit, berries, vegetables and salad greens, many marketed through his farm stand or sold to restaurants featuring locally grown produce. Hemeon has long had a love of the land and what it produces, including trees. The farm has approximately 200 fruit trees –apple, pe...

HARWICH ─ Homelessness is a problem that affects thousands of Cape Cod residents, and last week members of the Harwich Fire and Police Departments pitched in to help alleviate their struggle. For four nights and five days firefighters and police officers braved the cold as they stationed themselves outdoors at Brooks Park collecting donations of toys, food and funds to benefit local families in need. Acco...

HARWICH — Though rescuing people from fires is part of the job description, a firefighter can go an entire career without pulling a person from a burning building. But that won't be the case for Deputy Fire Chief David LeBlanc, who rescued a woman from a blazing apartment in South Harwich on Dec. 3. For that action, Fire Chief Norman Clarke, Jr., issued him a formal commendation last week. The woman, whos...

HARWICH PORT — Setting the boundaries for music here has been a lot more challenging than town officials initially thought. Selectmen on Monday night continued for the second time a public hearing on adopting the town's noise bylaw as a standard for entertainment and establishing uniform hours for playing music. Although they agreed that outside music should have a 10 p.m. limit, they were not prepared to go i...

HARWICH — As the community preservation committee begins deliberations on requests for funding, Hinckley's Pond has become a major focal point. Water quality issues in the Herring River headwaters pond have residents there concerned. “Hinckley's Pond is the upward expression of the Monomoy lens,” Stanley Selkow, co-president of the Hinckley's Pond Association, said this week. He was referring to the groundwate...

HARWICH — Finance Director Andrew Gould has informed selectmen he will be leaving at the end of the month. Gould, who was hired to replace retiring finance director David Ryan, has been in the position for less than two years. “When I took this job I thought I wanted to live on the Cape. I do not like living on the Cape and as a result I have accepted another position on the North Shore and will be moving to M...

HARWICH — The state will be awarding the town of Harwich a $400,000 Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity (LAND) Grant to assist with the purchase of the 17.43-acre Marini property along Muddy Creek in East Harwich. The Baker Administration announced $3.9 million in LAND grants designed to address climate change and protect biodiversity within the borders of the commonwealth. The Marini property, located of...

HARWICH ─ About eight years ago, when Monomoy Spanish teacher Elizabeth Hoff sought a way for her students to use the language beyond the classroom, she turned to the old school communication method of letter writing between her then-Harwich High students and students from Colegio Miralba in Vigo, Spain. Eight years, many letters, emails, Skype conversations, and day-in-the-life videos later, a group of 15 M...