HARWICH – It started with a frozen shoulder last summer. When Bill Olivier started seeing doctors about the shoulder, in addition to some recurring back pain, there were MRIs and X-rays taken that stumped the orthopedic specialists.  When he started to develop a foot drop, which he described as feeling "like I was walking in clown shoes," more tests were done and a neurologist recommended he be seen at the Mass G...

On Heels Of Monomoy Mask Recommendation A few weeks after Monomoy Superintendent of Schools Scott Carpenter announced his recommendation that students wear masks when the return to class this fall, state education officials are following suit. On Tuesday, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to authorize the education commissioner to require masks for all public K-12 students and teacher...

HARWICH - Selectmen have scheduled a special town meeting for Oct. 18 that will focus primarily on wastewater funding issues. Plans to address a Monomoy Regional School District  regional agreement amendment relating to a funding disparity between the district's elementary schools will not be acted upon in the special session (see story on page 3). The need to change the regional school agreement was one...

To Address Elementary School Funding Disparity Voters will likely have to wait until the spring to consider a change to the Monomoy Regional School agreement designed to boost financial equity between Chatham and Harwich. But school officials say the fiscal impact of delaying the vote from a fall special town meeting to the May annual town meeting comes as no big surprise. On Monday, the Harwich board of se...

HARWICH – As Cape Cod Regional Technical High School seeks once again to reach out to the community after a year-and-a-half of restricted contact because of the pandemic, the Cape Cod Tech Foundation, a relatively new organization, is looking to lend a helping hand with students, teachers, and school facilities. South Yarmouth resident Robert Eckel is the executive director of CCT Foundation, a non-profit orga...

HARWICH  - Voters will be asked in the special town meeting called for Oct. 18 to support an increase in the lodging tax from 4 to 6 percent. Selectmen unanimously supported the increase in taxes for hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and short term rentals on Monday night. Board members said they want to steer away from using the tax revenues to offset the town general budget expenses and instead direct...

EAST HARWICH – The United Methodist Church Cemetery along Church Street is about 225 years old, and its gravestones are in pretty rough shape. Although town meeting turned down an article seeking $112,200 for repairs in May, selectmen have agreed to support another request for the funding. The cemetery commission and the community preservation committee supported the request to use Community Preservation Act f...

HARWICH — The Monomoy Regional School Committee unanimously voted last week to support a new funding formula that would see Chatham and Harwich voters paying separately for their towns’ respective elementary schools. The school committee’s action aims to provide more fiscal equity between the district’s two member towns. While Harwich pays roughly three-quarters of the regional school budget, dwindling enrol...

Part one of a two-part series on the new Cape Cod Tech school building. HARWICH – When the new 220,800-square-foot Cape Cod Regional Technical High School opened its doors last September in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the students came, but the community kept its distance. The community is an integral partner with the educational activities that take place at Cape Tech, and welcoming the public b...

HARWICH — Monomoy Superintendent of Schools Scott Carpenter has unveiled a plan to allow students to return to classes safely next month, with more opportunities for in-person learning and a resumption of many activities that were suspended during the pandemic. But a provision of the plan that would require all students and staff to wear masks while indoors while the risk of community spread of COVID-19 remains...

HARWICH – A leaky roof is an enemy of books, as officials at the Chase Library in West Harwich are learning. The roof of the historic building is failing, and the library trustees are scurrying to put funding in place to install a new one. “Water damage is the worst thing that can happen to a library,” Patricia Tworek, president of the board of trustees of the library said on Monday. The trustees have kicked o...

HARWICH – Marna Bate has created an interesting way for residents, visitors and kids to discover Harwich. Her new book of photographs is also designed to serve as a scavenger hunt. “Scene In Harwich, A Scavenger Hunt Of Sorts” takes readers along back roads, side streets and the main thoroughfares of the community to identify the photographs contained within its pages. The scavenger hunt includes recreation fa...