HARWICH  —  Saying they’re using empty classrooms to meet the need for more early childhood education offerings in the district, the Monomoy schools will soon be hosting a YMCA infant and toddler care program at Harwich Elementary and a Head Start preschool class in Chatham. The school committee voted last week to approve contracts for each program. Both are in the process of recruiting students with the goal ...

HARWICH — The 90-degree temperatures kept participation to a minimum in Saturday's third annual Cape Verdean Festival in Brooks Park, but it was nonetheless a day to celebrate the late Mabel Gomes Canto, who was recognized for her commitment to the community. Each year the festival honors a person who has made major contributions to the community. Shawn Fernandes, vice president of the festival committee, reco...

Dust is unwelcome in Brent Hemeon’s Harwich Port wood workshop.  Among the power sanders, routers, planers, and saws, there is a HEPA filter attached to the ceiling which picks up tiny particles. As a result, the air in the 1,120-square-foot, well-lit workshop, which the 74-year-old lifelong Harwich resident built himself, is pleasant and clear. In fact, a visitor can’t even smell the slabs of wood stacked aga...

HARWICH — What do Squanto, Henry David Thoreau, Teddy Roosevelt and General Motors have in common? They’ve all dealt with the movers and shakers who came from the one-mile stretch from the Herring River to the Dennis town line. known as Captains’ Row. The old Indian or cow path that drew some of the first settlers of the town in the mid-17th century soon became the home to mercantile giants, ship builders and ...

Why are there virtually no codfish to be found in the waters off Cape Cod? Depending on who you ask, it's because of the eating habits of the thousands of gray seals now living in local waters, or it's because of decades of chronic overfishing plus ecological changes, like warming oceans. Peter Trull, Pleasant Bay Community Boating Curriculum Developer and Naturalist, comes down squarely on the latter cause. H...

HARWICH — Selectmen threw their support behind a $350,000 Lower County Road improvement project Monday night. Town Engineer Griffin Ryder projected the work should provide five to seven years of additional life for the road surface. The town has been wrestling with how to address poor road surface conditions along Lower County Road since voters in the annual town meeting turned down a request for $4.5 million ...

HARWICH — A major waterfront improvement project is being proposed for the Wychmere Beach Club, including the reconstruction of existing facilities and the addition of a new restaurant, small restroom, retail building and a pavilion extension. Wychmere Harbor Real Estate filed an application with the board of appeals to alter the existing special permit or to issue a new special permit for the waterfront prope...

HARWICH — The third annual Cape Verdean Festival will take place Saturday at Brooks Park, providing attendees the opportunity to experience authentic Cape Verdean food, art and “folklorico.” The festival celebrates Cape Verdean heritage and culture and recognizes the instrumental role its people have played in Harwich and across the Cape. Last year, Selectman Ed McManus noted the early contributions to fishing...

It's the season of backyard cookouts, beach picnics and fried seafood, but food poses a much more serious challenge for many people on Cape Cod in the summertime. Many of the seasonal workers who drive the local economy and provide the services that we all need during the summer months turn to the Family Pantry of Cape Cod to help put food on the table. Like many year-round retail and service workers on the Ca...

HARWICH — The proponents of a controversial retail development project proposed in West Harwich withdrew Tuesday evening as the planning board was poised to vote on a limited discretionary referral to the Cape Cod Commission. Chad Brubaker of Liscotti Development has been the major proponent of the 7,489-square-foot retail outlet proposed along Route 28. He read a letter at the start of Tuesday evening’s sessi...

Just before Thanksgiving in 2004, The Cape Cod Chronicle forged a partnership with the Family Pantry of Cape Cod. For years, we’d been reporting on the good work of the Family Pantry, the people who were making it happen, and the steadily increasing need. We called the campaign “ Helping Neighbors .” “As a small business, we knew we couldn’t just make a $100,000 donation on our own,” Publisher Henry Hyora said...

HARWICH — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has issued public health advisories recommending fish caught in two Harwich ponds not be eaten due to high levels of mercury. The advisory was issued on July 3 and pinpoints a number of ponds across the commonwealth where fish have been contaminated by mercury. According to the advisory, children under 12, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and women of chi...