ORLEANS – It was a clean sweep in Tuesday's annual town election, as Orleans voters passed all four override questions put before them on the ballot. Question 1 to approve $627,032 to cover the town's portion of the Nauset regional school budget for next year passed 705-182, according to preliminary results released Tuesday night. Voters also approved two questions on Meetinghouse Pond, one to fund the constru...

CHATHAM – There's a single contested race on the May 19 annual election ballot, with incumbent Jeffrey Dykens and residents Lynne Pleffner and J. Michael Schell seeking two three-year terms on the select board. Jessica Rogers is running unopposed for a three-year term on the Monomoy Regional School Committee, and there are no candidates for a seat on the housing authority. A non-binding public advisory questio...

HARWICH – The three candidates vying for the three-year term as town clerk sought to win votes in the recent voter information committee forum moderated by the League of Women Voters. The candidates – Jannell Brown, Shelagh Delaney and Emily Mitchell – made their pitch to about 50 attendees in the town hall hearing room and to a viewing audience on Channel 18. In her opening statement, Brown, 51, emphasized...

CHATHAM – Speaking to a friendly audience at the community center Saturday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the key to Democrats advancing their priorities – and the key to reversing President Biden’s flagging approval ratings – is for them to rack up some wins for ordinary citizens. Things are already better than they were a year-and-a-half ago when Donald Trump was president and the pandemic was ra...

ORLEANS – The deadline to return nomination papers to run in the May 17 annual town election came and went Tuesday, but there will be no contested races. Candidates could take out papers for election or re-election to the select board, board of health, Orleans School Committee, Nauset Regional School Committee, Snow Library Board of Trustees and the positions of town constable and town moderator. Incumbent ...

HARWICH – The planning board is two members short, but tempers are flaring over efforts to fill one of the seats. Selectmen are being asked to consider a reduction in membership, foregoing the need for appointing additional members. At the selectmen’s Feb. 28 meeting, the board’s interview committee nominated Sandy McLardy for the planning board appointment. Selectmen Chairman Michael MacAskill took issue with...

HARWICH – Incumbent Selectman Julie Kavanagh and the candidate she defeated by 30 votes in the September special election, Jeffrey Handler, have both taken out nomination papers to run for the two three-year terms on the May annual election ballot. Kavanagh was elected in the special election in September to fill the unexpired term of Selectman Stephen Ford, who passed away in April. Her abbreviated term expir...

ORLEANS - It was a busy year on a host of fronts in Orleans, but once again, it was COVID-19 that drove the 2021 narrative. In a year that began hopefully with the arrival of vaccinations and ended with a resurgence of the virus, 2021 was dominated by the pandemic every bit as much as 2020. In between ongoing discussions about vaccines, masking and possible mandates, town officials grappled with a host of other i...

When Norman Katz, 84, was a young man straight out of Northeastern University, he was chosen to work in a clandestine position in the White House Continuity of Government Special Operations Division. In that capacity he was present during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 and on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963. “I’m the last one left in the world from this whole ...

HARWICH PORT — Here’s a fact that may surprise you: As of 2020, only 219 women had ever been elected to the Massachusetts House, as opposed to over 20,000 men. Kathleen Teahan, a Harwich Port resident for the past 13 years and one of those 219 women, has written a memoir, “For the People, Against the Tide: A Democratic Woman’s Ten Years in the Massachusetts Legislature” (2021). The book offers a fascinating in...

ORLEANS – For the first time since June, the select board is at full membership. Voters at Tuesday's special town election backed Michael Herman to finish out the term vacated by Cecil Newcomb last summer. Herman, who ran unopposed for the seat, garnered 1,475 votes. There were 41 write-in votes and 33 ballots left blank. Four ballot questions also were put before voters on Tuesday. A request for $365,000 t...

ORLEANS – Michael Herman has spent much of his life taking up the many opportunities it has had to offer him. From time spent living in New York City and Hong Kong to a career that saw him pivot from fashion to farming, Herman has always looked forward to what comes next.  “I’ve kind of gotten to a place in life where I’m open to new experiences,” he said. Herman’s varied background could serve him well in ...

HARWICH — The field is growing for an unexpired term on the board of selectmen. Former selectman Julie Kavanagh and aquaculturist and teacher Mark Kelleher have joined Jeffrey Handler in seeking the seat. After the passing of Selectman Stephen Ford in April, selectmen set the special election for Sept. 21. Candidates have until July 30 to take out nomination papers. The term will run to the May annual election...

CHATHAM – Voters returned incumbent Select Board members Cory Metters and Dean Nicastro to office for another three years in Thursday's annual town election. Chatham native Metters topped the vote tally with 832 votes, followed by Nicastro with 685 and challenger Tom Wilson with 406. This is the third term for both Metters and Nicastro. The contest for the two three-year terms on the board was the only race on...

ORLEANS — You might say Cecil Newcomb is keeping his own counsel in declining requests to explain why he resigned from the select board last week. Meanwhile, his former colleagues were planning to meet in executive session last night (June 23) to discuss a legal complaint filed by a cannabis company that was not invited to negotiate a host community agreement to open a retail marijuana dispensary. A hearing on...

HARWICH — Voter turnout was low, but Mary E. Anderson garnered more than enough support to claim a seat on the board of selectmen in Tuesday’s election. The former executive director of The Family Pantry of Cape Cod received 1,140 votes to challenger Jesse M. Gallante’s 264 votes. “I’m quite happy and looking forward to representing the people of Harwich. The people who voted for me and the people who didn’t. ...