HARWICH – “A Prelude to ArtWeek,” sponsored by the chamber of commerce at the community center over the weekend, celebrated the beginning of ArtWeek, a statewide event.  Chamber Executive Director Cyndi Williams said she had been thinking a lot about how to get the community more involved in cultural center activities and to get residents to better understand the potential the center has for the town. The two-...

HARWICH – An advertisement for the sale of the former fire station at 203 Bank St. and the accompanying four lots totaling 2.06 acres will be ready to publish later this week, and the property could be sold as soon as the end of June. The property contains the town’s first fire station, built in 1929, and there has been early interest expressed by the Harwich Fire Association and the Harwich Conservation Trust...

HARWICH – Voters made a major commitment to conservation and passive recreation on the first night of annual town meeting Monday, approving $950,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to purchase a conservation restriction on 75 acres in the Six Ponds Special District. “This is the largest remaining undeveloped tract on the Lower Cape,” Harwich Conservation Trust Executive Director Michael Lach said at the me...

HARWICH – “Buy land. They're not making it anymore.” Mark Twain had a gift for getting to the heart of a matter. If he were here today, he'd heartily approve of Harwich resident Wayne Couslon, who followed Twain's advice back in 1980 and purchased a tract of land along Gilbert Lane and Six Penny Lane in Harwich. On Dec. 29, 2021, Coulson donated approximately 10 acres of the land to the Harwich Conservation T...

HARWICH — Selectmen Chairman Michael MacAskill said he sees nothing controversial on the annual town meeting warrant, but there are some issues that will draw “spirited debate” when voters gather at the community center on Monday evening. “We’ll see where the operating budget goes,” MacAskill said, suggesting there are some items that could spark debate. The overall town budget seeks a 5.4 percent increase, wi...

HARWICH — The town and Harwich Conservation Trust have some issues to work out as the Cold Brook ecological restoration project reaches its 75 percent design phase. Until they do, selectmen plan to hold off on signing a memorandum of agreement with the trust. At issue were changes in the design during the shaping of the project, and whether the most recent design provides enough ponding to reduce adequate nitr...

EAST HARWICH — After a two-year postponement due to the pandemic, the Toast of Harwich was back in full swing at the Wequassett Resort and Golf Club Friday night. “It was spectacular, a record night,” Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Cyndi Williams said of the event. This was the 19th annual Toast and it drew a record crowd of 252 attendees, Williams said. The benefit featured specialty cuisine from l...

HARWICH — The town conservation department, Harwich Conservation Trust and AmeriCorps of Cape Cod are looking for helping hands in cleaning up the community. The seventh annual Tour de Trash will take place on Saturday. So gather your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors and register for the town beautification event. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 30. Conservation Adminis...

 HARWICH – The Garden Club of Harwich is collaborating with the town’s water/wastewater department to conserve water in a campaign dubbed “Slow Your Flow.” “The Monomoy lens where we pump our water from is still at historically low levels and not yet recovered from last summer’s pumping season,” said Dan Pelletier, Water/Wastewater Superintendent. Last May, the towns of Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, Brewster a...

HARWICH – Despite concerns raised about the potential “decimation” of the horseshoe crab population, the planning board unanimously approved a special permit for Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. to establish a facility to extract blood from the ancient arthropods for biomedical uses. The Wilmington-based company was before the board on April 12 seeking a land use special permit to conduct scienti...

Board Cautioned Against Using High Figure In Sale HARWICH – With an appraisal completed, selectmen have instructed Town Administrator Joseph Powers to craft a solicitation for proposals for the sale of the former fire station at 203 Bank St. as well as four adjacent lots. Clancy Appraisal Company of Falmouth appraised the 6,700-square-foot former fire station property, which was most recently used by the ha...

HARWICH – Piping plovers have returned to a stretch of shoreline from Bank Street east to Red River Beach. A couple of nests have been established, and there are many plovers foraging between the Winstead Inn and Beach Resort to Wychmere Harbor Club. The tiny shorebirds returned a little early this year, Assistant Conservation Agent Melyssa Millett said last week. The birds were here on March 22, a week ahead ...