When the pandemic hit last spring and the hunkering down began, Peter and Bonnie Brenner decided to make lemons out of lemonade. Peter had retired from a 40-year career in the ministry, including two decades as a Navy chaplain, and Bonnie knew that there were boxes of his professional material stored in their basement. Bonnie also knew that Peter, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013, would ...

And Puts Unfair Burden On Harwich Taxpayers A precipitous drop in enrollment, driven by the loss of young families from town, is threatening the future of Chatham Elementary School. That also has big implications for Harwich taxpayers and the pact between the two towns that form the Monomoy school district. In the short term, Chatham taxpayers will likely be asked to pay a larger share of the budget for the...

CHATHAM – Lacking a plan for redevelopment of the former Monomoy Theatre property, the historic business district commission last week denied requests to demolish five of the seven buildings at 766 Main St. and 70 Depot Rd. “I feel very uncomfortable approving a demolition of anything down there without a comprehensive plan,” said Chairman Dan Sylver. There were previous plans for redevelopment of the prope...

WEST CHATHAM — The new roundabout at the corner of Main Street and George Ryder Road is taking shape, and there have been reports that particularly long tractor trailers have had trouble navigating the traffic circle. The news seems to support longtime concerns raised by critics of the new traffic plan, but officials say the tractor trailer problem is temporary. Last Tuesday, a truck pulling a car carrier tr...

CHATHAM — Though it will be without the crowds, the holiday season won’t be without Christmas cheer in downtown Chatham. In lieu of the Christmas Stroll, the merchants’ association and chamber of commerce are planning a more subdued holiday celebration that will encourage holiday shoppers to spend their dollars locally while observing the necessary precautions during the pandemic. “The focus begins Thanksgi...

In New Memoir, Chatham's Charles Daly Recalls Korea, Kennedy And Life Of Service One rainy Sunday a couple of years ago, Christine Daly of Chatham was sorting through a century-old box of photos of her husband’s family in Ireland when she made an astonishing discovery. Beneath the “piles and piles” of photos, she found a “big old tattered Manilla folder” marked “WH.” In it were 200 or 300 typed four-by-six ...

CHATHAM — After a community center staff member tested positive for COVID-19, town officials announced that the PARK after school childcare program will be shut down until Nov. 30. As of early this week, there was no indication that any of the children in the program had contracted the illness, but parents had been warned to watch their youngsters for symptoms. Last Friday, town officials learned that the comm...

CHATHAM — For researchers hoping to understand the death of a stranded whale, sometimes the answer is simple: There is no answer. That’s not yet the case with the young humpback that stranded on shoals outside Stage Harbor earlier this month, since researchers are still waiting for lab results from tissue samples taken during a postmortem exam. But absent any indication of illness, they don’t have much to go o...

CHATHAM – It took just a couple of hours Tuesday for Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge staff to remove the bottom section of the stairs that led to the beach below the agency's Morris Island headquarters. The impact on public access, however, will be felt for months, maybe years to come. Erosion that Acting Refuge Manager Eileen McGourty called “extreme” has clawed away at the bluff that runs along the east and...

CHATHAM – Next Wednesday, the historic business district commission will hear plans to demolish five of the seven buildings on the former Monomoy Theatre property. Chatham Productions is proposing to raze all of the structures on the 776 Main St. property except the historic Washington Taylor House and the theater building. Included are the scene shop, apartment building, shed and costume shop/refreshment cent...

Officials Allege Barge Ran Aground In Quahog Nursery CHATHAM – Officials are investigating damage to seed shellfish caused by a vessel grounding out in the town grow-out area in Mill Creek. As many as 450,000 seed quahogs may have been compromised and 100,000 lost because of the damage, said Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne. While she put the value of the lost shellfish at about $7,000, the damage to the tow...

Following Ambitious Rescue Attempt CHATHAM — Despite a valiant rescue effort, a young humpback whale stranded outside Stage Harbor early Saturday died before it could be moved from the shoal where it had beached itself. The 31-foot male, estimated to be three or four years old, stranded on a sand bar about 200 yards south of Crescent Beach, off Morris Island, and was first spotted early Saturday morning. Ha...