CHATHAM — After lengthy study, the select board adopted regulations last week allowing mobile food vendors to operate in certain locations around town, including parts of downtown. Out of deference to concerned neighbors, one location – the former Eldredge Garage property – was removed from the list of potential food truck sites. The select board had previously favored allowing mobile food vendors at six locat...

Mark August on Main Street, Chatham offers “something for everybody,” says co-owner Corinne Blakeney. “We really try very hard to keep our jewelry lines very contemporary and very affordable.” The store is commemorating its 30 th anniversary in business on Saturday, June 18 with a 20 percent off sale and a trunk sale. Mark August was established in 1992 by Mark West and Steve DeLeonardis. West and DeLeonar...

Says Suit Is Without Merit, One Of Many Filed Against Lodging Businesses ORLEANS – Ed Maas left the Orleans Waterfront Inn Thursday afternoon to give blood at the Church of the Holy Spirit. When he returned, he found a man waiting for him in the lobby. “ The inn was locked,” he said. “The front door was locked. I came in through the back door and walked up the stairs, and there’s a man standing in our...

CHATHAM — The select board is further refining the rules that will allow food trucks to operate in town this summer, including in parts of downtown Chatham. But where the trucks are allowed in public parking lots, there is a corresponding loss of precious parking spaces, something the board grappled with last week. The latest revision of the draft regulations for mobile food vendors specifies six pre-approved ...

CHATHAM – Paid parking, a shuttle and incentives to get downtown employees to use outlying parking lots were among the possible approaches to the town's perennial summer parking problems discussed by chamber of commerce and Chatham Merchants Association members last week. About two dozen business owners and employees were present for the May 11 virtual discussion, which was called to provide feedback to a park...

EAST HARWICH — When a New York-based investment firm purchased the Wequassett Resort and Golf Club for nearly $105 million last week, it made history in Harwich, and not just for taking ownership of a flagship resort that’s nearly a century old. It’s the most expensive private real estate sale in the town’s history. EOS Investors purchased the main resort property for $101,990,000, as well as an adjacent parce...

The moment that her boyfriend proposed to her, she knew that she would be modifying her mother’s 1979 wedding gown and wearing it to her own wedding in 2012. “It was the first vintage redesign I ever did,” Jessica Kidd said during a telephone interview last week. “I redesigned it to fit and modernized it.” Although Kidd’s mother Carol Tallant passed away before Kidd’s wedding, “she was there in spirit. It was ...

ORLEANS – Clarke Doody hasn't had a paycheck in three years, and he's never been happier. In 2018, he left his job in corporate America behind and relocated from his native New York to Harwich, where he traded in the comfort of a steady job and good paycheck for the chance to make a life out of pursuing his passions, namely music and art. "You wouldn't have recognized me," Doody, 39, said of his former life...

ORLEANS – With noise from indoor and outdoor music a growing concern in Orleans, Town Administrator John Kelly came to the select board Dec. 1 with a potential solution. Kelly offered an amendment to the town's annual indoor entertainment license that would have required license holders for 2022 to close their windows and doors when hosting music inside. But the amendment came without any input from restaurant...

Board Nixes Recommendation To Stop Outdoor Entertainment HARWICH – In acting on long-awaited findings on alleged noise and liquor license violations against five local establishments, selectmen rejected a recommendation to not issue any outdoor entertainment permits in 2022. However, the board warned that if noise complaints and liquor license violations continue, there could be more severe action. “If t...

ORLEANS — A consultant has been tapped to help guide the planning board in putting together its economic development strategic plan. Streetsense Consulting began work in late November. The firm was hired through $60,000 authorized through annual town meeting in May, planning board member Chip Bechtold said during the board's Dec. 14 meeting. The plan is designed to help the board, and the town, look far int...

ORLEANS – The select board has host community agreements in place for two businesses seeking state licensing to operate retail marijuana businesses in town. But one of the businesses is seeking a separate agreement that would allow it to also manufacture its product. Seaside Joint Ventures, LLC, plans to operate a manufacturing facility out of the same space it will occupy to run retail operations at 14 Lots H...

ORLEANS -- One of the two businesses approved to open a recreational marijuana operation in town hopes to be up and running by the end of 2022. Ember Gardens plans to open a dispensary at 41 Route 6A, and officials gave an overview of their plans during a Zoom presentation on Dec. 7. CEO Shane Hyde said the company expects to undergo local and state review for much of the next year, starting with a traffic stu...

ORLEANS -- "Tell us what the rules are, and we'll enforce them." That was the message Dec. 8 from Police Chief Scott MacDonald to the select board, which continues to work toward finding a happy medium between allowing outdoor entertainment and respecting the rights of abutters to the businesses that host it. The issue of outdoor entertainment has become a sticky one in town. The select board in March voted...

PLEASANT LAKE — Over the past two years, working through a state grant, approximately 30 Cape residents have had the opportunity to graduate from a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) training program at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School. Only they’re not high schoolers. The HVAC program is run through The Community School program, which oversees adult education at Cape Tech. The intensive e...

CHATHAM – Meals tax receipts from the first quarter of this year outpaced the same period last year by $85,000, just one indication that the restaurant business is recovering from the hit it took from the pandemic. Another sign was the near-impossibility of getting a reservation over the summer. There are numerous reasons for that, including more people willing to dine indoors, slower service and restaurants choo...