Remove Stop Signs For Climate Editor: There are now some seven billion humans all adding gasses that trap sunlight. There is overwhelming evidence that it is increasing the average temperature. The town can take at least small steps to reduce the increase. A vehicle uses much more fuel when going up to speed from a stop or from having to slow down. There are a lot of stop signs that could be removed, a p...

When town meeting established an affordable housing trust, it wanted to shake things up. For years, the affordable housing committee had been trying to increase the stock of dwellings accessible to people of moderate means. Members would hear of an available property, but by the time they could bring its acquisition before town meeting, it would be off the market. So town meeting yielded some of its authori...

Harwich voters go to the polls next Tuesday, May 18, to choose among candidates running for the board of selectman and the water and wastewater commission. In these, the only contested races on the ballot, we recommend votes for Mary Anderson and Ed McManus. Mary Anderson has impressed us ever since she took over as executive director of the Family Pantry of Cape Cod in 2005. She took the pantry from a modest ...

CHATHAM – A call to 911 may be at the worst moment of your life. Whatever prompted the call – a heart attack, a stroke, a fire – "seconds make a huge, huge difference," according to Chatham Fire Lieutenant Ryan Clark, the new public education coordinator for the Chatham Fire-Rescue Department. "It's that serious." If your house number is not easily visible from the street, in daylight or at night, a new progra...

ORLEANS — The town’s present seems to be catching up with its future. Long-debated projects like the downtown sewer system are being built, and visions of better housing options are coming ever closer to reality. Less than two weeks before town meeting, which decides whether plans will become projects, the Orleans Citizens Forum held a busy session May 10 that covered three warrant articles: the Governor Pre...

ORLEANS — The Eastham and Orleans select boards agreed on an agenda for tonight’s joint meeting, but that may be where the agreement ends. The subject is a draft Expanded Environmental Notification Form, prepared by Woods Hole Group as a key step toward obtaining a slew of permits to dredge Nauset Estuary. To improve navigation and public safety for commercial and recreational users, the EENF calls for impro...

HARWICH — After the community preservation committee voted Friday not to support $360,000 toward protection of 31 acres in the Hinckleys Pond watershed, town meeting voters on Saturday had no choice but to postpone action on the purchase. Annual town meeting voters supported several other community preservation funding requests, including $1,150,000 for a new Brooks Academy foundation and the addition of a bas...

Anne G. (Gildea) Casey of Chatham, formerly of Winchester, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 27th after a short illness and a long, wonderful life.  Born in Boston, and raised in Boston, Newton, and Milton she was the daughter of Joseph H. and Anna May (Laughnan) Gildea. She is predeceased by her loving husband of 55 years, John Haskell “Hack” Casey Jr., and survived by her daughter, Susan Nutile and her h...

Longtime Chatham resident Spencer Y. Grey died on April 24, 2021 following several weeks of declining health, not quite one month after his 94th birthday.  Spencer was born in Boston on 27 March 1927 to Percy A. Grey and Mary Lou Cressy Grey, and grew up in Beverly with an older brother, Robert. Since the early 1900s his mother’s family had spent summers in Chatham, where they owned one of the oldest houses on St...

David Edward Pickett of Harwich passed away on April 30, 2021 at the age of 89. The youngest son of Richard and Dorothy Pickett, he was born in Manchester, N.H., and raised in Newton with his three brothers. He received his master’s degree from Boston College and went on to teach mathematics for many years. He married Jeanette McGovern on April 3, 1976 and their family grew to include four children and numerous p...

Deborah Ann (Collingwood) Price, 64, passed away peacefully with both her daughters by her side on April 28, 2021. She was born on St. Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1957 at Cape Cod Hospital to Harry and Janet Collingwood. Deb was born and raised on Cape Cod and graduated from Chatham High School in 1975. Deb was a woman of many talents, and some of which would be classified as a lost art. She would hang and repa...

Eleanor Louise Bystrynski September 1, 1923 – April 20, 2021 BREWSTER. – Eleanor Louise Bystrynski, beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, died April 20, 2021. She was 97. Eleanor was born to Florence and William Gruber in Rumford, Maine.  The youngest of three children, she was called “Babs,” as the baby of the family, for much of her life.  She grew up with a brother and sister and parents who loved...

An upper and lower elementary school model makes the most sense for the Monomoy Regional School District, administrators told the school committee last week. Making Harwich Elementary School a pre-K to grade 2 school and grouping grades 3 and 4 in Chatham Elementary School would provide the best education for students and bring grade-level teachers together for better collaboration and curricular consistency, ...

Advanced bookings of hotels and vacation homes point to a busier-than-usual summer, travel and chamber of commerce officials say. With many people eager to travel but wary of flying, destinations like the Cape, within driving distance of tens of millions of people, are attractive getaways. Many local businesses worry that they won't have the staff to deal with the influx of visitors. That concern is especially...

CHATHAM – Chatham Elementary School Principal Robin Millen will be leaving her post at the end of the school year to become the director of curriculum assessment and student learning for the Nauset Regional School District. “It's my passion, truly,” Millen said of curriculum development. She was not actively looking for a new position but when the Nauset job came up, “I couldn't pass it up,” she said. She star...

CHATHAM — While there’s clear evidence that progress is being made in the fight against COVID-19, there is still no feasible way to hold the town’s Independence Day parade while ensuring that crowd capacity limits are maintained. That’s the view of both the board of health and the Independence Day parade committee, which issued their opinions in the last week. The health board also voted to reaffirm that, de...