If anyone deserves to be named Cape Cod's Woman of the Year, it's Harwich's Angela Chilaka. A highly respected member of the Cape Cod and Harwich communities, Chilaka received the Mercy Otis Warren Cape Cod Woman of the Year last week by the Barnstable County Commission in recognition of the leadership role she has taken in the community, both as a long-time educator, volunteer and promoter of the Cape Verde c...

Questions Coast Guard Choice Editor: I was stationed at Station Chatham from February 1984 until October 1987 as a BM3 and BM2. I was a qualified heavy weather coxswain. During that time we responded to many search and rescue calls. In that time I only remember going to little Pleasant Bay one time for a rescue. We were able to go where we needed to using a 21-foot Outrage with twin outboards. The new 27-fo...

It's History Weekend in Chatham, but this year marks more than just a celebration of the museums and institutions that keep our past alive. Many are experiencing anniversaries of their own, demonstrating the commitment and passion of those who are dedicated to ensuring a better future by remembering the past. It was 125 years ago Sunday that descendants of William and Anne Nickerson gathered for the first of w...

Nickerson Association Celebrates 125 Years Editor: The Nickerson Family Association, Inc. (NFA) is celebrating its 125th year in 2022. William Emery Nickerson invited descendants of William and Anne Nickerson to a picnic in 1897, thus inaugurating the association. Behind our North Chatham campus is William and Anne’s recently-excavated circa 1664 homestead. On our campus, the circa 1829 Caleb Nickerson Home...

Help Celebrate Juliet's Life Editor: For 50 years, starting with her retirement to Chatham with her husband Selig in 1971, Juliet R. Bernstein was an outspoken advocate on Cape Cod for peace, social justice, women’s rights, and many other issues. She was sometimes called the conscience of Chatham. Juliet died on Nov. 18 at age 108. Due to the kindness and support, through a GoFundMe campaign, of people in Cha...

No laws were broken when a Chatham town employee left a BB gun in a desk at the town offices. Even so, the unbelievable lack of judgment and tone deafness that led the person to bring the realistic-looking pistol into a public building and workplace in the first place warrants their dismissal. The owner told police the pistol was in a laptop bag and was put in the desk drawer before they went to a meeting in a...

The high school seniors who crossed the stage to receive their diplomas during ceremonies in Harwich and North Eastham last Saturday have a lot to be proud of. Graduating high school is in and of itself a feat; but doing so after spending half of your high school years adapting to the uncertainty engendered by a pandemic is an accomplishment that will give these young people a unique perspective and set of skills...

We are lucky to live in Massachusetts. Our state has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, Massachusetts has the lowest rate of gun ownership in the country and the second lowest gun rate death at 3.7 per 100,000 residents (second only to Hawaii). Gun owners are required to keep firearms locked away when not in the owner's immediate control and must pass a sa...

What Is Wrong With Us? Editor: Can someone please explain why using each other for target practice has become an acceptable form of behavior? Politicians state ad nauseum, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families” while simultaneously supporting gun lobbyists. People, including our youngest and most innocent, are shredded by bullets (the reason DNA is needed to identify victims) eve...

When school committee members start to worry about the lack of housing impacting the ability to hire teachers, it's a signal that housing has become a crisis that threatens the very institutions that we rely on as a society. And it isn't limited to schools, although members of the Monomoy Regional School Committee expressed similar concerns when discussing giving up school property along Stepping Stones Road i...

Backs Moderator's Decisions Editor: If the list of warrant articles to be voted on altogether is taken out of the very capable hands of the town moderator, by anyone, I will stand up and say no to each and every article. Betsy Abreu Chatham   Voters Listened To Debate Editor: Thanks to all the voters at Chatham Town Meeting for participating in and listening to the long debates on two importa...

The most disappointing development at Chatham's annual town meeting Saturday was the failure of two affordable housing-related articles. And what's even more maddening is that both had a majority vote but not the two-thirds required by what seems more and more like an outdated state statute. The proposal to use four acres of town land along Middle Road for housing and put a perpetual conservation easement on t...