Pledges To Allow No Food Trucks There CHATHAM — An anonymous neighbor of the former Eldredge Garage property has offered to give the town up to $1.5 million to help build a small visitor center and parking area on the town-owned parcel at 365 Main St. The gift comes with at least one key condition: the lot can’t be used as a location for mobile food vendors for at least the next decade. The donor offered to...

CHATHAM — A residential tax exemption like ones adopted in Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet and Nantucket could provide some relief to year-round working families by shifting some of their property tax burden to summer residents. But would it achieve the select board’s goal of helping year-rounders stay in town, or even attracting new young families to Chatham? The board hopes to have a clearer picture before it...

Town clerks are preparing for a higher-than-usual turnout for the Sept. 6 state primary, based on requests for mail-in ballots and on early voting, which began Saturday and continues through Friday. But with election day coming the day after Labor Day, it remains to be seen how heavy in-person voting will be. “It's not the most ideal date,” said Chatham Town Clerk Julie Smith. Numerous state-wide races are ...

Despite recent short-lived rainstorms, the Cape Cod region remains extremely dry, leading the Massachusetts Drought Management Task Force to upgrade the drought status from “significant” to “critical” last Wednesday.   Though issuing mandatory water conservation measures is up to individual communities, the task force urges people to cease all non-essential outdoor water use. Essential uses include ones tha...

CHATHAM — For Dave DePasquale, being a good fire chief has meant building a strong team, going the extra mile, and putting the community first. And now, it means knowing when to step aside. After nearly 33 years as a Chatham firefighter and a long tenure as a line officer, DePasquale will retire officially on Nov. 30. “I love being chief. It’s kind of hard to walk away,” he said. DePasquale’s contract expir...

Colonial Building, Pentimento Under New Ownership CHATHAM – Two more iconic downtown buildings have been sold. The sales come after one of the long-time anchors of the downtown business district, the Chatham Wayside Inn, was sold in April for $18 million. The Colonial Building at 647 Main St. was purchased Aug. 1 by Colonial Building LLC for $3 million. The building that previously housed the Pentimento ...

CHATHAM — Having come to the aid of more than 700 mariners in his 41-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard, Jack Downey is being remembered locally as the one who rescued an entire Coast Guard station when it was foundering.  Mr. Downey died last weekend at the age of 75, leaving a wide circle of admirers who remember him as a gifted leader, a generous mentor and an affable friend. His legacy in Chatham remains ...

CHATHAM – The town has canceled the lease of one of the two tenant packers at the municipal fish pier and is looking for a company to take over the space on an interim basis. Marder Trawling, Inc., which has operated the south packing bay at the waterfront facility for about a dozen years, has been unable to fulfill its lease obligations due to internal staffing issues, according to a statement from the town. ...

CHATHAM – An increase in use of the Cow Yard Lane town landing is prompting neighborhood residents to ask town officials to limit parking and use of the unpaved road to residents, property owners and mooring permit holders. “It has really gotten very much out of control,” Lesley Nicholson told the traffic safety committee recently, describing encounters with sometimes aggressive beachgoers and drivers who some...

CHATHAM — There’s no question that summer rental properties help sustain the visitor economy while putting money in the hands of local property owners. But health board members worry that, unregulated, they can also harm the environment, overtax town resources and change the character of the community. Town officials had begun drafting a short-term rental bylaw in 2017 but the effort lost steam. This week, the...

CHATHAM – When the splashing subsided last Friday, the 67 custom-created whales that were on display in Kate Gould Park over the summer brought in more than $110,000 in an online auction sponsored by the Chatham Chamber of Commerce and Chatham Merchants Association. Although it failed to top last year's auction total, the sale raised a considerable amount of money to support the chamber and merchants associati...

CHATHAM — Building a new senior center on the current site is fraught with challenges, and so is any plan to move council on aging programs to the community center. The alternatives aired Tuesday left town officials so uninspired that they wished they could roll back time and try again to convince voters to build a senior center on Main Street in West Chatham. After voters narrowly rejected that proposal in 20...