CHATHAM — For the third time in less than four months, a longstanding Chatham hotel property has changed hands. This time, it’s the Chatham Seafarer at 2079 Main St., which sold in late June for $4.4 million. The buyer is identified as Melissa Leonard, whose partners are listed as Robert Cochran and Antonino Scimeca. Leonard said she is planning some renovations at the Seafarer, and is interested in keeping it...

CHATHAM – At first glance, it may seem counterintuitive to have the town's council on aging director also oversee the recreation department, dealing with programs at both ends of the age spectrum. But there are synergies between the two, said Leah LaCross, recently named the town's first director of community services. “It can be a dynamic relationship,” she said. “Older adults and young people are, in many...

CHATHAM — Compared to today, Chatham in 1962 was a sleepy summer resort with most development clustered around its four villages. The large areas of open space that existed were taken for granted; it was assumed that meadows, beaches, ponds and woods would always be around for everyone to enjoy. But a small group of residents heard rumbling as more and more houses and neighborhoods were developed. With hesitat...

CHATHAM — In an unusual meeting under a tent at Old Mill Boatyard Tuesday, the state’s Seaport Economic Council handed out millions of dollars in grants to waterfront communities in Massachusetts, including Chatham, Harwich and Orleans. Topping the list of Lower Cape grants was a $1 million award to Chatham to help it replace an aging bulkhead at the fish pier and to make other improvements to boost safety and...

Official case numbers suggest the spread of COVID-19 is fairly steady, but it seems just about everyone has recently had the disease or knows someone who has. The disconnect between case data and anecdotal reports has left public health officials wondering what to expect when cold weather arrives and cases traditionally increase. The two-week percent positivity figure published by the state last Thursday is be...

CHATHAM – The U.S. Postal Service is releasing few details about undelivered and unopened mail that was found in a dumpster behind the Chatham Laundromat. All of the recovered mail has been delivered, according to the agency. The laundromat is located a few hundred feet east of the main Chatham Post Office at 802 Main St. A “significant” amount of mail was found in a dumpster behind the Chatham Laundroma...

CHATHAM – It runs counter to every trend seen here and elsewhere on the Cape for many years. A large, waterfront home on Stage Harbor is being replaced by a new dwelling that's nearly one-third its size. “You're taking a big house and making it smaller. That doesn't happen in Chatham,” zoning board member David Thompson commented during a hearing last January at which a special permit for the project was ap...

Pole Snapped In Half On Windless Day CHATHAM — The select board learned last week that a pair of power outages affecting about half of Chatham on June 28 were caused by a leaning utility pole on Old Queen Anne Rd. that snapped in half on a sunny, windless day. An Eversource spokesperson said responsibility for the problem rests jointly with Verizon, which owns the pole. “That said, Eversource, for sure, has...

Working Together Seeking Fair Prices CHATHAM – Working in a field that rewards competitiveness and individual initiative, commercial fishermen have a strong streak of independence. But in creating a new partnership, the Chatham Harvesters’ Cooperative, they’re working together to develop new products in new markets, seeking to get the best possible prices for the fresh seafood they bring to port. This after...

Though commercial fishing doesn’t dominate the Lower Cape economy the way it did historically, it’s still a giant producer of revenue and jobs. That’s the conclusion of a study of the region’s commercial fishing ports carried out by the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, the Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. The findings are drawn from a series of comme...

CHATHAM – The 10 th anniversary of the labyrinth at the rear of Chase Park was celebrated by about 50 people on Saturday. Since it was built in 2012, the labyrinth has drawn thousands of visitors to experience the quite, meditative experience “known to be healing, to be effective in clearing and grounding the body and opening the heart, and providing a sense of order in a chaotic world,” said Anne Bonney, a m...

 CHATHAM – Critics of Chatham Airport are concerned that Chatham Bars Inn's plan to partner with a charter airline company to fly patrons in and out of the airport could increase noise and traffic at the George Ryder Road facility. The Shore Road inn announced last month that it was offering charter flights for guest through Tradewinds Aviation from airports throughout the northeast. The charter company operat...