CHATHAM — First Night Chatham is preparing the town’s family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration to welcome in 2023 and is inviting everyone to join the party and “make some noise all around town.” That’s the theme of this year’s event, and beginning this weekend, First Night buttons will be on sale at various local merchants. While many of First Night’s activities and performances take place outdoors and are ...

CHATHAM — Though doing so might draw public ire, might worsen bike congestion downtown – and ultimately might not yield a workable plan – the select board Tuesday voted to continue the redesign of the tricky intersection of Route 28 and Crowell, Queen Anne and Depot roads. If they don’t, the board reasoned, safety problems will remain at the crossroads, and the town risks losing more than $3 million in state and ...

CHATHAM – The waterways advisory committee is recommending that parking along Cow Yard Lane be limited to residents, property owners and mooring permit holders. The proposal will now go to the traffic safety committee, which will decide whether to forward it to the select board or make its own recommendation. Neighbors of the town landing located off Old Harbor Road on Aunt Lydia's Cove requested measures t...

CHATHAM — In its most recent meeting, the airport commission addressed concerns raised by a former commissioner about the use of turboprop aircraft at Chatham Airport, specifically by a charter company working with Chatham Bars Inn. In a letter published in the Chronicle on Aug. 4, former commissioner Susan Wilcox argued that the charter service provides little benefit to the town but will increase traffic at ...

On a bright Boston September afternoon in 2010, my two daughters, husband and I met family and friends at the Jimmy Fund Clinic to walk and raise money for cancer. “Do we have to?” I asked my sister a few weeks before. “We do,” she said. The week before, my 5-year-old had just finished 18 months of treatment for stage IV high-risk neuroblastoma and given a 50/50 chance of survival. The protocol of care was so ...

CHATHAM – Traditionally, witches have had a fraught relationship with water. According to some folklore, witches can't cross running water. And we all know what happened to the Wicked Witch of the West. But this is Cape Cod, where witches take to water more readily than to broomsticks. On Saturday, Oct. 1, a coven of self-proclaimed witches will climb onto their stand-up paddleboards and cross the waters of...

CHATHAM – Chatham has an airport. It's an upscale community in a blue state. There's no reason to think that what happened on Martha's Vineyard last week couldn't happen here. Two planes chartered by the state of Florida arrived on Martha's Vineyard unannounced Sept. 14 carrying 48 Venezuelan asylum seekers who had been recruited in Texas. The group spent two days on Martha's Vineyard before being moved to Joi...

CHATHAM – For a number of years now, the spiny dogfish has been a mainstay of the town's commercial fishing fleet. Along with skate, it is by far the largest species by volume landed at the fish pier. Most of that fish, however, is shipped to Europe, where it is used for fish and chips, among other things. Not only does that create a fairly large carbon footprint, but local fishermen don't get a lot per pound ...

CHATHAM – After decades of battles, cannabis is legal in Massachusetts, for both medical and recreational uses, but finding out whether it is right for you and navigating the buying process can be daunting.  Dave Wheeler, founder and president of Brockton-based Therapy Gardens, was in town last week for a presentation called "All you wanted to know about marijuana...but were afraid to ask." Two dozen or so int...

CHATHAM — Following the lead of Orleans officials, the Chatham health board has agreed on a preliminary draft of a new bylaw regulating short-term rental properties and is sending it on to the select board for consideration. As currently drafted, the bylaw would place limits on the number of people who can occupy a rental and the number of cars they can park on a property. The health board is asking the select...

CHATHAM — With the old fishing gear storage lot at the airport now padlocked, and with plans still being finalized for a replacement site near the capped landfill, the select board last week endorsed a stopgap plan for three fishermen whose equipment needs temporary quarters. The three, two of whom are lobstermen, have immediate permission to move their equipment to parcels identified at the wastewater treatme...

The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management's Coastal Resilience Grant Program has awarded local towns more than $1 million in grants to combat the impact of climate change. On Tuesday the Baker-Polito Administration announced that Chatham, Brewster and Orleans will receive funding to address erosion, salt marsh restoration and shoreside infrastructure improvements. The grants were among $12.6 million ...