HARWICH – Th e board of selectmen last week affirmed the appointments of a new director of planning and community development and a housing advocate . Under the town charter, the selectmen affirm appointments made by the town administrator to fill department head positions. On Nov. 21, Town Administrator Joseph Powers sought approval for Paul Halkiotis as the town’s director of planning and commun...

HARWICH — For ordinary people, giving up central heating, a comfortable bed and the coziness of home wouldn’t conjure up the holiday spirit. Then again, the first responders who organize “Homeless for the Holidays” aren’t ordinary people. “We absolutely look forward to it,” Harwich Fire Lieut. Brad Willis said. Starting on Dec. 7, firefighters and police officers will be camped out at Brooks Park in Harwich Ce...

HARWICH – Whether the town clerk ’s position should be elected or appointed is being deliberated once again. The subject was raised last spring shortly before voters went to the polls to elect a new town clerk after 30-year veteran keeper of the records Anita Doucette retired. Selectmen Chairman Michael MacAskill said the topic of an elected versus appointed clerk was dropped at that time given the appro...

HARWICH – “If we refurbish, they will come,” Town Administrator Joseph Powers said of plans for a $1.9 million upgrade of the former middle school, now known as 204 Sisson. Powers announced plans to refurbish sections of the school at the Nov. 21 selectmen’s meeting. He presented the board with a cost analysis report shaped with the assistance of Director of Cultural Affairs Kara Mewhinney, Recreation D...

SOUTH YARMOUTH – It was one of the most exciting football games played on Cape Cod this fall. It just didn’t end the way Nauset had hoped it would. Seeking its first Thanksgiving win over Dennis-Yarmouth since 2018, Nauset threw everything it had at its rival. The end result was an instant classic — a 26th installment of the Chowder Bowl that featured a combined 87 points, nearly 1,000 yards of total offense a...

HARWICH — If Las Vegas bet on high school football games, oddsmakers may have put the over-under for points in the Thanksgiving classic between Monomoy and St. John Paul II at around 40. Fewer points than the teams’ point total last year, but still a high-scoring affair. If that was the line on Thursday, the under would have hit and then some — as the game remained scoreless after four quarters of play. Def...

The big moment wasn’t too big for Isaiah Robinson. Not at all. Robinson was one of the biggest highlights for the Nauset football team during its 45-42 loss at Dennis-Yarmouth in the 26th edition of the Chowder Bowl. The sophomore from Yarmouth finished with four catches, 161 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns, connecting with freshman quarterback Brendan Peno for passing scores of 32 and 70 yards...

A Lower Cape tradition returned to the streets of Chatham on Thanksgiving morning for the first time since 2019. After holding virtual races the past two years, the 18th edition of the Turkey Trot drew 2,271 registrations and grossed more than $100,000. The proceeds from the festive family-friendly 5-kilometer race will benefit the Lower Cape Outreach Council, a non-profit organization that aims to provide ...

     The holidays are off to a festive start at Cape Cod Theatre Company/HJT, with the debut of a new monthly music event at the CCTC/HJT Arts Center, “Songs, Stories and Sounds,” on Friday, Dec. 9 and “A Christmas Story, The Musical” onstage Dec. 2 through 30.      Join Michael Paul Brennan, Sarah Swain, Allie Jason and Gabriella Simpkins for a night of “Songs, Stories and Sounds” at the CCTC/HJT Arts Center...

Here comes the time of excess. Even though we’ve been seeing holiday displays in shops and ads online and on TV since mid-October, now that Thanksgiving has passed, there will be no sense of restraint. Everything will be about the holidays and all the ways we can spend lots of money on gifts for others, or even ourselves if we are so inclined, gifts most of us don’t need. As a child way back when I remember ou...

When Sasha Tomasek-Little came to the Cape more than five years ago from farm country in Connecticut, she was struck by the ocean and fishermen who build their lives on it.  “It was mind-blowing how hard they work and the brotherhood,” Tomasek-Little said.  The Orleans resident was surprised the industry wasn’t celebrated more. Coming from a marketing and public relations background, it seemed to her there ...

While walking her dog in the woods near the bike trail off Queen Anne Road in Harwich Monday, a friend was startled to run into hunters — not just one or two, but 10, all toting rifles and apparently seeking deer. She'd never seen hunters in the area before, despite walking there often over many years. The hunters were polite and warned her that she should be wearing bright colors, since it was hunting season. Sh...

Theater Program Builds Community Editor: There is nothing better than a live performance that is so powerful it stays with you days afterwards. BoldCo’s “Tiny Beautiful Things” was that performance for me. BoldCo is a brand-new educational troupe for adults over 55, launched by Cape Rep Theatre under the direction of Julie Allen Hamilton. BoldCo joins the wildly successful YoCo and VetCo programs that all of...

On the winter solstice, Dec. 21, the sun will set here on Cape Cod at 4:14 p.m. after rising about nine hours earlier, at 7:05 a.m. Does 15 hours of darkness in a single day make you feel logy or even depressed? You might be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, a mood disorder first named in 1984. When the long nights of late fall and winter close in, SAD sufferers can grow lethargic and find th...

ORLEANS – A residential tax exemption would save some Orleans residents on their property tax bills, but not everyone. That was the message to the select board Nov. 16 from Town Assessor Brad Hinote, who said homeowners whose properties are valued the lowest in Orleans would benefit most from the exemption. But it could ultimately cost some residents depending on the assessed value of their property, while oth...

ORLEANS – A revised application for funding renovations to the Main Street community center is going back before the community preservation committee for reconsideration. The select board voted 5-0 Nov. 16 to submit the application for consideration for the annual town meeting in May. In March, the CPC voted against supporting the use of Community Preservation Act money for renovations to the center, common...