Betsey Ann Buck Bloomer passed away peacefully at the Orleans Nursing and Convalescent Home at age 88 on October 19th, 2020. The daughter of the late Clayton and Francis Buck, she was born in Brockton and moved to Chatham with her family in 1941. Upon graduating from Chatham High School' in 1950 she attended the MGH School of Nursing in Boston, graduating in 1953 and completed her education receiving...

Kenneth B. Wood III, 69, passed away peacefully surrounded by the love of his wife and daughter on Monday, October 19, 2020 at his home in Orleans.  He fought a courageous battle with multiple system atrophy, a rare neurological disorder.         He was predeceased by his parents Anne S. and Kenneth B. Wood Jr., brother Andrew W. Wood, and sister Rebecca S. Wood.    Barry was proud to have been born in the nat...

Town To Draft Protocols To Better Inform Citizens, Businesses CHATHAM – It's clear that town officials dropped the ball in the way downtown merchants were informed of sidewalk replacement work that will impact holiday shopping. And it's not the first time there's been a failure to communicate over a town project. “I want to stress how important it is that we have better communications,” said Selectman Cory ...

CHATHAM — Forget Halloween. For regional tourism officials, the most frightening part of 2020 happened in the spring, when it seemed that the high season for visitors might not happen at all. But the summer season turned out to be not as bad as feared, thanks in part to cooperation between businesses and all levels of government. That was one message Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Wendy Nort...

CHATHAM – The best part of working for the housing authority, said retiring executive director John Stewart, is getting to know the residents. “We've had some very colorful characters,” he said. “I don't mean that in a bad way. People have very interesting histories. It was nice to know people that way.” Tomorrow will be Stewart's last day as director of both the Chatham and Harwich housing authorities, a t...

Early in-person voting for the Nov. 3 presidential election ends tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 30) after a two-week period that brought a large percentage of voters to the polls. Election officials expect a busy but manageable election day thanks to the high number of pre-election ballots being cast. As of Monday, 1,268 people had voted early in Chatham, 20 percent of the town's 6,153 registered voters. The number is...

It’s not news that nutrients, mainly from residential septic systems, are responsible for water quality problems on the coastline and in the Cape’s lakes and ponds. What’s new is that the problem appears to be getting worse. This week, t he Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) released its second annual State of the Waters: Cape Cod report, which showed an increase from last year in the percentage of...

Emily Yerby works for The Greater Boston Food Bank and came home from an “insanely” hard day at work too exhausted to cook dinner. So she threw some haddock chowder on the stove, the same chowder that has been offered at pantries across the state. “It was perfect,” she said. “This for me has been a silver lining during all this chaos.” The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance's new haddock chowder first...

HARWICH — Over the past couple of years the number of algae blooms in local ponds seem to be on the rise. Skinequit Pond in South Harwich has experienced two blooms just in the past two weeks, and for the second year in a row the West Reservoir in West Harwich had the blue-green shade that is emblematic of cyanobacteria. The town had a decade-long battle with algae blooms and fish kills in Hinckley’s Pond befo...

HARWICH — The sugar kelp farm that Mark Kelleher has been operating off the Herring River in Nantucket Sound will be expanded this year with the addition of juvenile bay scallops. Kelleher received approval from the conservation commission last week to experiment with growing bay scallops as part of the kelp farm the commission approve in 2018. Kelle h er told the commission he was somewhat disappointed w...

HARWICH — With insightful questions and a straightforward demeanor that would have been at home in a national presidential debate, members of the Monomoy Regional High School political action club questioned the candidates for the Massachusetts Ninth Congressional District during an online debate last Friday. The session was ably moderated by student Annalise Langelier. Incumbent William Keating, a Democrat, a...

HARWICH — An affordable housing trust session and a scheduled discussion by the board of selectmen on a proposed 100-unit residential development off Route 137 in East Harwich were halted based on the recommendations of Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers. Because there is no formal permit application for developer Chris Wise's project, Powers recommended officials refrain from discussions. He told sel...

HARWICH — Financial leadership and stability, implementation of the comprehensive wastewater management plan and the creation of affordable and workforce housing were identified as priority goals for the coming year by the board of selectmen. Selectmen approved five goals on Oct. 19, also including as priorities economic development and working with the interim town administrator, financial director and reside...

HARWICH – The Kate Gabri show started early Thursday night, with the junior forward scoring less than a minute into the Monomoy girls varsity soccer team’s match against Sturgis East. But she wasn’t finished. Gabri found the back of the net again just before halftime, giving the Sharks both goals in a 2-0 win over the Storm. After starting with possession, Monomoy quickly attacked from the wings. Juniors Ma...

These past few days, weeks, months – heck, let’s just say four years – have been full of arrows to our hearts. These unprecedented horrors will go down in history, and not on the proud side. The people that have perpetuated them will not suffer, but gloat, even if defeated. Destruction was their goal. Unrest and distrust, their tools. They haven’t won. Yet. They must be defeated. Soundly, so they can crawl back i...

Local Towns Plan Halloween Events   Saturday is Halloween, and while local authorities aren't encouraging house-to-house trick-or-treating due to the pandemic, there's no outright prohibition against the tradition. Health officials urge people to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocols for the holiday, which include general precautions such as wearing face masks (not just costume masks, ...