New Owners Mum On Future Plans HARWICH — A major site remediation plan is being planned for the former Handler’s Auto Parts property along Route 28 in Harwich Port as the new owners begin to redevelop the two-acre site located above the inner Allen Harbor marsh. Future plans for the site are still not clear, but a thorough site remediation for contaminated soils and remediation of disturbed areas was presen...

HARWICH — The cost of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an impact on the town. This week selectmen wrestled with increasing disinfection services in public comfort station and agreed to add a seasonal COVID-19 code inspector to the health department. Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers told selectmen Monday that the town was getting complaints over the weekend about bathroom facilities at...

EAST HARWICH — While they’ll be taking steps to keep themselves healthy during the pandemic, a group of dedicated volunteers will be protecting the health of local waterways once again this summer. This week, a coalition of groups led by the Pleasant Bay Alliance held a training session for volunteers who will be sampling local waterways several times this summer to help paint a picture of water quality trends...

Graduation at Monomoy Regional High School might have looked a little different than in the past, but when the Class of 2020 was celebrated Tuesday evening, it was clear that in spite of a surreal senior year, the graduates still had much to celebrate. “We are an unprecedented class built for unprecedented times,” said Valedictorian Lillian Ryan as a blanket of fog swirled throughout Monomoy’s athletic turf be...

HARWICH — Due to the high cost of moving and rehabilitating a Victorian house that once served as the rectory and later the thrift shop at Holy Trinity Church, the affordable housing trust has decided not to pursue the building as affordable housing. The Roman Catholic Diocese has plans to remove the building, constructed in 1914 on the west side of the church on Route 28 in West Harwich. The structure has bee...

HARWICH — The need for rental assistance is more and more evident in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several organizations are seeking to raise funds to keep people in housing, and the affordable housing trust is looking at assisting the local housing authority. Affordable Housing Trust Chairman Donald Howell told members he has had discussions with David Nixon, chairman of the community preservation commit...

Local baseball players have something to look forward to. If all goes well, teams under the Baseball Clubs of Cape Cod and the Senior Babe Ruth organizations will start their seasons in July. Rosters for the Centerville Coyotes and the Lower Cape include a number of Monomoy and Nauset players. After the American Legion canceled its summer schedule on a national level, local baseball players were left wondering...

HARWICH PORT — One morning last week, Nan Poor, a trustee of the Harwich Conservation Trust, looked out her window into her yard, where she has several bird feeding stations. Among the visitors to her yard, which is next to the HCT Robert F. Smith Cold Brook Preserve’s wetlands and walking paths, there are often mourning doves eating seed on the ground or blue jays bouncing about. This particular morning, thou...

In spite of all sorts of signs to the contrary, summer has arrived. It’s not going to be our usual summer here on Cape Cod, but I think it’s going to be an interesting summer. No festivals, county fairs, concerts, parades, fireworks, plays, or sporting events are on our calendars this year. And yet, summer is making her appearance anyway. I can’t help but feel a little like the people of Dr. Seuss’s Whoville ...

Beethoven's 250th Birthday Will Be Running Theme It’s been a long few months of silent stages and empty performance venues across Cape Cod, but now it’s time to mark your calendar for a musical treat. In September the Cape Symphony, led by Artistic Director and Conductor Jung-Ho Pak, hopes to emerge from the pandemic shadows to take the stage at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center with an unforgettable comeb...

I have a daughter who is 37, which is a remarkable fact in itself, since I seem to harbor a misty belief, floating crazily in the back of my mind, that I am only 39 years old. I have another daughter who is 33 years old, which of course makes her younger than me. It’s funny how your kids grow up and we always see them as kids. And we can’t have aged that much, or do we? A mere three months ago, which now seems...

Milkweed Seeds Still Available Editor: I am still distributing milkweed seeds, free of charge, to help the monarch butterfly, whose caterpillar can only eat milkweed. Send your address via email to suzannaaan@yahoo.com, or pick some up at the display case at 606 Main St. Chatham, at the corner of Seaview Street, in a jar. Suzanna Nickerson Chatham

It's summer, according to both the calendar and the traffic. While there may not be quite as many visitors here as in past years, there are certainly more people out and about — on foot and on bicycles — than usual, a holdover from the long shutdown during which taking a walk or a bike ride were among the few escapes from quarantine. Lately we've noticed drivers, walkers, runners and bikers not being as carefu...

ORLEANS — When the town’s top elected officials meet for the first time as a select board, a woman will be among them. Andrea Shaw Reed, outgoing chair of the planning board, drew 1,393 votes at the town election Tuesday to join Mefford Runyon, who received 1,251 votes to win another term on what will now be known as the select board. Incumbent David Currier, with 911 votes, was not returned to office. ...

ORLEANS — If democracy dies in darkness, as The Washington Post’s slogan declares, it appears to thrive in sunlight, even in the midst of a pandemic. Saturday morning’s outdoor annual town meeting at the Nauset Regional Middle School track drew 439 voters, more than double the number required for a quorum. Many sat in socially-distanced pairs, with some sporting colorful umbrellas. Most wore masks. An opera...

ORLEANS — When the town’s top elected officials meet for the first time as a select board, a woman will be among them. Andrea Shaw Reed, outgoing chair of the planning board, drew 1,393 votes at the town election Tuesday to join Mefford Runyon, who received 1,251 votes to win another term on what will now be known as the select board. Incumbent David Currier, with 911 votes, was not returned to office. ...