BREWSTER – Your pup could be Top Dog in town and wear the coveted 2023 #1 dog tag. Nominations are now open for Brewster’s fourth annual Top Dog Contest, and voting gets underway after New Year’s. Licensed canine contestants need to live in Brewster. Their humans may enter the contest at town hall by Dec. 31. Voting will be held Jan. 2 to 20, and the winner announced Jan. 23. The contest is administered by Tow...

BREWSTER – William Grafton of Chatham signed on as Brewster conservation administrator Nov. 8, and the Conservation Commission announced his appointment at its Nov. 22 meeting. Grafton most recently served as Marshfield conservation administrator for six years, where he oversaw the management of about 3,000 acres of land, including 2,500 acres of open space. He earned his master’s in environmental science at th...

BREWSTER – Bow hunting for deer will be permitted in the southeast corner of the Punkhorn from Dec. 5 to 24, excluding Sundays, for the first time in the town’s history. “We’ve proposed about 200 acres between dirt roads that generally see less use from hikers,” said Chris Miller, director of natural resources. “It's a fairly well-defined area southeast of town, near a water well site where Harwich allows huntin...

BREWSTER — Dennis Select Board member Chris Flanagan is about to be a very busy guy. Not only was he recently elected to represent the First Barnstable District, he and his wife Ashley are expecting twins next month. So it’s no wonder that providing affordable housing, child care and nutritious food to his constituents — which include Brewster — are a high-priority. “There are a lot of issues here on the...

BREWSTER — Here comes Santa Claus! Friday, Dec. 2 is the start of this season’s Brewster for the Holidays celebration. Events kick off with the Drummer Boy Park Christmas Tree Lighting, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sing carols with the Brewster Eddy School Choir under the direction of Stacey Ferris. Watch Santa arrive by fire truck, and enjoy some hot cocoa provided by Leighton Realty. The event is sponsored by Leight...

BREWSTER – Residents rejected the town’s first 10-year local comprehensive plan (LCP) and Drummer Boy Park upgrades at Monday’s special town meeting, emphasizing how much they don’t want elevated boardwalks anywhere near Wing Island. The Stony Brook Elementary School gym was full for the session, with overflow seating in the library, for the five-hour, in-person meeting during which voters approved funding for s...

BREWSTER – Stephen Brown, owner of Great Cape Herb Shop and Arboretum, and four associates visited the town planning office Monday in hopes of setting the record straight on the eve of his 50th anniversary of living here. The health and safety violations contained in a September cease and desist order issued jointly by the building, health and fire departments did not apply to the herb shop, which has reopened...

BREWSTER – The town’s first 10-year local comprehensive plan is among 14 articles up for a vote at Monday’s special fall town meeting, where 200 registered voters constitute a quorum. The town meeting is set to begin at 6 p.m. at Stony Brook Elementary School, 384 Underpass Rd. Article 1 would cover payment of unpaid bills from last year. Article 2 funds capital expenditures by department, including $750,00...

Imagine this, said Tim Cornwell, keynote speaker at Thursday’s regional housing summit: twice the number of people seated in the Cape Codder’s 400-capacity ballroom no longer could afford to buy a home as first-time homebuyers today because their combined household income is under $200,000. With the median home price doubling in the last two years, the Cape is losing more than 800 households a year making $100...

BREWSTER – At what may be the one of the last meetings of the town’s vision planning committee, members sought to communicate an important consensus: building an elevated Wing Island boardwalk is not a recommendation of the local comprehensive plan (LCP), although it is referenced as background info. Front-and-center at the group’s meeting Monday was addressing public comments made at the Oct. 3 joint meeting ...

BREWSTER – Print, digital, broadcast and social media have been clucking about recent vermilion flycatcher sightings near the footbridge to Paine’s Creek Beach. Mark Faherty, science coordinator at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and a past president of the Cape Cod Bird Club, first spotted the young male showing off its bright red feathers on Oct. 21. Faherty documented his own close ...

BREWSTER – Visiting the Brewster Baptist Church Saturday, Pulitzer Prize-winning political journalist Bob Woodward came right out and called former President Donald Trump a danger to democracy. Perhaps the most hard-core investigative reporter of our time, Woodward delivered two sold-out talks for the Brewster Ladies’ Library Association annual Frances Mapes Nickerson Memorial Lecture on the eve of his rele...