If Marcellus Eldredge could have stood on the front lawn of the Eldredge Public Library Sunday, he would have no doubt been cheered by the crowd that gathered to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the historic building opening its doors to the public. He would have heard town officials and library staff praise his vision and legacy, and heard the words he spoke at the building's dedication on July 4, 1896 echoed ...

Spare A Few Trees Editor: A chainsaw reverberated through the treed neighborhood; again land is stripped of 100-year-old trees to make a home. An entire acre stripped and tossed into a a wood chipper's maw and carted off along with every living thing. All remains is a desert of sand. Everyone has the right to build the home of their dreams, but surely it is unnecessary to strip the land altogether. Oh we...

We've written extensively about the housing crisis faced by Chatham, Harwich and Orleans and the entire region. Frustratingly, there's no immediate solution on the horizon. While Orleans is in the midst of adding appreciable amounts of affordable housing, Harwich and Chatham have lagged behind. Some of this is market-driven and almost impossible to control, as the seemingly insatiable appetite for second homes in...

Support For Protecting Past Editor: Protect Our Past owes a great deal of gratitude to the Cape and Islands community for supporting the recently held “Raise Paddles for POP” auction.  The response was significant and financially productive.  As a result, Protect Our Past will be producing more “POP Clips” this summer.  In case you have not seen our recently completed ones, take a look at www.protectourpast...

The early modernist painter Marc Chagall said, “Great art picks up where nature ends.” Last year, when nature in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to social gatherings and in-person events and left many of us isolated in our homes, great art picked up in a big way. And we are grateful it did. As everyday necessities vanished from store shelves and people blew the dust off their sewing machines and lear...

Keep Town Meeting Open Editor: Several members of the Chatham Select Board (SB), at their post-town meeting discussion, blamed the several big losses they suffered on the fact that they were not given the opportunity to speak long enough or frequently enough. They blamed the moderator and “misinformed voters.” This is disheartening. This is the same board, minus Cory Metters, who voted to eliminate meaningf...

Welcome back to Harwich! Whether as a tourist, vacationer, or casual visitor, perhaps someone unable to come here last summer due to COVID-19 restrictions, you are welcome as things reopen and a new summertime normal emerges. If you were here during the summer of 2020, you know that many activities and offerings were suspended or restricted. The Cape League Baseball season, outdoor concerts and craft fairs wer...

We enjoyed a very un-Cape Cod-like spring, largely without the usual cool, damp dreariness. While the calendar says summer arrived early this week, it was actually here, weather-wise, several weeks ago. Blooms are running a few weeks ahead of their usual peaks, and the temperature of the water that surrounds us is already at mid-July levels. Climate change or just a fluke? Only time will tell. Also apparently ...

Urges Action On Airport Plan Editor: The Chatham Airport Commission's master plan update (AMPU) environmental assessment plan is available for review and feedback until July 5. If you are not familiar with this plan, I encourage everyone to contact commission chair Huntley Harrison, for a printed copy of the report. Please review it and send your comments to the airport commission.  The environmental ass...

I read a thought-provoking quote recently in a Brain Pickings’ article on hummingbirds. Author/publisher Maria Popova wrote: “...[W]hat we call magic is the eternal instinct of the human mind to mistake the boundaries of its understanding for the boundaries of reality.” I’m a firm believer in magic – ask anyone who knows me. I find connections in most everything I do. I have a complicated theory about the inte...

The failure of the Chatham senior center proposal to win the two-thirds votes necessary to pass at Saturday's annual town meeting was disappointing, but in many ways not surprising. The process of finding a place for a new senior center has been fraught with controversy for years, since even before town-property on Middle Road was chosen back in 2019. Town meeting also rejected that proposal, with many decryin...

Cape Cod Deserves Better Editor: I am sending many kudos to Mary Richmond for the pre-summer wake-up call. Her “Broken Connections” is a feisty reminder that despite progress and artificial accomplishments, nature is in charge and that nature dwarfs all human achievement. She raises legitimate concerns that affect all of us and our surroundings. It’s evident that plastic containers, lawn pesticides, beac...