BREWSTER – The Alewife Committee on Feb. 23 chose to continue aiding the herring that migrate between Walkers and Slough ponds despite drought-induced low water levels that made last year especially challenging for juvenile herring. “There’s been an alewife committee since 1788, when the town, what was then Harwich, bought the stream,” said member Doug Erickson. “We have made many efforts over the years to imp...

BREWSTER – Nauset Schools Superintendent Brooke Clenchy said she is well aware that district towns want the schools’ fiscal 2024 operating budget increases to stay in the 3 to 3.5 percent range. Yet “the cost-drivers that we’re up against, we can’t change them,” Clency said at the Brewster Elementary Schools’ Feb. 16 education committee meeting. “I know that we’ve been asked to try to come in at that 3 to 3...

Frustrated Residents Want March 6 Special Town Meeting Vote To Settle The Issue BREWSTER – Six months into the Wing Island access debate, residents’ frustration on both sides of the issue was palpable and very vocal at the Feb. 9 public forum. “Leave Wing Island alone,” said Brenda Locke. "I do not want to see it become a tourist attraction. We don’t have many natural areas left on Cape Cod. I think it dese...

BREWSTER – Brewster will partner with the town of Eastham in fiscal year 2024 on an intermunicipal agreement to share planning staff, Town Manager Peter Lombardi announced at the Feb. 6 select board meeting. In addition, Brewster’s proposed 2024 operating budget seeks eight “targeted staff increases.” The town is looking to expand the weekly hours of three employees: the building inspector, the Crosby property...

BREWSTER – Eddy Elementary students in grades 3 to 5 are separating organics from soiled paper waste at lunchtime in the school cafeteria. Meg Morris, chair of the Brewster Recycling Commission, and Eddy science coordinator Patsy Marchant introduced the new program last month during an assembly about waste reduction. Commissioners Pat Semple and Annette Graczewski, and Assistant Town Manager Donna Kalinick als...

Cape Cod Global Outreach is again teaming up with local chambers of commerce to fill and deliver free reflective backpacks containing bike lights, personal care items and other supplies to visiting seasonal workers. Spearheaded by the Revs. Catherine and Matt Boyle, who live in Harwich Port and work at Mid-Cape Worship Center in Dennis Port, Global Outreach volunteers delivered 1,763 backpacks to J-1 employers...

BREWSTER – The Animal Rescue League (ARL) of Boston’s Cape Cod shelter has had an influx of 75 cats that need new homes. “They’re from a couple different overcrowding situations in Norfolk and Bristol counties, where there were lots of animals in the home — too many for the caretaker to be able to care for,” said Mike DeFina, ARL’s media relations officer, who grew up in Eastham. “We had been working with t...

BREWSTER – Having digested residents’ feedback from a Jan. 17 public information session, the Bay Property Planning Committee on Jan. 24 approved a set of operating rules for running what will be the Cape’s first municipal swimming pool during its inaugural public summer season. Pending final approval by the select board on Feb. 13, the former Cape Cod Sea Camps pool is tentatively set to open on Monday, June 26...

BREWSTER – Abigail Rhoads doesn’t follow people on social media. She follows animals. “I just really love animals,” Rhoads said by phone recently. A volunteer at the Wareham-based nonprofit Peace for Ponies, which is rebranding as Peace for All Animals, she spends her leisure time rescuing miniature donkeys, sparing them from slaughterhouses. “A lot of people are stopping by to see what’s going on with them,” s...

Petitioners Force Special Town Meeting, Trust Loses Donation BREWSTER — A group of adamant residents, many of them Friends of Wing Island members, has petitioned for a special town meeting well ahead of the May 1 spring town meeting to settle the fate of the proposed Wing Island boardwalk. Liz Perry and Carl Ahlstrom IV, whom the group asked to deliver the petition to town hall last Thursday, a...

Limited To 100 Users Because Of Staffing Concerns BREWSTER — With lifeguards in short supply regionally, the town anticipates staffing will be the greatest challenge facing the summer opening of the former Sea Camps outdoor swimming pool. For that reason, the pool would be accessible only to 100 residents during its first season. "We want to make sure we don’t take on too much in this first year," said Town...

BREWSTER – Black slaves once were part of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church congregation, Susan T. Smith, former president of the parish board of trustees, said candidly the day before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. ”That history has all been erased, and it mustn’t be,” Smith said. “Unless you own it, we can’t be honest with ourselves.” Founded in 1700, First Parish originally was a Purit...