Harwich News

Selectmen Vote New Entertainment Regs For Harwich Port

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH — Establishments providing entertainment in Harwich Port will have to adhere to new noise level regulations after selectmen Monday night tweaked proposed regulations one more time before approving them. This was the third hearing before selectmen over the past month on proposed noise regulations designed to appease the business community and residents in the mixed-use district. After two sessions in wh...

Helping Hands Sought For Hemeon Farm

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH – Brent Hemeon has been working the soil on his farm between Grassy Pond and Bank Street for nearly 30 years, producing an abundance of fruit, berries, vegetables and salad greens, many marketed through his farm stand or sold to restaurants featuring locally grown produce. Hemeon has long had a love of the land and what it produces, including trees. The farm has approximately 200 fruit trees –apple, pe...

HARWICH ─ Homelessness is a problem that affects thousands of Cape Cod residents, and last week members of the Harwich Fire and Police Departments pitched in to help alleviate their struggle. For four nights and five days firefighters and police officers braved the cold as they stationed themselves outdoors at Brooks Park collecting donations of toys, food and funds to benefit local families in need. Acco...

Deputy Chief LeBlanc Lauded For Rescue

By: Alan Pollock

HARWICH — Though rescuing people from fires is part of the job description, a firefighter can go an entire career without pulling a person from a burning building. But that won't be the case for Deputy Fire Chief David LeBlanc, who rescued a woman from a blazing apartment in South Harwich on Dec. 3. For that action, Fire Chief Norman Clarke, Jr., issued him a formal commendation last week. The woman, whos...

Selectmen Still Shaping The Beat Of Harwich Port Music

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH PORT — Setting the boundaries for music here has been a lot more challenging than town officials initially thought. Selectmen on Monday night continued for the second time a public hearing on adopting the town's noise bylaw as a standard for entertainment and establishing uniform hours for playing music. Although they agreed that outside music should have a 10 p.m. limit, they were not prepared to go i...

Neighborhood Association Calls For Hinckley's Pond Treatment

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH — As the community preservation committee begins deliberations on requests for funding, Hinckley's Pond has become a major focal point. Water quality issues in the Herring River headwaters pond have residents there concerned. “Hinckley's Pond is the upward expression of the Monomoy lens,” Stanley Selkow, co-president of the Hinckley's Pond Association, said this week. He was referring to the groundwate...

Harwich Finance Director Gould Stepping Down

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH — Finance Director Andrew Gould has informed selectmen he will be leaving at the end of the month. Gould, who was hired to replace retiring finance director David Ryan, has been in the position for less than two years. “When I took this job I thought I wanted to live on the Cape. I do not like living on the Cape and as a result I have accepted another position on the North Shore and will be moving to M...

Harwich Gets $400K State Grant For Muddy Creek Land

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH — The state will be awarding the town of Harwich a $400,000 Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity (LAND) Grant to assist with the purchase of the 17.43-acre Marini property along Muddy Creek in East Harwich. The Baker Administration announced $3.9 million in LAND grants designed to address climate change and protect biodiversity within the borders of the commonwealth. The Marini property, located of...

HARWICH ─ About eight years ago, when Monomoy Spanish teacher Elizabeth Hoff sought a way for her students to use the language beyond the classroom, she turned to the old school communication method of letter writing between her then-Harwich High students and students from Colegio Miralba in Vigo, Spain. Eight years, many letters, emails, Skype conversations, and day-in-the-life videos later, a group of 15 M...

Court May Rule On Harwich Beach Access

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH — Who would have thought a six-foot wide path gifted to the town nearly 100 years ago to provide access to a Nantucket Sound beach from Davis Lane for local residents would become such a chafing issue. In recent years the town has done battle with Davis Lane property owners over ownership of the beachfront at the end of the path, and with that issue settled, litigation now continues neighbor against ne...

Education Program Eyes Middle School

By: William F. Galvin

HARWICH — Classes will once again be in session at the Harwich Middle School, with a room rental program by the town eliciting interest from a summer environmental education program and others. Since a sign was placed in front of the school announcing the availability of rooms Community Center Director Carolyn Carey has been busy serving as the town's real estate agent. “I show it on a regular basis,” Carey...

HARWICH — Crews responding to a fire in an attached garage in the sleepy Great Sand Lakes neighborhood last Tuesday didn't expect to find anything other than a run-of-the-mill blaze. But literally before the smoke had cleared, they knew they had uncovered a major marijuana growing operation. Police have issued an arrest warrant for one man and are also investigating a second man believed to be connected to t...