The Cape Coddah
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☀️ Can Electricity Stop Coastal Erosion?

☀️ Can Electricity Stop Coastal Erosion?

Plus: The Cape's oldest restaurant

Cape Coddah
January 23, 2026

Together with:

Good morning Cape Cod. Just a friendly reminder that a snow storm is headed our way this weekend, so you have approximately 48 hours to panic-buy bread and milk like it's the end of times. 🍞🙂

In this week’s Cape Coddah:

Young whale mostly untangled
Step kids sue over MV home
Events and live music

Let’s get to it.

🖊️ Spending Bill Would Bring $10M to Cape

Massachusetts could get $92.78M in federal cash across 93 projects, with $10M marked for Cape Cod and the Islands after the U.S. Senate passed the spending package January 15.

Cape-specific funding includes $3M for Barnstable County to address PFAS groundwater contamination threatening the Cape's sole-source aquifer, $1.87M for Coonamessett Farm Foundation's research fleet to strengthen the seafood sector, $1M each for Hyannis Public Library construction and Yarmouth culvert replacement, $1.015M for Provincetown's wastewater system resiliency, and $1M for Nantucket's food hub transformation.

Additional funding includes $800,000 for Woodwell Climate Research Center's soil carbon measurement program and $350,000 for a Nantucket Police marine patrol vessel. The legislation now heads to President Trump's desk and would avert another government shutdown. Read more»

💰 Tax Break Just Got Complicated

Chatham's select board voted 3-2 to lower a proposed property tax exemption for year-round residents from 35% to 20%, a decision complicated by trust ownership issues. Under the 20% exemption, year-round homeowners would save $719 on an average $1.7M home, while nonresidents would pay $601 more.

The change followed revelations that properties held in trusts must meet specific state requirements, trustees must also be beneficiaries, by a January 1 deadline that's already passed. The town doesn’t know how many of 1,500 trust-held properties qualify, leaving some year-round residents potentially ineligible.

Of Chatham's 7,403 residential properties, 44% are owned by year-round residents. The exemption would be implemented when the tax rate is set in September, joining seven other Cape towns offering similar breaks. Read more»

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🐋 Young Whale Still Entangled After Rescue

Rescuers removed some fishing gear from a young North Atlantic right whale entangled in Cape Cod Bay over the weekend, though rope remains wrapped around its tail.

The Center for Coastal Studies' Marine Animal Entanglement Response team tracked the whale, Monarch's calf, born last year—from Saturday into Sunday as it swam east of Truro.

Working in worsening weather and limited daylight, they added buoys and a sea anchor to slow the whale and cut the rope with hook-shaped knives. A portion of gear broke off and was recovered, but the whale swam away still entangled.

There's a chance it could shed the remaining rope naturally. Only about 380 North Atlantic right whales remain, with fishing gear entanglement posing one of the greatest threats to their survival. Read more»

📸 @andreabunarphotography |📍Days’ Cottages

Tag @thecapecoddah to get your photos in the Coddah!

⚡️ Can Electricity Stop Coastal Erosion?

A Northwestern University professor wants to turn Truro sand "as hard as cement" using electrified mesh and salt water minerals in what would be the first real-world test of technology he claims could "revolutionize" coastal erosion control.

Alessandro Rotta Loria's proposal for two North Truro properties involves installing stainless steel mesh powered by homeowners' solar panels. Ocean water pumped over the mesh would calcify sand minerals, creating a hard-yet-porous material resistant to erosion.

Homeowner Wendy Lurie, whose bluff erodes nearly a foot yearly, says it's worth trying. But Center for Coastal Studies geologist Mark Borrelli warns hardening shoreline just shifts erosion to neighbors and lowers beaches—exactly why seawalls are mostly prohibited. His advice to beachfront homeowners? "Sell." Truro's conservation commission votes February 2. Read more»

Barnstable County received a $3M federal earmark to remediate PFAS groundwater contamination from firefighting foam used at Cape Cod Gateway Airport and the county's Firefighting Academy.

The Falmouth Commodores are accepting applications until May 1 for the George Creighton Scholarship (three $1,000 awards for Falmouth/Mashpee high school seniors) and the Chuck Sturtevant Outstanding Service Award (one $2,000 award for bat kids, host families, and volunteers).

A Quincy trust claimed a $25,000-a-year-for-life Lucky for Life prize from a ticket sold at Teaticket Market in Falmouth, with the trustee selecting the annuity option and receiving the first annual payment.

Brewster asked the chamber of commerce to vacate its 30-year town hall location by spring to make room for staff working in "closets and shared public meeting spaces," leaving the chamber scrambling to find new office space.

🍽️ The Cape's Oldest Restaurant? It's in Yarmouth Port.

The Old Yarmouth Inn, Cape Cod's oldest restaurant, opened in 1696 as a stagecoach stop offering food and lodging to travelers between Boston and Provincetown. After railroads made coaches obsolete in the 1870s, it continued as a tavern and inn until shifting to fine dining in the 1940s and becoming restaurant-only in 2007.

Today, the 328-year-old establishment has won Wine Spectator and Cape Cod Life awards, serving contemporary American cuisine with fresh local seafood. History surrounds diners through the Red Room (the building's oldest section), the nationally registered historic front, and reported ghost sightings, possibly from Civil War-era underground railroad days.

Open Sunday-Tuesday 4-8:30 PM and Thursday-Saturday 4-9 PM at 223 Route 6A in Yarmouth Port. Reservations are suggested. Read more»

A Nantucket apartment above a Broad Street bookstore has become part of a growing "readaway" travel trend, offering visitors he perfect excuse to stay indoors during the island's moody off-season.

New Steamship Authority general manager Alex Kryska pledged to address "longstanding" governance issues raised in the inspector general's scathing report on the $4M wasted website project.

Espresso To Go, the Nantucket coffeeshop owned by Buddy and Terri Dion for nearly two decades at 1 Toombs Court off Old South Road, will close February 13 as the property is slated for redevelopment and the owners look toward their "next chapter."

Massachusetts is holding listening sessions through early February on expanding hunting access statewide, following extensions of the Vineyard's hunting season aimed at reducing the state's highest deer densities and related tick populations.

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⚖️ Stepchildren Sue Over $9M Vineyard Home

Two stepchildren of Proforma CEO Vera Muzzillo are accusing her of improperly using family trust assets to buy a $9M Martha's Vineyard vacation home in Edgartown, then excluding them from using it.

Greg Muzzillo Jr. and Barbara Muzzillo claim their father, Proforma founder Gregory Muzzillo Sr., created the trust in 2012 to benefit Vera and their 10 children from various marriages. The stepchildren allege they didn't even know the trust existed until late 2024, when Gregory Sr. and Vera disclosed plans to divorce, by which point two-thirds of trust assets had been spent on the 52 South Summer Street property.

The complaint claims they were "not permitted to visit" the house, which was listed for sale in September 2025. They're demanding full accounting and control of the trust. Read more»

👋 Meet: Whisper
🐾 Treeing Walker Coonhound
🎂 4 years old
♀︎ Female
Available to adopt at MSCPA-Cape Cod

FRIDAY - JANUARY 23

Mosaic Workshop @ Sandwich Glass Msm | 1
Teen Night @ Eastham Library | 5 PM
Dinner Among Orchids @ Emerald Conf. Cent. | 6
Proof @ Falmouth Theatre Guild | 7:30 PM

SATURDAY - JANUARY 24

Orchids at Play @ Emerald Conf. Center | 9 AM
Journal Making @ Eastham Library | 10:30 AM
Winter Crafts @ S. Yarmouth Library | 2 PM
Robert Burns Supper @ Highfield Hall | 5 PM
Dinner & Hypnotist @ Coonamessett Inn | 6 PM
Ballroom Dancers @ FCC (Falmouth) | 6:15 PM
Proof @ Falmouth Theatre Guild | 7:30 PM
Sam Buck (Comedian) @ Aquatic Brewing | 8 PM

SUNDAY - JANUARY 25

Orchids at Play @ Emerald Conf. Center | 9 AM
Fiber Arts Circle @ Wellfleet Library | 11 AM
Majong @ Dennis Library | 12:30 PM
Proof @ Falmouth Theatre Guild | 2 PM
The Alley for Autism @ Alley Bowling BBQ | 5 PM

SUNDAY - JANUARY 25

Tyler Gatccione @ Love Farms | 12 PM
Mercy Band @ CC MOA | 4 PM
Rose Clancy @ Chatham Squire | 5 PM
Philip Smith @ Margaritaville | 7 PM

_{Nothing in this section is sponsored. We'll let you know when something's sponsored.}

Friday

37 🌡️ 7 | 🌤️ | 💧 0% | 💨 W 17 mph

Saturday

16 🌡️ 13 | ☀️ | 💧 3% | 💨 NW 17 mph

Sunday

28🌡️ 26 | ❄️ | 💧 96% | 💨 NNE 8 mph

💧🌡️ Water temperature = 37ºF

21 Quiet Street, Sandwich
Asking $2.649M
4 🛏️
5 🛁
5,100 sqft
0.69 acre lot

_{Nothing in this section is sponsored. We'll always let you know when something's sponsored.}

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