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☀️ Beetles, Bathrooms & Plenty of Hope

☀️ Beetles, Bathrooms & Plenty of Hope

Plus: How Truro saved its chapel

Cape Coddah
November 28, 2025

Together with:

Good morning Cape Cod. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We’re thankful for every single one of you who read this email every week. Enjoy your weekend and shop local! 🎁

In this week’s Cape Coddah:

Bourne's pot shop mess explained
Three toilets, zero flushes in Cotuit
Events and live music

Let’s get to it.

⛪︎ How Truro Saved Its Chapel

The Pond Village Community Chapel in North Truro almost lost its home last January when the property owners announced they were selling. For the mostly Jamaican congregation, it felt like everything was about to fall apart.

Then the Truro Conservation Trust stepped in. They bought the 1915 Colonial Revival chapel for $1.54M on November 4th. An anonymous donor kicked in $500,000 and matched another half million raised by the community through GoFundMe, local business donations, and grassroots efforts. One restaurant even donated its opening night proceeds.

Now Pastor David Brown's Emmanuel Faith Ministries has a five-year lease for one dollar per year. That's right...a dollar. The timing couldn't be better. The congregation is also rallying to support family back in Jamaica after a Category 5 hurricane devastated the island in late October.

Parishioner Lutchana Phipps summed it up: "We don't just worship together, but we are our brother's keeper." Read more»

🛒 When Volunteers Go the Extra Mile

Nobody leaves the Family Pantry of Cape Cod without food. Nobody.

When a deaf man who spoke a Creole dialect showed up needing help, volunteers didn't just hand him a basic box. They spent an hour and a half using pictures on their phones, zooming in on house numbers and grocery options until he left with a full cart of food he actually wanted.

Executive Director Paul Lonergan got teary watching it. "That's probably the most moved I've been in 25 years."

Right now the Pantry's hitting its busiest season. Thanksgiving just wrapped, holiday toy distribution is coming, and thousands of Cape families are using food pantries for the first time ever. Read more»

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Perfect for cookie decorating, Hallmark movie marathons and Christmas Strolls. Soft enough to wear all season long, festive enough to make you smile every time you put it on.

Want to see your business here? Contact us.

🍽️ Free Dinners & Friendships in Wellfleet

The 246 Community Kitchen, Wellfleet's free weekly dinner program, moved from the United Methodist Church to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church after 11 years to accommodate growing crowds. 93 guests showed up on November 18th, and volunteers now plan for at least 100 meals each Tuesday evening from November through March.

Director Janet Drohan, 82, recently received a Cape Cod Women's Association 6 Over Sixty award for her work. The new space on Route 6 is larger and all on one floor, solving safety issues from the old location.

The sit-down dinners have sparked lasting friendships, including one group from "Table 7" that's met since 2022. Rotating volunteer teams cook homemade meals with vegetarian options, and extra food goes home with anyone who asks. Read more»

📸 @jeffkrehely | 📍Provincetown

Tag @thecapecoddah to get your photos in the Coddah!

🚽 Three Bathrooms, Zero Flushes in Cotuit

Sara Molyneaux, a chemical engineer and longtime Conservation Law Foundation board member, installed Phoenix composting toilets in all three bathrooms of her 1915 Cotuit home during a 2012 renovation, saving thousands of gallons of water each year and preventing nitrogen pollution in Cape Cod's vulnerable bays and ponds.

After seeing successful composting toilet systems at places like Doyle Community Park in Leominster and Hale Education's camp that serves 16,000 kids a year, Molyneaux committed to the waterless systems, which cost $8,500-$9,500 each including installation.

The toilets don't need flushing, produce no odor thanks to aerobic decomposition and ventilation fans, and need clean-outs only about every ten years. The compost "tea" fertilizes the property's trees.

"It's just such an easy and inexpensive way to save the Cape's bays and ponds from becoming a toxic mess," Molyneaux said. Read more»

Residents can recycle old or broken holiday lights for free through January 31, 2026, at collection bins located at transfer stations in all 15 towns.

Brewster is accepting entries through December 24th for its annual Top Dog Contest, with the first 75 licensed Brewster dogs eligible to submit a recent 4x6 photo.

MA released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the $4.5B bridge replacement project with public comments due by January 5th and a public hearing scheduled for December 16th.

Five Chatham public safety staff received lifesaving awards; Deputy Harbormaster Marshall Burke for aiding a motorcyclist at a crash scene on October 3rd, and 4 police officers for performing CPR and using an AED to revive a man with no pulse.

💰 Cape's Big Ask: Just 2.5% More

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce is pushing for a bigger slice of Massachusetts' room occupancy tax revenues for tourism marketing. Right now they get a flat $10M annually, which hasn't budged in a decade. Meanwhile, the state's occupancy tax revenue? Up 60% since 2018.

The ask is simple: add 2.5% more of the tax revenue to the marketing fund. That could mean an extra $5M across the state's 16 regional tourism councils. For the Cape and Islands specifically, we're talking about maybe an additional $50,000 to $75,000 annually.

Chamber Board Chair Paulo Paraguay (who owns Kandy Korner in Hyannis) puts it bluntly: "We're the second largest revenue generator for the state. We're not getting our full share."

The bills are now sitting with legislative committees. Timing? Anyone's guess with federal budget cuts looming. Read more»

Bill Belichick sold his three-bedroom Nantucket cottage for $3.795M on November 20th—$100,000 below his $3.9M asking price but still netting a profit after purchasing it for $2.45M in 2014.

MV musicians are scrambling to save community gathering spaces after Island Music announced it's closing amid soaring rents and real estate costs.

A historic 1930 Colonial Revival home has been donated anonymously to the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the nonprofit's first owned property.

West Chop homeowners are spending thousands to remove hundreds of beetle-infested pine trees threatening their homes, with one crew cutting down 1,200 trees in just two weeks.

If this newsletter kept you informed, connected, or just entertained this year, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support our work. All content remains free for everyone.

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💨 Bourne's Pot Shop Process Goes Up in Smoke

Bourne's quest to pick its third marijuana dispensary has officially gone off the rails. The Select Board hit pause on awarding the final license to Bourne Cannabis after accusations of bias flew from another applicant, Cape Cod Dispensary.

Board member Peter Meier gave Cape Cod Dispensary a score of 47 out of 100, while his colleagues averaged 96.25. He gave the winner, Bourne Cannabis, a 99. Cape Cod Dispensary's lawyers called it "mathematically illogical" and threatened to sue.

In a tense meeting that dragged until 10 PM, three board members voted to pump the brakes. Board Clerk Jeanne Azarovitz didn't mince words: "I feel the process of ours has been tainted."

Meier defended his scores but suggested maybe a separate cannabis committee should handle this going forward. What happens next? Nobody knows. The board left that question hanging for a future meeting. No date set yet. Read more»

👋 Meet: Travis
🐾 Pit Bull Terrier Mix
🎂 7 years old
♀︎ Male
Available to adopt at MSCPA-Cape Cod

Garden Club Holiday Boutique in Harwich

The Garden Club of Harwich presents its Holiday Boutique on Saturday, December 6th from 9 AM to 11:30 AM at Harwich Community Center. Shop hand-made fresh evergreen wreaths, holiday sweets, centerpieces, decorations, and items from the White Elephant Table. All proceeds benefit the Garden Club's mission to Keep Harwich Beautiful through tax-deductible donations.

When: Saturday, December 6th from 9 AM to 11:30 AM

Where: Harwich Community Center, 100 Oak St, Harwich, MA 02645

Click here for more information on the Garden Club of Harwich.

FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 28

Wildlife @ CC Museum Nat. Hist. | 11 AM
Tree Lighting @ Mashpee Commons | 3:30 PM
Holiday Stroll @ Orleans Village | 4 PM
Tree Lighting @ Depot Square (Orleans) | 5:30

SATURDAY - NOVEMBER 29

Breakfast w/ Santa @ Orleans Yacht Club | 8 AM
Holiday Story Time @ AWSC | 9 AM
Meet Santa @ Press Ahead Coffee | 10 AM
Turkey Trash Trek @ Center Coastal Studies | 10
Small Biz Saturday @ Mashpee Commons | 11
Ornament Sale @ Guild of Harwich Artists | 11
Christmas Market @ Naukabout | 11 AM
You, Me, Trees @ CC Museum Nat. Hist. | 11
Shipwrecks History @ Osterville Library | 1 PM
Sea Captain’s Nutcracker @ Tilden Arts Ctr | 2
Small Biz Saturday @ Falmouth Village | 4 PM
Show of Gratitude @ Addison Gallery | 5 PM
Lobster Pot Tree @ Lopes Square | 5:30 PM

SUNDAY - NOVEMBER 30

Christmas Market @ Naukabout | 11 AM
Fiber Arts Circle @ Wellfleet Library | 11 AM

SUNDAY - NOVEMBER 30

Almost Olive @ Cult. Cent. of CC | 3 PM
Sarah Burrill @ CC Beer | 3 PM
Songbird of CC @ Yarmouth New Church | 3 PM
Rose Clancy @ Chatham Squire | 5 PM
Karaoke @ Knockout Pizza | 6 PM

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

Friday

43 🌡️ 32 | 🌦️ | 💧 41% | 💨 WSW 23 mph

Saturday

43 🌡️ 27 | ☀️ | 💧 0% | 💨 WNW 14 mph

Sunday

51🌡️ 39 | ☁️ | 💧 25% | 💨 S 14 mph

💧🌡️ Water temperature = 47ºF

50 Coastline Drive, Mashpee
Asking $7.5M
6 🛏️
5.5 🛁
6,622 sqft
0.56 acre lot

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

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