Here are some of the most recently popular Cape Cod stories that have caught the attention of our readers.
For starters, Brewster’s Candleberry Inn was voted best in the U.S. for the second time, according to Tripadvisor users. In Harwich, athletes and families celebrated Special Olympics Game Day. It was also noted that the Cape and Islands Big Brothers Big Sisters needs male mentors.
Also, be sure to keep up with all of the latest Cape Cod sports news and Player of the Week voting.
Here is the list of stories you’ll want to read and catch up on at CapeCodTimes.com:
Reported sighting of a flamingo on Dennis beach
Cape Cod bird watchers were aflutter when several photos on the Cape Cod Birders Facebook group showed an American flamingo at Chapin Beach in Dennis on a recent Sunday afternoon.
“It’s clearly real,” said Mark Faherty, noted birder and science coordinator at the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
Faherty said he has received corroborating photos and a video from another person who was at Chapin Beach around the same time as the initial sighting.
If the Chapin Beach sighting is confirmed by the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee, it would mark the first time a wild American flamingo has been seen in Massachusetts, said Faherty.
A flamingo on Cape Cod?Reported sighting in Dennis wows birders
American Airlines arrives on Cape Cod
An inaugural American Airlines flight landed at Cape Cod Gateway Airport, marking the first of many that the airline will now fly through the summer months from both New York and Washington, D.C.
The launch is the first of many American Airlines daily flights from LaGuardia, Servis said, with flights to and from Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport set to begin on June 22.
The newly announced flight services were available for purchase beginning on Oct. 23, with ticket prices ranging from $200 to around $400. Two daily flights from American will be flying into and out of Hyannis connecting to LaGuardia and Reagan, respectively.
“With over 250,000 year-round residents … traveling to distant Boston and Providence for their flights, we said we need to do better, we need to offer more travel opportunities to the Cape and to the Islands,” said Airport manager Katie Servis.
Ready for takeoff:American Airlines’ first plane arrives on Cape Cod
Three Barnstable High administrators may be dismissed after school trip blunder
Three Barnstable High School administrators are currently on leave because they left two students on April 6 at the Belle of the Ball prom dress selection event at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, according to School Committee member Andre King.
Following an investigation, according to King, School Superintendent Sara Ahern recommended dismissal for all three administrators in a letter on May 20.
“As a teaching institution and to fulfill our mission, we must put students’ academic, social and emotional growth at the center,” said Ahern. “There is a well-defined process from investigating thoroughly to whatever an outcome comes to be, by which due process rights are protected.”
Here’s what happened:Three Barnstable High administrators may be dismissed after school trip blunder
Cape and Islands golf courses make Golfweek list
The number one spot for top golf courses in Massachusetts, according to Golfweek, is the Cape Cod National, which was also ranked as the best in state by Golf Digest.
Taking the number two spot on the list was the Miacomet on Nantucket.
The Farm Neck golf course in Oak Bluffs is the third best golf course in Massachusetts, according to Golfweek, a course that former presidents have been known to play on.
Check them out:Golfweek just named the best golf courses in Massachusetts.
Orca spotted off Chatham during a tuna fishing outing
Old Thom, an orca “regular” of Cape waters, was spotted by boaters about seven miles off Chatham. Old Thom tends to range from Cape Cod Bay to the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy, said Orla O’Brien, an associate research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.
“The specific whale that was sighted — known as Old Thom — has been seen off Cape Cod several times over the past decade or so, usually in the late spring-early summer, so the fact that he was seen recently is not unusual,” she said.
The owner of the boat, on the other hand, was experiencing Old Thom for the first time.
“I’ve been fishing out there for 20 years plus and I’ve seen a lot of whales, but I’ve never seen an orca,” said Paul van Steensel, of Orleans.
‘Never seen an orca’:Killer whale seen off Chatham likely Old Thom. What scientists said.
39 affordable units in Mashpee up for grabs in housing lottery
Thirty-nine units of affordable rental housing are up for grabs through a housing lottery at a new apartment complex in Mashpee designed to accommodate tenants with disabilities, save money on energy and not add to the Cape’s water quality problems.
It is located at LeClair Village, 950 Falmouth Road, off Routes 28 and 6.
The complex on town-owned land will feature 14 one-bedroom apartments, 21 two-bedroom apartments, and four three-bedroom apartments. Eight homes will have rents subsidized through project-based vouchers. The complex also has 59 on-site parking spaces for tenants.
Lead developer Preservation of Affordable Housing has partnered with Housing Assistance Corporation to create the development, which is made up of three buildings. The project’s design and construction team is DREAM Collaborative Architects, Horsley Witten Engineering, and Delphi Construction.
Applications for the lottery must be in by noon on July 1.
LeClair Village:Affordable housing lottery underway for 39 units in Mashpee
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