The Bourne Enterprise

12/20/2025

🚴‍♀️ The Falmouth Select Board on December 15 voted to send a letter to the governor’s office expressing support for a Bourne rail-to-trail project, but not without disagreement over how strongly that support should be tied to preserving rail infrastructure on the Upper Cape.

At issue was revised language in a draft letter to the state outlining the board’s new position on converting the Falmouth Secondary Rail Line, known as the F2, into a multi-use path that would link the Cape Cod Canal pathway in Bourne to the Shining Sea Bikeway.

While the board ultimately approved sending a revised letter, chairman Robert P. Mascali voted against it, arguing the changes risk undermining the project rather than advancing it.

🔗 Read more about the language tweaks and what happens next by tapping the link in the comments ⬇️

12/20/2025

‼️ THIS WEEKEND: The Solstice Singers will perform “A Solstice Hallelujah,” a pageant of carols and songs, instrumental music, drama and dance of earlier times, at the Woods Hole Community Hall at 68 Water Street on Saturday and Sunday, December 20 and 21. Both shows are at 4 PM.

Performed in colorful period costumes, the program is a celebration of Christmas and the winter solstice, with a special focus on American works written around the time of the American Revolution.

🔗 For ticketing information, tap the link in the comments below ⬇️

12/20/2025

On Wednesday, December 17, the Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod donated toys to over 300 families through its “Toys 4 Cape Kids” fundraiser. 🎁

“People have been significantly more generous this year. We don’t usually put it right out there on Facebook that we’re still taking appointments because we’re usually full and run out of toys before we run out of appointments,” Ruth Provost, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod, told the Enterprise this Wednesday. “But people have been very generous this year and we do have toys.”

🔗 Read more by tapping the link in the comments below ⬇️

12/19/2025

📍 A line of patrons had formed in the parking lot by the time the Falmouth Service Center's Fresh Market opened its doors Wednesday afternoon on Joint Base Cape Cod.

The Fresh Market is a program that runs once a month both on the military base and in Falmouth Public Schools. A second Fresh Market date was added at the base for the holidays. Those in need can collect food free of charge. Donations to the Service Center come from the community and Boston food banks.

Volunteer Alan C. Beal was the man in charge of the event, which ran with military precision. A retired commanding officer with the US Coast Guard, Beal said many other volunteers are also military veterans. All, he said, were eager to help those waiting to come shop with joy and dignity.

Read the full story by tapping the link in the comments below 🔗

12/19/2025

🎼 Part memoir, part cultural analysis and, as author David Grady jokes, “part group therapy session,” the Sandwich resident's new book “Our Mixtapes, Ourselves: The Happy-Sad Story and Soundtrack of Generation X” both playfully and poignantly explores why new wave, punk and post-punk music mattered so deeply to millions of Gen X teens back in the 1980s—and why it still resonates more than 40 years later. 📕

🔗 Read Joanne Briana-Gartner's full discussion with the author by tapping the link in the comments ⬇️

12/19/2025

💡 Marc and Joan Hendel say they have the ideal solution to preventing their home from being bulldozed as part of the Sagamore Bridge replacement project: the Massachusetts Department of Transportation should simply move their house to a new location.

🏡 The Hendels had their current home on John’s Way in the Round Hill neighborhood custom-built, and moved into the new abode in fall 2024. In March of this year, they received notice that the house and property were being taken by eminent domain as part of the Cape Cod Canal Bridges Replacement Program.

🚧 “They could save themselves headaches and bad publicity because we will not shut up about this,” Marc Hendel said. “If they would just say, ‘You know what, moving your home is a good idea because then you can’t complain that the home we found for you is worse off.’ The regulations, the law actually, states that they are not allowed to leave us worse off than we are.”

🔗 Tap the link in the comments to read our latest article about the Hendels' efforts to save their home ⬇️

12/18/2025

At the suggestion of a reader and in an effort to increase accessibility and public awareness of the local Cape Cod arts scene, we have made this article 💥FREE💥 to read—meaning NO PAYWALL!

🔄 Please share this post and help spread the word about the great community theatre scene we have here on Cape! And snag some tickets to this weekend's shows 🎭

Link in comments!

🎭 "The Cape has many impressive theaters, with hundreds of (or more) incredibly talented performers; however, many theaters are struggling to fill seats this year, and there are a number of factors as to why that might be."

🔗 Read the full editorial from Sandwich Enterprise editor Katie Goers, "Community Theater Needs The Community," to find out which local shows you can still snag tickets for this month by tapping the link in the comments ⬇️

12/18/2025

🇺🇸 Have you ever wished you could speak to one of the nation's Founding Mothers?

📆 If so, then mark your calendar: Mercy Otis Warren, often described as the “muse of the revolution,” will be at the Jonathan Bourne Public Library on January 17 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

📝 Local history teacher and historical interpreter Michele Gabrielson, portraying Warren, will tell the story of how she rejected the conventional expectations of women in the 18th century and became the first female historian of the American Revolution, using her passion for poetry and prose to persuade others to join in the revolutionary cause.

🔗 Read more about this upcoming event by tapping the link in the comments ⬇️

12/17/2025

🚨 Unrelated S*x Trafficking Arrests Made In Falmouth, Sandwich, Barnstable 🚨

🚫 During the first two weeks of December, three individuals on the Cape were indicted on unrelated charges of human trafficking.

‼️ Sandwich resident Rina Althany Hernandez Alcantara, 38, was arrested for s*x trafficking charges in Yarmouth. Falmouth resident Ionut Stamatin, 24, was arrested for trafficking-related activities in Falmouth. And Brewster resident Luca Aguilar, 20, was arrested for s*x trafficking activities in Barnstable.

🔗 Read the full report from the Enterprise by tapping the link in the comments ⬇️

12/17/2025

🎬 This weekend offers four more chances to see the Falmouth Theatre Guild’s revival of the Jonathan Larson musical “RENT” at Highfield Theatre.

👋 The original cast from the fall 2024 production has reunited for this production under the direction of Joan Baird.

🔗 Read the full article and find out where you can get tickets by tapping the link below ⬇️

12/16/2025

💸 Department heads in Bourne are facing a significant reduction in the amount of available free cash for one-time purchases in the Fiscal Year 2027 annual budget.

🚫 The decrease means that a vast majority of capital funding requests for the coming year will be either deferred or refused: “You’re going to say ‘no’ to more than in the past,” Town Administrator Marlene V. McCollem said last week.

🔗 Tap the link below to read the full article and learn how this came to be and what it means for you & the town 📥

12/16/2025

🌅 The Sunset Acres subdivision is like many neighborhoods in Bourne—rows of neat, blue, white and gray colonial houses in a cozy suburban sprawl. The neighborhood in Monument Beach, however, has a problem: the roads are in serious need of repair. But how those roads get repaired—and who has to pay for construction—has stirred controversy.

🚧 “The roads are in a state of considerable disrepair," Town Engineer Tim Lydon told the Select Board on December 2. "We’ve had a working group, working with the town over the past 10 years, to try to get these roads repaired.”

🔗 Read the full story by tapping the link in the comments 📬