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- 🐚 He tried to sell air in a can
🐚 He tried to sell air in a can
He ended up doing something much stranger with a house
Arthur Radtke
September 24, 2026
with
Near the end, sellers almost always ask me the same thing: where should we go for our last dinner here?
They never pick the fancy place. They pick the one they always went to, where they had the birthdays and the rainy-day lunches and the table by the window. The last meal is really about the years they spent at that table.
On Sunday, 183 Commercial Street serves its last meal as Bubala's. A lot of people will be making that same choice this weekend. Here's the week.
And the Onion Rings?
The hearing was all business: a new name for Kate's in Brewster, a seasonal beer and wine license, and what to do about the overflow cars at Betty's Curve. Two new owners answered every question the Select Board had.
Then the chair leaned in with the one question that wasn't on the agenda. The answer came with a laugh, and the vote was unanimous. But the new owners had already spent a summer learning that this wasn't a small question. They'd worked the window beside the couple who ran it for 39 seasons, before they owned any of it.
Forty minutes up Route 6, a Provincetown tavern was learning the same lesson the hard way, and its landlord ended up putting the answer in writing.
What Magleby Heard at Lunch
Maglebee's is selling down its racks this fall, after 36 years on Main Street in Orleans. Nobody has set a last day.
Laura Magleby worked out the idea while she was buying for a men's store. She was back in town in August. At lunch, a woman stopped at her table and called out a name.
The Fireplace Can't Be a Fireplace
At the end of a Wellfleet dirt road there's a studio with nine bays of floor-to-ceiling glass, a flagstone floor and a fireplace the federal government says "may not be used as a fireplace."
The Park Service will lease it to you for $830 a month. Someone who has done this before thinks the repairs could run $250,000, and the government's own list of faults goes on for pages.
Air in a Can, Cake Under Glass
Across Route 6 from Salt Pond, a man who dreamed of canning the Cape Cod breeze ran the Hillside instead: hamburgers, ice cream, cake under a glass dome, and his daughter on a stool at the register.
When the National Seashore came to level the hill next door, he bought the house on top and hauled it across the highway.
Two Feet Square, and the Art Walks Off
Brewster's newest art gallery is a wooden box about two feet square. A local artist was priming it in her living room last week. On Monday it opens outside the Council on Aging on Main Street.
Nothing inside can be bigger than four inches. And the rules include a line you'll never see posted at a museum: if a piece speaks to you, it's yours to take home.
Small stories, told the way you'd hear them over a fence
Celebrate Lower Cape — September 24–30, 2026
Down Our Way
Fifty Years Later, Mark O'Neil Counted the Trees and Came Up One Short
In 1976, Brewster's fourth graders planted 13 maples and lindens along Main Street, one for each of the original colonies. Mark O'Neil was one of those kids.
This summer he was sitting in his dentist's waiting room across the street from Town Hall, the old elementary school, and started counting trunks. "I was like, there's only 12."
On Sept. 17 the town made it 13 again. O'Neil came back with two of his old classmates, Pam Dubois and Cheryl Avery, and this year's Stony Brook fourth graders shoveled the dirt around a new linden.
Nobody knows what happened to the original. One of the fourth graders had a theory, and the DPW director didn't rule it out.
Worth forwarding to anyone who went to school in that building.
Hauling Out Before the Storm
The yards didn't wait to see how bad it would get. By Wednesday, crews at Old Mill Boat Yard and Nauset Marine were pulling the bigger sailboats out of Stage Harbor ahead of an unusual early-season nor'easter, with gusts of 45 mph or more in the forecast.
The leaves are still on the trees, and a full canopy catches wind, so plan on outages. Chatham Harbormaster Jason Holm warned that heavy rain can overwhelm a boat's bilge pump, and he wants dinghies off the shoreline before the storm arrives.
Forecasters have named three places they expect to take the worst of it, and all three are on the Lower Cape.
If your neighbor's boat is still on a mooring, send them this today.
$3.48 a Gallon Last Year. $6.44 This Week.
Diesel at the Chatham Fish Pier has nearly doubled in a year, and it went up 35 cents in a single week. Over at Rock Harbor, Capt. Hap Farrell's charter boats are paying close to $6.50.
Doug Feeney says a trip that used to cost a few hundred dollars in fuel now runs "well over a thousand." Fish prices haven't moved. Sam Fuller of the Mary Alice explained why fishermen can't just pass it along: "We're the end of the line. We can't raise our rates." And his supplier says scallop baskets are about to double in price too.
Fuller has already changed the way he fishes to get through it.
The Pennrose Vote Is Over. Now There's a Complaint About the Chair.
Chatham's zoning board turned down Pennrose's 42 affordable apartments on Meetinghouse Road. The main sticking point was a sidewalk. The fight has since moved on to the man who led the hearing.
Karolyn McClelland, who chairs the town's community housing partnership, has filed a formal complaint against ZBA Chair David Nixon. She alleges he showed bias, misstated the income rules and the developer's profit, and used "hypothetical child safety scenarios" in a way she calls "emotional coercion and improper intimidation." Nixon didn't respond to the Chronicle by deadline. Town Manager Jill Goldsmith and Select Board Chair Jeffrey Dykens will decide what happens next.
The complaint also quotes two things Nixon allegedly said about the developer itself.
Five Apartments Over the Boat Shop
The marina's new owners paid $5.2 million for Stage Harbor Marina in July. Now they want to put up a two-and-a-half-story saltbox on Bridge Street, with offices and a workshop on the first floor and five apartments on top, reserved for marina workers who live here year-round.
The plans also call for a new 300-foot seawall and dredging. The historic business district commission's vice chair called the design "spectacular." Its chair called it "a very big building."
Also on the table: what goes on the second floor, and a resident's comparison to another Cape village that wasn't meant as a compliment.
A 104-Foot Cell Tower, and a Landowner Who Says He Didn't Know
Vertex Towers wants to put a 104-foot monopole, plus a four-foot lightning rod, at 206 Route 28 in West Harwich, with antennas for Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Harwich caps these towers at 45 feet, so it would need a variance, a special permit and a Cape Cod Commission review first.
The land belongs to a trust. Its trustee, G. Rockwood Clark, took a retainer from Vertex two years ago, but he says he was "unaware of the project moving forward."
If you want to see how tall 104 feet is, a balloon will go up to that height Monday, Oct. 5, from 9 a.m. to noon. You'll want to know what's happening on the land next door before you look.
Harwich Is Looking for 7 to 10 Acres for a School It Doesn't Need Yet
The Monomoy district has fewer young students than it used to, and Harwich is already thinking about what that means down the road. A town committee combed through 130 parcels big enough for a new elementary school. The shortlist includes the East Harwich Town Forest, two spots on Oak Street, the Cuddy sandpit, and the town building on Sisson Road.
Nobody's building anything soon. Select Board member Mark Kelleher said it's something to keep "in your periscope," and he raised the idea of one school serving both Harwich and Chatham.
The committee already has a favorite, and it has crossed one site off.
Orleans Has No Finish Line for the Nauset Estuary. Three Residents Want One.
Orleans is spending heavily on cleaner water, but it has no official target for how clean the Nauset Estuary needs to be, and so no way to measure progress. Charlie Carlson, Bill Amaru and Bill Brotherton want to change that. Their petition asks for $300,000 to work toward state nitrogen limits for the estuary by the end of 2030.
"The standards tell us how far we need to go," Carlson said. The town's own wastewater advisory committee voted against the petition, and the Select Board chair has doubts about the deadline and about what neighboring Eastham would owe. The question goes to the Nov. 16 special town meeting.
The planning director's objection is one short sentence.
Ten Quiet School Buses
If a Cape Tech bus went by this week without much noise, that's why. The school now runs ten electric buses on nearly all of its routes. Each one goes up to 120 miles on a charge and recharges in about three hours between the morning and afternoon runs.
A 625-kilowatt solar canopy now supplies about 40 percent of the school's electricity. Over 25 years, that's projected to save the member towns $2.33 million. Next comes a battery, paid for with a $1.3 million state grant, and it has a job of its own.
Past the Rotary
Bubala's Serves Its Last Meal Sunday
For years, 183 Commercial Street has meant a Bubala's table and a view of the harbor. That ends Sunday, Sept. 27.
The fight over what comes next is mostly done. On Sept. 10 the Planning Board unanimously approved Victor DePoalo's plan: a three-story building with a 100-seat restaurant open all year, nine hotel rooms and ten condos, two of them affordable. A taxpayers' lawsuit over the curb cut lost twice, once in Superior Court and once at the Appeals Court. DePoalo closes on the $7 million purchase Oct. 9 and hopes to open in spring 2028.
He knows some people won't like the change. He compared the project to something else he built in town.
If Bubala's was your spot, this is your last weekend.
Pilgrim's Wastewater Can't Go Into the Bay. About 300,000 Gallons Have Already Gone Into the Air.
The state has held firm. On Sept. 14, DEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple upheld the 2024 decision that blocks Holtec from releasing contaminated water from the shuttered Pilgrim plant into Cape Cod Bay. Her reasoning rests on the state's 50-year-old Ocean Sanctuaries Act.
It's good news for every town on the bay, but not the end of the story. There were 1.1 million gallons at the start. There are about 800,000 now, because some of it has evaporated. Holtec has 30 days to appeal.
Heiple wrote one line about what separates Holtec's options, and the Association to Preserve Cape Cod has a theory about what Holtec will do next.
One Rental in Wellfleet
In early September, Wellfleet had exactly one year-round rental on the market: a three-bedroom for $3,000 a month. That's the backdrop for the town's second try at Maurice's Campground.
Town Meeting turned down 250 units in May. The new ideas range from about 50 to 108 year-round homes, plus seasonal worker housing, and one of the options has a new name: the "barndominium," with "as much covered workshop as you have living space." Some residents loved the smaller plans. Housing Authority Chair Elaine McIlroy called cutting the plan below half "doing a disservice." The board took no vote.
A former Select Board member warned about where this could go.
Wellfleet's Only All-Tide Ramp Between Provincetown and Orleans
The L-Pier can't carry heavy trucks anymore, so oysterman Dave Seitler unloads at the recreational ramp. It's the only ramp between Provincetown and Orleans that works at any tide.
That's one of three problems at the harbor. The bulkhead under the parking lot is rusting through. The north slips have had no power all season because of exposed wiring. And the pier has been damaged since an April 2025 fire. Voters approved $200,000 for a harbor plan back in 2023, and it still isn't finished. The town has about $500,000 to spend. Electrical bids are due Oct. 8.
The town's harbormaster has an estimate of what it will really take, and it is not $500,000.
Three Zoning Changes Pulled from Wellfleet's Town Meeting, and One Was About a Backyard Court
None of Wellfleet's three zoning changes will be on the Oct. 26 Town Meeting warrant. An accessory-apartment update ran into questions from town counsel, and Vice Chair Barbara Carboni would rather "vote on a good final version in the spring." The Planning Board never voted on a change to cluster housing, which would have cut the minimum lot from 15 acres to 2. A home-business rule that would have helped aquaculture got an hour of debate, and a motion to put it on the warrant died without a second.
The home-business change goes back to one backyard pickleball court.
Provincetown's Affordable Condos Just Got Cheaper
Nobody built anything new. The price estimates were simply wrong. A county calculator had put the 10 affordable condos at 44 Captain Bertie's Way between $250,000 and $500,000. Housing Director Mackenzie Perry says the real range is about $180,000 to $330,000, depending on income.
That's the most below-market homes Provincetown has offered at once since 2008. Applications are expected by the end of the year, with a lottery in early 2027.
One more detail: because no state money is involved, the lottery can favor one kind of applicant.
Know someone who works in town and rents? Send them this one.
Four Rescues on the Breakwater This Month
On Sept. 18, just after noon, rescuers went out to the West End Breakwater for a walker who had fallen. They had to carry the person by boat through shallow water to MacMillan Wharf, where an ambulance was waiting. It was the fourth call there in September.
Police have put out the reminders again: check the tide first, wear real shoes, don't go alone, and bring a charged phone. They're blunt about the tide. It "can quickly cover portions of the Breakwater."
Please forward this to anyone hosting guests this fall.
Truro Pays Part of the Rent, and Eastham Shows Why That Matters
Eastham held a housing forum Sept. 14. The numbers presented there showed that 43 percent of the town's renters spend more than half their income on housing. Select Board Chair Suzanne Bryan said plainly that people "have moved away because it's unaffordable."
Up the road, Truro is trying to help. The Select Board expanded its rental-assistance program from 10 households to 15, more than staff had proposed. Year-rounders and town employees earning up to 100 percent of area median income can get up to $600 a month.
Two Truro board members had strong feelings about the waiting list, too.
Close to Home
Two harder stories this week. We're sharing only what's known.
Two Lives Lost on Brewster's Main Street
Just after 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, two cars hit head-on on Main Street near Crosby Lane. Jeralynn Osterloh, 24, of Brewster, died at the scene. Seth Grunwald, 38, of Truro, was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital.
The cause hasn't been determined. State Police crash reconstruction specialists are helping Brewster police. Five days later, a separate three-car crash near Nickerson State Park needed the Jaws of Life. No one has connected the two crashes, and we aren't either. It's the same stretch of road, and for now that's all anyone can say.
Nauset's Records Show Two Bullying Reports for All of 2024
Last week we told you about the federal lawsuit alleging Nauset Regional Middle School failed to protect a student from years of racist harassment. New reporting adds a number. For the whole 2024 school year, the district reported two bullying incidents to the state, and that covers every school in the district.
When the Independent asked for four years of bullying records from the middle and high schools, the district produced five reports in all. According to the paper, several incidents the lawsuit describes weren't among them. These are allegations, and no court has ruled. The district has declined to comment, citing the lawsuit.
If this touches something close to home, you can call or text 988 anytime for free, confidential support.
Neighbors We'll Miss
Annie Dillard, 81 — South Wellfleet. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek at an age when most writers are still looking for a publisher, and she later received the National Humanities Medal. Out here, she was a neighbor on Pleasant Point. She and Gary Clevidence made a home in South Wellfleet in the 1980s, she spent summers in the Province Lands dune shacks, and she set her novel The Maytrees in Provincetown. That's the résumé. Who she was is the rest: she wrote elaborate instructions for crossing the dunes, down to toilet plungers on long poles for balance in the sand. At Wesleyan, a colleague remembered a ping-pong table taking over her living room. In her later years she painted tidal scenes from memory. She leaves her daughter, Cody-Rose Clevidence, four stepdaughters and two sisters. Read about her life on the Outer Cape
For the Fridge Calendar
Fri., Sept. 25 — The nor'easter arrives. Get dinghies off the beach and charge your phone.
Sun., Sept. 27 — Last day of service at Bubala's by the Bay, Provincetown.
Mon., Oct. 5 — The balloon goes up at 206 Route 28, West Harwich, 9 a.m.–noon, to show the proposed cell tower's height.
Thu., Oct. 8 — Bids are due on Wellfleet Harbor's electrical repairs. The same day, a judge rules on dismissing the Bubala's curb-cut lawsuit.
Fri., Oct. 9 — DePoalo closes on the Bubala's property.
Mon., Oct. 26 — Wellfleet Town Meeting, without the three zoning changes.
Mon., Nov. 16 — Orleans special Town Meeting takes up the Nauset Estuary petition.
Were you at the Orleans Zoning Board on Wednesday night for Governor Prence? We haven't been able to confirm how it went, and we'd rather hear it from someone who was there. Hit reply and tell us. Heard something else we should know about? Same button. The best small stories usually start with a neighbor.
🐚 The storm has already crossed two things off Saturday’s calendar
The Lower Cape Low Down · September 24–30, 2026
Two Saturday walks in Chatham have been canceled before the weekend even began. The forecast explains the early call: the National Weather Service has a high surf advisory Friday through Sunday and wind and coastal flood watches for Friday and Saturday. If your plan involves an exposed beach, a boat, a parade, or a walking tour, check the host’s page again before you leave.
That does not make this a week to stay home. The Provincetown library has three days of writers; the Red Room has new plays on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. In Chatham, you can bring something broken to a Fixit Clinic that says it will run rain or shine. A lute player comes to Brewster for a free Saturday hour. Orleans offers one more weekend inside the French Cable Station, and Cape Rep opens Poe on Wednesday.
The question this week is less What is there to do? than Which plans can survive a change in the weather? Start with the indoor choices below. Keep the outdoor layer in pencil.
One Big Thing
Provincetown Book Festival — Fri–Sun, Sep 25–27 · Provincetown Public Library, 356 Commercial Street · free; reservations strongly suggested.
There are twelve programs across three days at the library. The festival’s own page and the library’s current event page agree on the dates, the place and the price. That combination matters this week: you can make a deliberate trip north without betting the day on a waterfront activity.
The range is the draw. Ibram X. Kendi is scheduled in conversation with Dorothy Roberts at 6:30 PM Saturday. Earlier that day, Hannah Lilith Assadi is scheduled to speak with Julia Glass at 9:00 AM. Sunday brings a 1:00 PM conversation between Russ Lopez and Michael Lowenthal. The Friday 6:00 PM Rose Dorothea Award opens another way into the weekend. These are individual programs, not one continuous session; choose a conversation before choosing your departure time. The festival ticket page offers free reservations, but a visible event page cannot guarantee that every individual seat will still be open when you click.
If Saturday’s weather makes Commercial Street less inviting, the library still gives you a place to land. And if you want to continue the theater-and-books thread, the O’Neill Festival at the Red Room has performances beginning that afternoon. You do not need to attempt all of it. Pick the author you most want to hear, reserve that seat if possible, and let the rest of Provincetown be optional.
The 5 Picks
🌿 Restoring Rivers and Wetlands for People and Nature — Thu, Sep 24 · doors 6:00 PM; talk 6:30 PM · Orleans Yacht Club, 39 Cove Road · registration link on host page. Orleans Conservation Trust brings in Beth Lambert, who directs the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration. The subject is the work of getting damaged rivers and wetlands functioning again, including on Cape Cod and in Orleans. This is the useful Thursday choice if you want to understand the landscape beyond the view from a trail. Register through the trust before heading over.
🎵 Songwriters in the Round — Fri, Sep 25 · 7:00 PM · Cape Cod Theatre Company, Harwich · $20 advance / $25 door. One of Friday’s better indoor plans sits in Harwich rather than at the end of a long northbound drive. The theater lists this as a general-admission performance in its indoor space. Buy from the theater’s ticket link if you want the advance price; the listing does not establish how many seats remain.
🛠️ Chatham’s 4th Annual Fixit Clinic — Sat, Sep 26 · 10:00 AM–12:30 PM · Eldredge Public Library, Chatham · registration strongly recommended. Bring up to three repairable household items and work alongside volunteer coaches. The library explicitly says rain or shine and gives registered items priority. Bike repair is outside, so that part may be a poor match for the forecast; the indoor repair stations make this a more dependable Saturday plan than the two canceled conservation walks.
🎼 The Lute Master: Early Music to the Last Frontier — Sat, Sep 26 · 3:30–4:30 PM · Performing Arts Center, Brewster · free. Paul O’Dette brings a lecture-performance about John Dowland to 95 Southern Eagle Cartway. This is a precise, one-hour alternative to building a Saturday around an outdoor program that might move or disappear. The organizer still lists the program for September 26; check its page again if the storm disrupts travel.
🎭 The Fall of the House of Usher — Wed, Sep 30 · 7:30 PM · Cape Rep Theatre, Brewster · $40; $30 for ages 35 and under. The week does not end with the storm. Cape Rep opens its Poe adaptation on Wednesday, which means you can skip the crowded Saturday decision altogether and still have a night out to anticipate. Its current show page lists the date, prices and Wednesday evening curtain; check the ticket selector for live seats.
Out Toward the Tip
🎨 Janice Redman: rest — Sat, Sep 26 · opening reception 6:00–8:00 PM · Farm Projects, Wellfleet. Redman’s new sculpture exhibition opens this weekend and continues into October. It is a small, specific alternative to trying to force an outdoor Saturday. The gallery’s page places the reception on September 26; confirm any same-day weather notice before setting out.
🖼️ Castle Hill Members’ Small Works — Thu, Sep 24 · potluck reception 4:00–6:00 PM · 10 Meetinghouse Road, Truro. The works are no larger than six inches square. The exhibition remains on view through October 2, so missing the Thursday reception does not mean missing the show. Make this a Truro stop when you are already going north.
🎬 Outermost Writers: Beston and Coatsworth — Sat, Sep 26 · 2:00 PM · Red Room, 258 Commercial Street, Provincetown · ticketed. The opening O’Neill Festival program uses the writings of Henry Beston, Elizabeth Coatsworth and their daughter Kate Beston Barnes. It pairs naturally with a Book Festival visit, though you should choose your Saturday library program first: the times may collide. Check the Red Room’s checkout for inventory.
One More Thing
A live event page is not a storm status report. The Strong Island Nature Walk and Mini-Meadow on Main are both explicitly marked canceled due to storm by Chatham Conservation Foundation. Take them off your Saturday plan. Provincetown’s pet parade and blessing, outdoor tours, paddles and exposed beach plans need their own organizer checks; the forecast alone does not tell us that they are canceled.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a difficult Friday and Saturday, and its coastal hazard statement covers high surf through Sunday evening. It is a good week to give the surf space, avoid treating a beach visit as a casual add-on, and keep an indoor option that you would actually enjoy. Eldredge Library’s rain-or-shine clinic, the Provincetown library’s festival, Brooks Free Library’s Saturday Cape-history talk, and Brewster’s free lute program are already on the calendar.
There is a quieter piece of shoulder-season arithmetic, too: the French Cable Station Museum says Sunday, September 27 is the end of its regular 2026 touring season. Its last guided tour each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starts at 3:30 PM. If the weather or the drive makes this weekend awkward, it is fine to make another choice. Just know that “we’ll do it next weekend” will not work for the regular tours.
Choose one anchor. Check its page. Then go.
Something in here is exactly right for someone you know. Send it to them.
The Drift — September 24–30, 2026
Lower + Outer Cape Weather, Tides & Notes from the Neighborhood
Thursday is the day to get something done outside.
Not because it will be perfect. Because by Friday, the Cape starts making decisions for you.
The wind comes up. The rain moves in. The ocean gets loud. Somewhere in Brewster, a recycling bin will start a new life three houses down.
Thursday is the usable day.
Walk the harbor. Take the dog farther than the end of the street. Bring in the cushions. Deal with the umbrella you have been pretending is still part of summer.
Friday and Saturday belong to the storm.
And it will not feel the same everywhere.
You can be on a sheltered road in Orleans thinking, This isn’t so bad — then get near Nauset and find an entirely different day.
The National Weather Service is warning of an unusually strong early-season coastal storm, with gusts around 50 mph, coastal flooding and very large surf.
From Provincetown through Truro, Wellfleet and Eastham, the Atlantic will be doing the loud part.
Real September ocean.
The kind that looks impressive from a distance and considerably less charming once you are standing next to it.
There is another Cape-specific wrinkle: the leaves are still on the trees.
That means more surface area for the wind to grab, and a better chance of branches and scattered outages.
So charge the phones. Find the flashlight. Bring in anything you would rather not retrieve from somebody else’s yard.
Saturday also brings a full moon.
Normally, that would be a reason to find a beach around sunset.
Not this Saturday.
This is a watch-the-water-from-somewhere-sensible weekend.
Sunday still looks messy. Monday feels like cleanup.
Then Tuesday arrives.
The wind eases. The sky improves. And after a few days of weather, you notice how quiet the Cape can get when it stops moving.
If you only do one thing this week: save Tuesday or Wednesday evening.
Paines Creek. Rock Harbor. Wellfleet Harbor. Herring Cove.
No event. No plan.
Just go see what the Cape looks like after the storm has left.
And bring a sweatshirt.
You need one now.
So here's what I want to know: what's the potato chip in your town? The one small, oddly specific thing you'd stand up at a Select Board meeting to protect. Hit reply and tell me. I read every one, and the good ones tend to turn into stories.
Arthur Radtke • REALTOR®, eXp Realty
MA License #9582725
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