Cape Cod Weather Station Likely Falling Into Ocean: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Thursday, April 15. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• A National Weather Service outpost on Cape Cod is set for demolition next month because it's about to fall into the ocean.
• Tree House Brewing has one last step to hurdle before it can open a brewery overlooking the boardwalk at Town Neck Beach in Sandwich.
• An Andover doctor was accused in federal court of illegally filming a woman while he was having sex with her.
• Federal officials are charging a Maine man following a series of vandalism incidents at a Black church in Springfield that culminated in a devastating fire on Dec. 28.
• While it's late in the season for snow in Massachusetts, we won't be breaking any records if a forecasted storm materializes. The latest snowfall in a season recorded in Massachusetts was on May 10, 1977.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

For half a century, the National Weather Service has used an office in Chatham, where it launched weather balloons to track storms, climate change and more. But now, researchers have abandoned the outpost because those same elements will likely force it to fall into the ocean.

On March 31, the handful of workers who operated the outpost were evacuated from the facility, and a demolition crew is set to raze the building in May. Andy Nash, the head meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Boston office, said he knew there was only so much time left at the station because of erosion.

Still, until recently, the weather station had about a 100-foot buffer of land to a bluff that dropped into the ocean. Nash said he thought the outpost had another 10 years before erosion would cause a relocation, but a series of strong storms in 2020 accelerated the erosion. Nash said the buffer started taking on about a foot-and-a-half of erosion a week.

"In Chatham, there's some sandbars, and they move around and shift as storms come and go," Nash said. "A few years ago a storm put a cut in one of the sandbars. This started the erosion. It really took off in the later half of 2020."

Read the full story.

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Thursday's Other Top Stories

Should Massachusetts adopt a coronavirus vaccine passport? Take the Patch reader survey.

Beers by the beach: A popular Massachusetts craft brewery from Worcester County is to expand to the beaches of Cape Cod. Tree House Brewing Company will open a brewery at 98 Town Neck Road in Sandwich this summer, pending approval from the Board of Selectmen Thursday. Management for the Charlton-based brewery said the taproom will have two stories with large decks and views of the boardwalk at Town Neck Beach.

I thought it was spring: Winter weather is expected in parts of Massachusetts Thursday, and a winter storm watch has been issued for parts of Worcester County and western Middlesex County as a nor'easter approaches the region.

Ex-Lahey doctor arraigned: An Andover doctor was accused of illegally filming a woman while he was having sex with her. Glenn Gutierrez, formerly a Lahey Hospital employee, was arraigned Friday for two counts of illegal wiretapping. A woman accused him of secretly filming her in the shower and having sex with him from 2011 to 2013.

Feds say Maine man burned Black church in MA: Federal officials are charging a Maine man following a series of vandalism incidents at a Black church in Springfield that culminated in a devastating fire on Dec. 28 that destroyed the chapel. Dushko Vulchev, of Houlton, Maine, is being charged with damage to religious property and use of fire to commit a federal felony, according to court documents. Vulchev posted videos on Facebook of several vandalism incidents, and has a history of using racial epithets toward Black people, courts documents say.

OSHA fines business owner over mask policy: A North Shore business owner is facing more than $136,000 in fines for refusing to implement coronavirus mask guidelines and other pandemic safety measures. The U.S. Department of Labor said in a statement that Liberty Tax Service owner Ariana Murrell-Rosario not only refused to enforce the state mask mandate, but she also violated federal workplace safety guidelines by prohibiting her employees and customers from wearing them. Murrell-Rosario put up signs in her Lynn office that read: "Masks are not allowed in the office."

Learn more about getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts at Patch's information hub.

In Case You Missed It

• U.S. Rep. Clark Tours Medford School, Praises Federal Relief Plan
• Brockton Fair Canceled For Second Year Due To Coronavirus

They Said It

"If we have learned anything in the last 20 years it is that there is nothing worse for America's service members than leaving positions and returning the next year with more troops to fight and die for the same goals we failed to achieve the last time we were there. I want to bring home our troops, but we must bring them home for good.""

• Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Salem, on the Biden administration's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. Moulton is a veteran who served in Iraq.

By The Numbers

$241,000: The amount Framingham pays to station police officers in public schools. The city is considering removing the police officers, with some local students saying they feel threatened by the presence of school resource officers.

Review: "This Is A Robbery" on Netflix

The streaming television service released "This Is A Robbery," a four-part documentary series, on April 7 to mostly positive reviews. While the series doesn't break any new ground, it collects most of the key pieces of the 31-year saga in one package and concludes with a convincing case of who most likely committed the world's biggest art heist.

Spoiler alert: it's not notorious Boston art thief Myles J. Connor, who sat for a rare, extended interview with the filmmakers.

Read the full review.