Orleans Warrant Includes Fire Station Design, Phase 3 Sewer Funding

ORLEANS – Pictures can often say much more than words.

Speaking before the select board last week, Orleans Fire Chief Geof Deering showed photos of gym equipment situated in the fire department’s apparatus bay. Another photo showed areas of the station’s roof that have been infested by rodents. Still another showed the station’s lobby, which also doubles as the station’s first aid room.

“So when you walk in to get a permit, there could be a medical emergency happening in front of you,” he told the board April 30.

The fire department is hoping that all of this makes a strong case for funding designs for a new fire station at next week’s annual town meeting. A total of 37 articles make up the warrant for the spring session, which is scheduled for May 12 at 6 p.m. in the gymnasium of Nauset Regional Middle School.

The existing station opened in 1987, but the needs of a modern fire facility have outgrown the space. Article 12 on the warrant seeks a $4.5 million debt exclusion to design a new station. If approved, the funding would need to again be approved on the ballot for the May 20 annual town election.

The fire station funding is one of five debt exclusions on the warrant. The others include $5 million for solar development at three town-owned sites (Article 20); $1.6 million to replace the aging Goose Hummock bulkhead (Article 21); $40.5 million to fund the third phase of sewering in the areas of Lonnie’s Pond, Arey’s Pond, Crystal Lake and Pilgrim Lake (Article 23); and $600,000 for additional engineering services for property owners in Meetinghouse Pond (Article 24). Those articles also would need to pass at the town election in addition to town meeting.

The $5 million sought through Article 20 would support the design and construction of solar projects for the town’s wastewater treatment facility on Overland Way, water treatment facility off Route 28 and the public works headquarters on Giddiah Hill Road. Assistant Town Manager Mark Reil said during an overview of the warrant April 30 that the exact cost of the project won’t be known before town meeting, but that he’s comfortable the cost will not exceed $5 million.

Natural Resources Manager Nate Sears said the Goose Hummock bulkhead was built in 1973. In 2018, a study of the bulkhead’s condition found it to be “in failure,” he said. Specifically, he said that holes in the front of the bulkhead no longer allow it to hold back material.

“We had to put a load restriction on it,” he said. “We actually had to put Jersey barriers up along the edge of the parking lot.” With approval of the funding, construction could start in the fall or early winter, Sears said.

The third phase of town sewering will service 259 properties, Public Works Director Rich Waldo said in his presentation on Article 23. There is also the option of including an additional 36 properties into the third phase of work if the town chooses to do so.

Waldo said the town is also in good standing to potentially receive zero percent financing on phase three through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. He said there are 74 project applications in the pipeline, about a third of which will receive at least some funding. Orleans, meanwhile, currently stands fourth among the 74 applications, Waldo said.

Article 24 would authorize funding for additional engineering resources as needed for residents in the second phase of sewer work in the area of Meetinghouse Pond. 

Voters will be asked to adopt a $53.6 million operating budget for the coming fiscal year through the passage of Article 14. The figure includes a 3.7 percent increase for the town operating budget, a 5.6 percent increase for Orleans Elementary School and a 5 percent increase for Orleans’ portion of the Nauset Regional School District assessment. It also includes an 11.5 percent reduction in Orleans’ share of the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School budget. 

The budget also includes a $989,627 operational override that would also need to be approved at the town election. That figure includes $691,754 to cover increased costs related to salaries and benefits for town employees and those at the elementary school, as well as $297,873 in public safety wages.

The capital improvement budget for fiscal 2026 includes $2.48 million in projects that voters will be asked to collectively endorse through Article 19. The money would come from a number of funding sources including free cash, the water special revenue fund, beaches retained earnings, transfer station retained earnings and the ambulance reserve account. Of that $2.48 million, $654,100 would be raised and appropriated.

Elsewhere on the warrant, Article 26 seeks $125,000 from the wastewater stabilization fund to explore short-term options for addressing nitrogen loading in Mill Pond. Article 27 will ask voters to reconsider a zoning amendment to allow for cannabis courier services in town. A similar article failed at the special town meeting in October. 

George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development, said that neighboring towns allow for businesses to deliver marijuana to Orleans residents, with the tax revenue going to the town from which products are delivered. Allowing the town’s two recreational marijuana retailers to deliver their product would allow the town to bring in additional revenue through those same courier services, he said.

“So this is leveling the playing field,” he told the select board.

Meservey noted that $119,000 in marijuana revenue has been generated in Orleans through the first three quarters of the current fiscal year.

Article 28 seeks to allow the town’s affordable housing trust to support projects benefiting those who earn up to 120 percent of the area median income in Barnstable County. Projects funded through the Community Preservation Act would still be capped at 100 percent of AMI.

Voters will be asked to officially adopt the state’s seasonal communities designation through Article 32. The town is already recognized as a seasonal community under the terms of the new Affordable Homes Act, but local adoption of the designation is needed to make the town eligible for “state resources, grants, and funding opportunities tailored to seasonal communities,” according to language in the article.

Article 35 is a citizen’s petition article seeking to increase the town assessor’s overtime budget by $13,270, and an additional $6,000 for software customization in the assessor’s office. Tim Counihan, the petitioner behind the article, hopes that with those allowances, the town will be able to adopt a partial property tax exemption for full-time residents in the future.
Counihan said that the exemption would give a financial break to the town’s year-round residents, whose taxes he said are helping to subsidize seasonal property owners. He said that 92 percent of year-round residents would be eligible for the partial exemption.

But the proposal has been met with some opposition from seasonal property owners who say that it is unfair for them to carry the additional tax burden. The select board has considered whether or not to adopt a residential exemption, but in November opted instead to continue to tax residential and seasonal property owners at the same rate, saying the matter needed more research.

Kevin Galligan of the select board also noted April 30 that the board has not had any conversations with Counihan about the article, and that there has been no presentation of the article to the public.

“We’ll just be allowing the petitioner to speak,” Town Manager Kim Newman said of how the article will be presented on Monday.