ORLEANS – The slate has been set for next month's special town meeting, including two overrides and one debt exclusion request. The select board voted last week to place and support 33 articles on the warrant for the fall session, which is scheduled for Oct. 16. Approximately $3.3 million in spending is up for a vote, including $1.15 million to fund eight new firefighter positions for the Orleans Fire Depar...

Town, School Officials Denounce Alleged Racial Incident CHATHAM – An alleged racially motivated incident at Goose Pond in July involving three male teens, including one indicted last week for attempted murder, has elicited strong response from town and school officials. A 14-year-old male, formerly of Chatham, was indicted by a Barnstable County grand jury Aug. 31 on charges of attempted murder and assault ...

Grant Could Cover Salary, Benefits For Three Years ORLEANS – It’s been another long and trying summer for the Orleans Fire Department, which continues to wrestle with the pressures of inadequate staffing. But could next summer be different? That’s the hope, and all eyes are now fixed on next month’s special town meeting. An article is poised to go before voters Oct.16 seeking authorization to hire eight ...

ORLEANS – For about 20 years, the Orleans Police Department's annual block party ran without disruption, bringing games, food, music, family and friends together downtown to help wind down the summer season. Then came COVID-19, forcing the event's cancellation in 2020 and 2021. The department was prepared to bring the block party back last summer, but rain forced its cancellation for the third consecutive year...

A severe thunderstorm Tuesday dropped more than four inches of rain on parts of the Lower Cape in less than two hours, flooding roadways and stranding some vehicles. There were no reported injuries. In North Harwich, the torrent of water coming down Main Street washed away a portion of the pavement where the road crosses the Herring River. Below, the river was seen flowing more swiftly than observers had ever ...

A severe thunderstorm Tuesday dropped more than four inches of rain on parts of the Lower Cape in less than two hours, flooding roadways and stranding some vehicles. There were no reported injuries. In North Harwich, the torrent of water coming down Main Street washed away a portion of the pavement where the road crosses the Herring River. Below, the river was seen flowing more swiftly than observers had ever ...

Police Tout Education As Scams Evolve ORLEANS – “You’re fast asleep. It’s 2 a.m. The phone rings.” Orleans Police Lt. Andrew McLaughlin has heard the story countless times. Sometimes the voice on the other end is someone pretending to be an attorney. Other times it’s someone claiming to be a son, daughter or grandchild. But they’re all seeking one thing: Money. They might threaten to cut your utilities u...

CHATHAM – People who’ve lost a stray child at the beach or a wandering parent with memory loss might well find themselves seeking help from above. And that’s just what they’ll get. The town’s first responders are making more frequent use of a new tool — a quadcopter drone — to help them at various kinds of emergencies, from missing people searches to oil spills, house fires and even incidents at sea. So far, f...

CHATHAM – Starting Monday, visitors to downtown Chatham will see four new friendly faces ready to answer questions and help them with directions. The police department’s new community service officers will serve as visitor ambassadors and will help with parking enforcement — but they are not police officers. The program builds on similar programs in Orleans, Barnstable and Provincetown, Police Chief Mike Ander...

ORLEANS – The Cape Cod Roots and Blues Festival was on track toward becoming a destination event on the Lower Cape before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now four years after the last concert, organizers want to bring the event back to Nauset Beach. Hog Island Brewing Co. and the nonprofit organization Friends of Nauset Beach are organizing the event, now rebranded as the Outermost Music Festival. Hog Island co-founder...

If you run afoul of the law, you might find yourself spending several hours in a small detention cell at the police station until your arraignment in court. But if you’re arrested late Friday or over the weekend, you might spend several days and nights in that cell, without a shower, a mattress or any privacy. Barnstable County Sheriff Donna Buckley is earning praise from police chiefs for resuming a pre-pande...

SOUTH CHATHAM – Where there’s smoke, there’s not always fire. In the case of a house on Wadsworth Road, the smoke that puffed through windows, doors and a hole in the roof this week and last signaled a valuable training opportunity for firefighters. The house at 10 Wadsworth Rd. is set to be demolished soon, and developer Polhemus Savery DaSilva agreed to allow the Chatham Fire Department to use the building f...

BARNSTABLE – A Barnstable County grand jury handed up a two-count indictment Friday for a 36-year-old woman accused of fatally stabbing a companion at the Stonehorse Dormitories in Harwich Port last November. Aneka Brown will face charges of murder in the second degree and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after she allegedly stabbed 30-year-old Akeem Drysdale in what officials at the time described ...

ORLEANS – There was a period Monday night where things did not look good for advocates of Veterans Memorial Park. An article seeking a $110,000 debt exclusion for irrigation improvements, electrical upgrades and loam and seeding at the downtown park was supported by a majority of voters, 337 to 119, but it failed to garner the three-quarters majority needed for the article to pass. Orleans resident Bruce Ta...

ORLEANS – Lower Cape residents may have noticed plumes of smoke coming from Sipson Island last Friday. A controlled burn was held to clear a portion of the island of overgrowth and invasive vegetation. The effort is part of the Sipson Island Trust's long-term goal of "rewilding" the island and returning it to its natural state. The trust's president, Mon Cochran, said volunteers spent two months ahead of Fr...

ORLEANS – After weeks of deliberation, the warrants for next month's annual and special town meetings are in place. A total of 75 articles will go before voters at this year's spring session, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. on May 8 in the gymnasium of Nauset Regional Middle School. The slate includes 67 articles on the warrant for the annual town meeting, as well as an additional eight articles on a special tow...