ORLEANS – The community preservation committee last week voted against funding efforts to restore the Old Firehouse on Main Street and improvements to Veterans Memorial Park. Now project advocates say they may go to voters at the annual town meeting in May for the funding. Last year, the committee voted against supporting renovations to the Orleans Community Center, commonly known as the Old Firehouse, over co...

ORLEANS – A request to fund eight new firefighter positions could come before voters at the annual town meeting on May 8. Fire Chief Geof Deering has been aggressive in calling for the new positions, which he said would improve his department's response to calls and lessen its dependency on mutual aid from other Cape departments. Now the select board appears ready to act on the chief's recommendation. "You ...

ORLEANS – As Orleans and other towns on the Cape continue to try and make headway in creating more affordable housing, Jay Coburn of the Community Development Partnership says there's only one way to do it. "You've got to build your way out of it," he told attendees of a roundtable housing discussion earlier this month. With the median value of a single-family home nearing or in some cases eclipsing the $1 ...

ORLEANS – When town officials moved to prohibit the use of fertilizers in Orleans last fall, the goal was to follow up further with regulations on the use of pesticides at a later date. "Well, it's later now," Michael Herman told his fellow select board members earlier this month. The board voted unanimously Feb. 1 to move ahead with researching and organizing efforts to prepare a pesticide bylaw article, h...

Staff and students returned to Harwich Elementary School Monday with heavy hearts, weighted with the realization that their small school community had been lessened over the weekend by one. Six-year-old Kyi Odeen Bourne, a kindergartner at the school, died following an apartment fire Saturday night in Orleans. Four members of Kyi's family were displaced by the fire. "He always had a smile on his face," Harw...

ORLEANS – What will the Snow Library look like in 30 years? A new feasibility study may be the first step toward finding out. The Snow Library Board of Trustees got the select board's support last week to work with town staff to prepare an article for May's annual town meeting seeking capital improvement funds for the study, which would look at options and possibilities for a new facility. The existing libr...

ORLEANS – The applicant behind a proposed recreational marijuana business planned for Route 6A could satisfy its local permitting before the town's zoning board of appeals next week. Ember Gardens has a long-term lease at 41 Route 6A, where the company hopes to open a recreational marijuana dispensary on a portion of the property. In 2021, the select board voted to enter into host community agreements with Emb...

ORLEANS – A six-year-old boy has died following an apartment fire on Route 6A Saturday night. In an email to parents and staff Monday, Momomoy School Superintendent Scott Carpenter identified the boy as Kyi Bourne, a kindergartner at Harwich Elementary School. "We share our deepest condolences with the family for their unimaginable loss, and are here to support them through this difficult time," Carpenter s...

ORLEANS – Can historic preservation funds through the Community Preservation Act be used to finance new construction? That was the question facing the Centers for Culture and History in Orleans regarding its application to use $55,000 in community preservation money to help fund the design and engineering of a new building to house the historic CG36500 lifeboat. Jay Stradal, president of the CHO's board of ...

ORLEANS – While the future of free lunches in Massachusetts remains in question, higher lunch and breakfast prices could be coming to the Nauset Public Schools. The Nauset Regional School Committee and the district's elementary school committees voted last week to raise the cost of lunch and breakfast for the 2023-2024 school year, provided the state opts not to extend the free lunch program first implemented ...

ORLEANS – Town officials envision the former Governor Prence Inn property being used to accommodate a variety of different housing options. That includes opportunities for homeownership. But if responses to a request for information from developers is any indication, diversifying housing on the 5.5-acre site could be tricky. The select board and the affordable housing trust board were presented with respons...

ORLEANS — Efforts are underway to safely clean up exposed lead in a work area at the public works garage. But the select board wants to know why its membership wasn't properly informed of the issue. Select Board member Mark Mathison first raised questions about the lead in December. Former Town Administrator John Kelly confirmed the exposure, saying it came while staff were performing fire hydrant maintenance....